No True Echo

July 20, 2015
Eddie Dane’s life in the British town of Wellcome Valley is as predictable as it is dull: ride the bus with his friend Angus, take care of his depressed grandmother after school, feel slightly sorry for himself for having grown up without a mother, and repeat. When a redheaded girl named Scarlett shows up in town, strange things start happening, and suddenly Eddie is pulled into a repetitive loop of an entirely different kind: he starts “echo jumping” back to the same Thursday when Scarlett first arrived. In some of the altered time lines that follow, Eddie’s mother is alive; in others, Eddie is murdered. Skipping between Eddie’s story and a future in which so-called echo technology has reshaped life, Jones (Constable & Toop) offers a roller-coaster of a story that drives forward one moment, then yanks itself backward again. This playful time-bending saga twists in, out, and around so often that readers are forced to stay on their toes, but the effort is well worth it as Jones introduces heady ideas about memory, reality, and existence. Ages 12–up.

August 1, 2015
Life in scenic but soggy Wellcome Valley is so dull that figuring out what to do during midterm break poses a major challenge until Scarlett White climbs on Eddie's school bus and starts to unravel his world. An infant when his scientist single mother died in a car crash, Eddie lives with his artist grandmother, loving but unstable, and hangs out with his best friend, Angus. Like the valley, home and school are predictably boring. Mr. Cornish, their passionately opinionated English teacher, livens things up when he assigns Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, making it an object lesson on hubris and abuses of power. As their friendship grows, Scarlett asks Eddie probing questions about his mother's death yet is stubbornly secretive about herself. Smitten and intrigued, Eddie contrives to run into her outside school and discovers her spying on Mr. Cornish. Following her, Eddie witnesses a horrific murder that may be tied to his own parentage, then abruptly finds himself back on the school bus with Angus the day they met Scarlett-except this time she doesn't get on the school bus, and only Eddie remembers she existed. Eddie's voice is likable, smart without being snarky or florid. At once a classic time-travel narrative and resonant fable about the price to be paid when we alter our world simply because we can, this smart, satisfying eco-techno-thriller with heart transcends genre. (Science fiction. 12-18)

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September 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-Eddie Dane and his best friend, Angus, are convinced Wellcome Valley is the world's most boring town, but things perk up when Scarlett White boards their bus one morning. Eddie feels drawn toward Scarlett, and isn't even annoyed when she starts asking questions about his mother's death or his relationship with his bipolar grandmother; in fact, he's intrigued enough to accompany her on an unexplained trip to a remote farmhouse. There, he witnesses a murder, and when the gun is turned on him, he suddenly finds himself back on the school bus the same day he met Scarlett. Stuck in a repeating time loop and unsure of whom to trust, Eddie pieces together the puzzle of the world as he knows it and the world as he doesn't. This work is high on suspense, sucking readers in from the first page. Alternating perspectives give glimpses into the future, hinting at events that may or may not take place, though never revealing enough to give away any secrets. Characters, even those with demons, are likable and authentic, realistically portraying the challenges of loving one's family through difficult times. While the ending feels a bit rushed and unsatisfying, overall it's an interesting look at time travel and fate that never strays into didacticism. VERDICT A mind-bending time-travel novel good for general purchase.-Kelsey Johnson-Kaiser, La Crosse Public Library, WI

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2015
Grades 7-10 Eddie lives with his unstable grandmother in seriously sleepy Wellcome Valley, where every day is basically the same. When beautiful Scarlett appears on his school bus one morning, however, everything changesdrastically. Scarlett is from a version of Eddie's future, sent back in time to prevent a murder, and when Eddie gets caught up in her mission, he, too, is accidentally sent back in time. As he relives the past couple of days, he tries to piece together the increasingly complicated truth, with the help of messages in his copy of Frankenstein, and figure out his role in untangling the rapidly accumulating time lines. In the process, he discovers secrets about his past, his motherwho, in his time line, died when he was only a babyand his relationship with Scarlett, which sweetly unfolds in reverse. Though Scarlett is conveniently duty-bound to keep most of the complex mechanisms of time travel a secret (a device Jones perhaps relies on too much), the cinematic pacing, intriguing mystery, and believable emotional stakes keep the plot engaging.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)