This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

After getting drunk and passing out, Alice Stern wakes up in her own past.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Photo by Thomas Bormans / Unsplash

Newly minted 40yr old Alice Stern has a decent life. It's not great, just decent. her birthday ends up being pretty rotten and leads her to get completely wasted in a bar she used to frequent as a teenager. She passes out outside her dad's apartment and wakes up in her own bed. Her own bed from 24yrs ago.

What I liked

  1. Leonard is such a wholesome dad
  2. Books like Dark Matter (Blake Crouch) give me some panic with getting trapped in the wrong place. This book avoids such things with more of a Groundhog Day vibe
  3. I love the message that sometimes what you think you want isn't what you actually want
  4. Having Alice constantly return to her dad in the hospital was soul crushing, but made the story more poignant
  5. Not explaining the means of time travel allowed me to focus on the people more than the science (i.e. Somewhere in Time or Kate and Leopold)
  6. There were some great twists and turns

What I didn't like

  1. Definitely some pedo vibes with Alice and her HS crush
  2. While I liked the ending, I would have loved to read more about the final relationship in the book

Overall impressions

This was a bit refreshing to read. I've been reading a lot more "hard sci-fi" lately and being able to turn to something that focused on the feels was really nice. As a dad, I also had a lot of desires to improve my relationships with my kids, which is the type of influence I can definitely get on board with.

 Book cover of This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
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