This novel is a fun little romantic dystopia involving time travel. It begins in a far flung future, but very quickly settles into 1985 where the rest of the narrative is truly set though we are given flashbacks (or flash forwards?) to understand the events leading up to the sudden travelling through time.
We know Freya is from the future as the first scene tells us she is, but Freya doesn’t. She does know something is wrong as she feels disconnected from her life, her family and her past. When she comes across Garren, he is so familiar she becomes a bit of a stalker and this kind of sets the tone for their relationship to me. They join forces to discover the truth, but I never really felt that the connection that forms between them was genuine.
What I do like is the choice of setting: 1985, Canada. While I don’t really remember much of the 80s, I had older cousins and so a lot of the things mentioned (specifically the toys like strawberry shortcake and the hair salon Barbie head) were familiar, even if only by second hand recounts or hand-me-downs. It is a time distant enough for most young adult readers that it would be just as foreign as a far flung future, and yet the author is clearly nostalgic for, what she suggests, was a more innocent and rawer time.
I read this book in an evening and it was enjoyable. It will be interesting to see where Martin takes its sequel, Tomorrow.