Book Review: All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

Title: All Our Wrong Todays
Author: Elan Mastai
Publisher: Dutton Books
Release Date: February 07, 2017
Length: 373 pages
Genre: Fiction/Sci-Fi
Source: Purchased
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Find it Here: Amazon // Goodreads

You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we'd have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren's 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed . . . because it wasn't necessary.

Except Tom just can't seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that's before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident of fate, Tom makes a rash decision that drastically changes not only his own life but the very fabric of the universe itself. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland.

But when he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and—maybe, just maybe—his soul mate, Tom has a decision to make. Does he fix the flow of history, bringing his utopian universe back into existence, or does he try to forge a new life in our messy, unpredictable reality? Tom’s search for the answer takes him across countries, continents, and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.

My Review:

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai is probably one of the most unique books I've read this year. I've literally read nothing like it so the story will always stand out in my mind. Even though it's says in the synopsis that it's about time-travel gone wrong, I agree but I would put it more on the plane of parallel universes because of time-travel.

One of the things I didn't like about All Our Wrong Todays was all the scientific jargon. I'm not a science person at all so a lot of it went over my head. And I would have to imagine that Mastai, who is a writer, had to do a lot of research to get all this scientific jargon correct or he just made it all up. And if he did make it all up, he sure fooled me because I'm not sciencey enough to know the difference! Another thing I didn't like was the character of Penelope in the second world. She was a classic manic-pixie dream girl and I just thing that stereotype is so flat and a little boring. And I think she just went along too easily with everything that Tom was telling her.

I don't want to give any spoilers away but I really loved how the book was structured. I love how it started in one place, went to a whole completely different universe and then ended up where it should be. I know that sounds super weird but if you've read the book then you know what I'm talking about! It's definitely worth the read because it is so different from anything I've ever read before. I would also recommend it to you if you like sci-fi because it definitely has those elements!