An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim ★★★★☆

Began Reading 12/12/19 (15%)

I was going to hold off reading this a week because I start a readathon Sunday, but I’m ahead of schedule and couldn’t resist. Hopefully I finish it before then because I’d rather not stop and read a bunch of books in the middle of this one. First impression: very intrigued. I love time travel but am confused. I’m worried the concept may be a little too l convoluted, but still early. I side well see if it clears up

Finished Reading 12/13/19

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a fascinating idea with fairly good story to back it up. My initial confusion was cleared up as Thea Lim lays out the world we are in. A flu pandemic has begun (early 1980s), and if people want to afford a treatment, they can travel forward in time to work off their debt to this company. What unfolds is mildly dystopian story about a world driven by consumerism and fear where people lose their basic human rights. We follow our main character, Polly, as she tries to return to her love.

While it made sense in the end, it still feels a bit convoluted. It all seems like a very specific and round about way of addressing these issues. It reminded me a lot of Never Let Me Go but with a twist on the mechanics. It was a lovely story. Lim did a good job making me care for our main character. Unfortunately, I never quite got passed the necessary step of accepting this world as real, and that is most likely an effect of this convoluted idea. It makes for a good story.

My main reason for reading this was the time travel–perhaps my favorite thing to read about. This story though, could have worked without it. Granted it, it makes a lot things easier. Still, why have it? Why is this system in place? Why is the story set in the 80s instead of the present? Even as she is propelled forward, she only goes into the 90s. It isn’t as if we are seeing her in our time. Part of me wonders if it was a plot convenience orchestrated to avoid many of the pesky technologies that exist today.

I feel like all I’m saying are negative things about this book, but let me be clear. I really enjoyed it. I think it is a good book, if flawed. My initial instinct was to give it 4 stars, but I’m finding myself finding a lot more negative things to say than I anticipated. Therefore, I think it is more of a 3.75/5 stars. It is still a pretty good score!

2 thoughts on “An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim ★★★★☆

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