Review - The Hazards of Time Travel

When a recklessly idealistic girl in a dystopian future society dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled world, she is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America Wainscotia, Wisconsin’ that existed eighty years before. Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town, she is set upon a course of rehabilitation.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It feels like it should be a twin novel with The Psychology of Time Travel - but it just isn't as good.

It starts off hitting every single trope about teens living in a dystopian future. Entertaining, but hardly original.

Without knowing the author, I assumed that this was a debut "Young Adult" novel which had crept into my recommendations. But it turns out that Joyce Carol Oates is a big (literary) deal. There's no doubt that the writing is solid, and the plot plods along merrily - but the sci-fi element is weak and the central character is too dappy to empathise with. The lack of resolution makes the end feel like a wasted journey.

It's basically fine, but a bit pedestrian.