Name: Ryan Mateyk's review of This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Item: This Time Tomorrow
Rating: 4
Author: Ryan Mateyk

Emma Straub

The New York Times bestselling author of The Vacationers and All Adults Here combines her trademark charm and wit with a moving father-daughter story, and a playful twist on the idea of time travel. What if you could take a vacation to your past? On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But something is missing. Her father, the single parent who raised her, is ailing and out of reach. How did they get here so fast? Did she take too much for granted along the way? When Alice wakes up the next morning somehow back in 1996, it isn't her 16-year-old body that is the biggest shock, or the possibility of romance with her adolescent crush, it's her dad: the vital, charming, 49-year-old version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, is there anything that she should do differently this time around? What would she change, given the chance? With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, Emma Straub cleverly turns all the traditional time travel tropes on their head and delivers a different kind of love story - about the lifelong, reverberating relationship between a parent and child.

This Time Tomorrow

Merry Rudinger

He was afraid, too, and happier to stay close to what had worked, rather than risk it all on something new.

People who didn't love New York could just fuck all the way off. Look at this place!

Which misery was the most important, which sadness was the heaviest? Was it the lack of whatever unknown happiness might still be ahead of them?

erin alise 

Alice just wanted to push her hands against the walls of her life and see if they would move. 

Genesis (@whisperingchapters)

Ryan Mateyk

Generally a fun, lighthearted time-traveling page turner with some surprisingly deep and touching commentary on father-daughter relationships. Marin Ireland was a fab narrator for the audiobook. A book club pick win!

Abbie Duggan

3.5 rounded up. The beginning of this story needed more about Alice and her father’s relationship. The middle was fluffy and dragged on and on… The end was beautiful, and honest, and heart wrenching, and hopeful. I found myself feeling guilty for being bored in the middle, but so thankful I finished this read.

indri

Hannah

“The way you spend your days is the way you send your life”
this book wow what a good book, although I am not one to be speechless but here I am at a loss for words to properly convey how good this one. It’s science fiction but in a way that is still so true and endearing. really really well done book that was so different then what I thought it was going to be when I started it.

Denaiir

a very wholesome time-travel and family story. I loved that there was no drama, it was very sweet

I prob would’ve enjoyed this more if I knew this was about a dying parent lol maybe I’ll read again in the future but this was too soon. Espesh when I wanted something cheeky and cute like 13 going on 30 🫠

Kyra Cracchiola

Elizabeth Wood

I’m not usually one for time travel books, but I loved this book’s cover. And it pleasantly surprised me. 

I loved that the whole book is basically a love letter from daughter to father. Their relationship was so sweet, and the ending almost made me cry. 

I didn’t completely connect with the female MC, so I didn’t give it 5 ✨. There was also a part in the beginning which delved too deep into time travel/convention life that I didn’t care for. I also didn’t understand a lot of the book references for time travel, but that is more my fault. 

I thought the writing was wonderful. The short chapters made it a quick read. And I’ll be reading Emma Straub’s backlist now.

Lisa Lindquist 

This is a lovely story. A sorry of a father and daughter and choices and love. 

The time travel aspect is very subtle, and provides opportunity to Alice to see her father healthy again. 

It is a very sweet story and I love that the author intended it as a love letter to her father. 

It was a quick and easy read and I very much enjoyed it. 

Megan BV

This is a lovely story. A sorry of a father and daughter and choices and love. 

The time travel aspect is very subtle, and provides opportunity to Alice to see her father healthy again. 

It is a very sweet story and I love that the author intended it as a love letter to her father. 

It was a quick and easy read and I very much enjoyed it. 

It was just what I needed. Inspiring, thought provoking, funny and tear-jerking. The best Emma Straub has written so far, by far!!! Highly, highly recommend!!!

Trish D

Time travelling father-daughter rekindling adventures got me in TEARS bro. So good.

The ending was hopeful. I was especially touched by the last conversation between her and her dad. Was a slow start for me, but I’m glad finished it.

Mindi

I really enjoyed this one I thought it was the perfect story about how one decision can change a lot of things in your life. I really enjoyed the pace of this one, I feel like the author could have dragged it on and on but did a good job not doing that !

