I’ve reviewed three other books by the author, the last being No. 23 Burlington Square. That was also a play on time in its own way. This book is a proper time warp story with Pearl being forced to relive the evening of her death over and over again.
Pearl, our protagonist, is an obedient daughter and an overall unemotional person. She has followed instructions to the letter all her life. Now, she harbours just two personal things that are wholly hers, the love of the water and the obsession with stealing time pieces.
When Pearl is forced to attend a strange party on an almost coercive invite, she is looking forward to some wild swimming. What she doesn’t anticipate is being sick in a time loop where she is unable to change much. After several iterations, Pearl starts to change, becoming more independent. She also starts to dig into the mystery of the invite.
The mystery itself seemed quite obvious, and I was not surprised by much about the plot. The loop and the writing itself were the positive parts of the whole. Once I started it, I was surprised at the number of iterations of the same day I could read, since I expected the number to be quite low. As the author swings between solving the mystery and the growth ARC, we get to read about different types of days as the days keep repeating. The ultimate reason for the loop obviously needs some suspension of belief, but overall everything wraps up well.
I would recommend this to fans of the genre or the author.
I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.
