I'll gather my thoughts for a full-length review tomorrow.
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I took a few days to really gather my thoughts for this review. I can honestly tell you that I still remember the moment I found The Time Traveler's Wife on a table display of new releases at my local bookstore. Something about the colors on the cover appealed to my senses and when I read the synopsis I thought, yes, I'll read this book. I had my first part-time so I had money to buy books that caught my eye so I remember picking this book up. I read it in between taking orders at my job, on my lunch break and when I got home. I LOVED it, so when I tell you that Life Out of Order was one of my most anticipated releases for, well, EVER, you can understand why Which is why it breaks my heart to say that I'm waffling between saying I didn't like this at all and it was just okay.
Heartbreaking.
So I'll start the way I usually do, talking about world-building. So the book starts by following Alba, who we know from the previous book is Henry and Clare's daughter. She's heading towards a party, talking about the curfew she's barely going to make when she gets to the house the party is at and she's talking about some kind of mission. And I'm just a bit confused. It's not that far into the future so how did this end up being the world? I understand that the book was upfront about being set in a dystopian world and most of the time, dystopian books don't have to explain how the world came to be this way. However, we know from the previous book that this is OUR world. Various real life events were seen in The Time Traveler's Wife so this book is continuing from there so how does our society fail? I get it, only so much can definitively be said without getting someone angry about the implications but at the same time, I wonder if it would have helped to make up something to explain the state of the world. Instead, the fact that it seems to still be our timeline, I'm left wondering what was the point of showing the world like this? From the way that time travel works, we know that events are mostly set in stone, Alba and also Henry, were not able to change certain events. So is this book a warning or is it just showing us the inevitable end to our society and the planet we live on?
Which brings me to the story format. As I said before, we start with following Alba. So Alba's story starts with how she meets an important man in her life, Zach, and the various back and forth in that happens in Alba's life as a time traveler, which is apparently a condition that has become more widely known since the previous book. And then it cuts to following Clare and showing readers a lot of what has happened in her life since losing Henry. I will say that the section that follows Clare truly felt like the sequel to the previous book but it was only so much of the story. Eventually, the book moves back to following Alba and her struggle between two men she apparently cares equally for and it comes off a little wonky. I feel like the book was a series of vignettes and as such, felt a little disjointed. Maybe as a result of the format, it should have been pushed more as a series of short stories? Clare's section almost feels out of place in the overall story that follows how Alba has grown up and what she is doing with her life.
Now for the characters. I still love Clare and I love that she found Beck. And that is about it. I was not happy with a decision that Alba made and the ramifications that came from that. I wanted to like Zach but I feel like he was given the short of the stick too many times and I still wonder about the childhood he had and why he left the way he did. There were so many side characters that it was hard to keep track of names that kept coming in and out of the story. The few that spent time on the page the longest seemed to be around as a support system for Alba, showing how many of these people know about her ability and are able to shelter her or rescue her when she needs help. But then there are the characters we knew from the previous book, specifically Gomez, who I remember being a bit of a jerk, so why was he someone with this kind of influence on the city? I feel like this needed more development for me to truly believe that Gomez was the authority figure that so many people looked to in this book. I would have thought Charisse was the more likely character to try to become this person of change. So that was a weird detail that still makes me frown because it still doesn't make sense to me. With the amount of names in the cast, I only truly liked two people and that was not enough to make me root for the people in this book.
As for the plot, I don't know what to make of it. I know the first book followed a lot of the love story between Henry and Clare and this book is explicitly stated as NOT being a love story. That being said, it still came across as being focused on the love story. Alba is in love with two men, what is she going to do about this while the world falls apart around her? I'm not sure how this didn't turn out to be a love story with how everything unfolded. Alba has told people several times that she can't change events so readers are just following her around as she falls in love with not one but two men and continues to jump back and forth in time, sometimes seeing her Dad, and mostly talking about the upcoming future, the diseases and the weather and how it continues to culminate in the dystopian world we know is coming. At the same time, I expected more from Alba with the way her situation was handled. The point of a choice is the sacrifice, knowing that the other option exists but you picked one outcome and are content with that. Instead, a lot of this story focuses on how each of her choices is the perfect one for her and we are, I guess, supposed to sympathize with her struggle. Except it didn't feel realistic and the way it resolved just made me think, what was the point?
I did really love Clare's portion of the story. For everyone who knows what she was waiting for, it was really poignant to see that scene on the page. The rest of it, though, continues not to sit well with me. I was honestly, sincerely looking forward to this book but I had to make myself finish it and I really hate to say that. But for those readers who feel the same way, I see you and I hope we can all commiserate together when this book is out.
Rating on my Scale: 3 Stars. I just can't say anything more about what this book was for me. I've been thinking of going back to read The Time Traveler's Wife when I can find the time. I just hope it is everything I remember it to be.
My thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, Hanover Square Press and Audrey Niffenegger for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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