The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a very unusual story. I don’t even know how to explain it. First of all, the world building is super unusual. I loved the idea that if you walk to the east or west of your valley you move forward or backward in time. I’d never read such a premise before.
Some of the other parts (like kids applying for jobs, etc) made me think of “The Giver” and I found myself enjoying both the story and the characters.
But in a novel like this, the best part not the story itself but how much you end up thinking about the ideas in the book. The moral around how one should decide who gets to visit the past or the future and why. The unintended consequences of our actions and decisions and freewill. There is so much in this novel that in can make you think for weeks all wrapped up in a slow and beautiful plot full of its own moments and twists and turns.
with gratitude to netgalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
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