Kerry Kalinoski

Meghan Navoy

I read this in one day! I couldn’t put it down. I loved the New York setting, I loved the father and daughter relationship of Leonard and Alice. I loved Alice and Sam’s friendship. This book made my heart happy and I cried a few tears at the end. So good!!!

extra half star after realizing it’s loosely based on the author’s relationship with her dad who passed shortly after publication 🥺

Anna W

Stephanie Capuzzo

Ahhh I wanted to love this book so badly, but it was just okay.

Allison

I miss my dad. I wish I had a Time Machine to go back and see him alive again. I wish I knew what hospice meant at the time like Alice did.

Pre-order the new novel from Emma Straub: a fiendishly clever, nostalgic, and tender novel about adolescence and middle age, expectation and anticipation, and how we must cherish what we have while there is still time . . . 'Literary sunshine' New York Times on All Adults Here 'A gorgeous and witty storyteller' Liane Moriarty 'A master of the domestic ensemble drama' Time _________________________ If you could go back, would you do things differently? Alice Stern isn't ready to turn forty. She thought she'd have more time to figure it all out. Above all, she thought she'd have more time with her father, Leonard Stern, an eccentric novelist - but he's lying in a hospital bed and Alice isn't sure if she'll hear his voice again. When she falls asleep outside their old apartment on the night before her birthday, she's surprised to be greeted the next morning by a much younger Leonard, with a sixteenth birthday card for a teenage Alice who, far from clinging to her youth, is hurtling towards adulthood . . . Alice soon discovers how she got back here, to 1996 and her sixteenth birthday, and realises she can keep on coming, whenever she chooses. But faced each time with different versions of her life, and the consequences of her decisions, it's on her not to lose sight of what she wants most: some time back with Leonard . . . With her celebrated humour, insight, and heart, Emma Straub cleverly turns all the traditional time travel tropes on their head and delivers a different kind of love story - about the lifelong, reverberating relationship between a parent and child.

When 40 year old Alice finds herself suddenly back to 1996 and her 16th birthday, surprised is an understatement. But when she sees her ailing father back to full health and as charming as she remembers, she realises her chance for extra time and a possibility to change her future, and by extension save her dad.

This book was weird in a wonderfully wholesome and heartfelt way, exploring the concept of infinite futures based off the choices we make during one day. There is a cat that never seems to age, and so many paths explored, reminding me of The Midnight Library in that regard.

A quick, easy, sentimental read, forcing you to face the need to embrace those you love in the present, rather than keep trying to live in the past or an infinite future.

Victoria Justice

When 40 year old Alice finds herself suddenly back to 1996 and her 16th birthday, surprised is an understatement. But when she sees her ailing father back to full health and as charming as she remembers, she realises her chance for extra time and a possibility to change her future, and by extension save her dad.

This book was weird in a wonderfully wholesome and heartfelt way, exploring the concept of infinite futures based off the choices we make during one day. There is a cat that never seems to age, and so many paths explored, reminding me of The Midnight Library in that regard.

A quick, easy, sentimental read, forcing you to face the need to embrace those you love in the present, rather than keep trying to live in the past or an infinite future.

Julia

Samantha Cherry

If you love the movie About Time… if you liked Midnight Library… if you liked Addie La Rue - 


Going back to About Time though - seriously if you love that movie you’re going to love this. 

🎂 We follow Alice Stern beginning on her 40th birthday. Her life so far had been largely devoid of choices - sort of falling into her job, into a relationship. Generally it’s pretty meh. But in the midst of this meh, she’s managing grief as her father, Leonard Stern, is dying of a mysterious disease. Leonard is the the famous author of the cult classic time travel book made into TV series Time Brothers. And if it you didn’t read the back of the book, that’s some hard core foreshadowing for you. 

Alice ends up reverse “13 Going in 30-ing” and time travels back to her 16th birthday. And thus her quest begins to change how her life is in the present. 

My Thoughts: 

The first half of this book is slow. It took me a week to get through page 160 and then BAM 💥 we take off. That’s when this beautiful narrative around Alice and her father really kicks off and I couldn’t put it down from there point on. 

This book has some of my favorite hopeful lines on loss and grief. I shed quite a few tears at the end. It’s incredible sweet and serves as a reminder that: 

A. Even when people are gone, they’re still with you. ❤️

B. Make some choices in your life. There’s always time to change the future. 🕰 

Final verdict: love this book - pick it up. Sprint through the first 150 pages and then savor the rest ✨

Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

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Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

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Join the club

Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub