One of the best books I've read this year, it's funny, heartbreaking, moving and so fresh and original. I completely fell in love with Cassandra and I absolutely loved loved loved the ending – it was deliciously satisfying but still unexpected. I adore romcoms but they do often rely on the same old tropes so to read one where it comes at it from a very unique perspective and runs with it in a completely different direction was a complete delight. I will be recommending this far and wide!!

This was a really interesting book where the main character, Cassandra, is clearly autistic and it gives a great insight into the daily challenges someone who has this form of neurodivergence might face. Cassandra finds herself having the day from hell, then realises she can go back in time to hopefully prevent some of that day’s disasters. This, along with the character’s fascination with Greek mythology, become the main themes of the book. I can’t say I’m usually a fan of either, but the story was told with such humour that I found myself becoming invested in this interesting character. An enjoyable and interesting read.

If you enjoy Greek mythology and time travel, then this is the book for you. Unfortunately I don’t like either, however I did enjoy reading about autism, so it wasn’t all bad!

Cassandra loves order and doesn't deal well when things go out of sync or not in the way she anticipated.
When Cassandra is sumped, her favourite banana muffins aren't available and she gets fired, and her order is thrown into chaos.
However, Cassandra soon realises she can manipulate time. Going back time and time again, Cassandra tries to change her future - but each time, something goes wrong.

A warm humourous novel.

⏱️The Cassandra Complex⏱️

By Holly Smale @holsmale

Description:

Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit.

She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order. Until now.

She's just been dumped.
She's just been fired.
Her local café has run out of banana muffins.

Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past.

Now, Cassie should be able to find a way to fix the life she accidentally obliterated. And with time on her side, how hard can it be...?

⏱️⏱️⏱️⏱️⏱️

I’ve never read any of Holly Smale’s Geek Girl series but I was intrigued by the premise of her adult debut.

Cassandra has had the day from hell when after a huge meltdown she realises she has somehow reset her day. After a bit of experimenting she finds she can go back as far as four months, and sees this as an opportunity to save her job, her relationship and her living situation.

It’s immediately obvious that Cassandra is neurodivergent, although there is no mention of any sort of diagnosis. Cassandra has clearly internalised how other people have described her all her life, and narrates herself in these critical ways.

Cassandra resets time again and again to try and smooth all her interactions with people, and try and make herself more approachable to people.

Although she does have some success with this, she learns a lot about herself in the process and realises her goals may not be what she thought they were.

I really liked how Cassandra was portrayed. The author makes a point of mentioning in her acknowledgments that this depiction of neurodiversity does not represent everyone’s experience, but any representation in fiction is a positive thing, and I loved how the story was wrapped up in the end.

This was a great read with a really fun time travel twist. Thanks to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. The Cassandra Complex is out on the 11th of May.

#thecassandracomplex #hollysmale #netgalley

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was very interesting to have the insight into how Cassandra felt and thought as a neurodiverse person. The jumping around in the timeline was a bit overdone in my opinion but the premise of trying to create a perfect situation was good. Obviously that would be way too exhausting to keep up with long term.

I felt sorry for Cassie and annoyed about how she was treated by others, especially her boss, but she did a spectacularly good job of unintentionally annoying him too.

At the time I wrote the review I was going to abandon the book but persevered and was glad I did. The second half was much better than the first, more entertaining and less about trying to resolve the relationship with the boyfriend who wasn't right for her.

I was a bit disappointed with the actual ending but it fit with the story.
I have increased my rating to 4*.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Cassandra loses her boyfriend and job in 1 day. She realises that her personality makes life difficult for herself, others just don't seem to understand her. Her life seems to be parallel to the Greek mythology her mother loved so much. then Cassandra realises she can time travel-can she re-jig her life or will this just complicate matters? Brilliantly written, I really enjoyed following her journey.

I really liked the idea of this book about Cassie, who finds she can jump back in time to change events in her life, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

Cassie doesn't really fit in with the way everyone does things, she has her routines and she sticks to them, for example she has five jumpsuits she wears to work, a certain colour for each day of the week, and wears these week in, week out. She doesn't 'get' if people are being funny or sarcastic and finds life in general quite hard if it veers from her routine.

When her boyfriend decides he wants to end their relationship in the morning, and then she loses her job later in the day, she stresses herself out so much she finds she's jumped back in time, and this is how she finds out she can time travel and change events that have happened in the fairly recent past, trying to figure our how she should have dealt with things initially so that her boyfriend doesn't end their relationship and she doesn't lose her job etc.

In theory this sounded like a great story, but in practice I found Cassie to be a bit annoying! I also started to lose track of where we were in the time travelling, before a certain date, after a certain date, had something already happened - or not? Cassie was getting herself confused and I was definitely getting confused, so I started flipping through pages.

I did finish the book and I still like the idea of the story, but for me it started off well, dipped in the middle, and came good at the end.

This was definitely a unique story and even as someone who isn't the biggest fan of books with elements of time travel, I enjoyed this one.
It definitely gave me The Midnight Library by Matt Haig vibes a bit, which was nice as that is one of my favourite books of recent years.
I also really liked how the subject of autism was dealt with.
There is a lot going on, so it's the type of book that you do need to concentrate with, instead of a frothy beach read. But I found it incredibly relatable and I will be keeping an eye out for what Holly Smale does next.
I'm not sure exactly how I would categorise it, as it goes across several different genres but I think that is a good thing.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cassandra Penelope Dankworth has, at the age of 31, just been fired from her job, been dumped by her boyfriend and is having trouble with her roommates. But Cassie has been gifted the power of time travel.

The limit is 4 months ago when she met Will, her boyfriend/ex-boyfriend. With the power of infinite do-overs, will Cassie be able to manipulate the future she desires? And after all those do-overs will she still want the same things?

I was drawn in completely from the first page, the way Cassie introduces her story I knew I was going to love her. And I found myself laughing out loud at times. She has a passion for Greek mythology and I enjoyed learning about that as it was woven into Cassie's narrative.

Cassie is often told she is "on the spectrum" as an insult. But I loved the way it was described: it's not something that she needed to be ashamed of or fixed. "Autism is just different wiring. You're built in alternative neurological software, from the ground up." And Holly Smale sums it up in her Acknowledgements:

"Finally, this book does not represent autism, and neither I nor Cassie represent autistic people. We are simply individual voices in a choir of millions of amazing neurodivergent people: all with our own experiences, our own ways of seeing the world, our own ways of existing."

As a neurotypical person, I found it hard to believe that Cassie didn't realise that she has ASD. But I imagine that reflects the experience of author, Holly Smale, who was diagnosed at the age of 39 and in the words of the About the Author section "Suddenly a lot of things made sense".

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the Advanced Reader Copy.

I struggled with this book and found it to be trying a bit too hard at times. After a few attempts I had to give up on it. Judging by other reviews, I am in the minority and I just didn't connect.

Groundhog Day meets Brigitte Jones' Diary meets Back to the Future meets God knows what... I loved it. Weird and wonderful protagonist, Cassandra Dankworth, obsessed with Greek myths and thinking she's slightly off-whack with the rest of the human race can time travel, which she keeps doing in an effort to 'get it right' with her boyfriend, Will, who keeps breaking up with her. This is not normally the kind of novel I'd enjoy, but Smale does write well, and there were laugh-out-loud moments which I thought were very clever. I see that one or two readers have said they didn't much like Cassandra. Well, come on... it's not all about you, is it? And writers don't have to write 'likeable' characters, they have to write interesting, compelling ones. And Cassandra *is*. She's (unsurprisingly - no spoilers here) autistic, or, as other characters mention to her regularly (which she doesn't understand) 'on the spectrum'. This, she sees as something associated with the synaesthesia she suffers (yes, suffers) from. Smale, it seems, has got herself a huge narrative melting pot, into which she's poured Greek myths, romance, failed romance, comedy, family drama, time travel, and a sprinkling of wackiness which, strangely, worked remarkably well. Great stuff. My grateful thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I loved The Cassandra Complex! It’s a brilliantly thought out story and the time travel element worked really well, especially when it had the potential to be quite confusing. The real highlight to this book is how well the author explains how it is to be neurodivergent. Obviously Cassandra’s experience is only one person but it really gave me as a neurotypical person an insight into understanding how someone who is neurodivergent could perceive certain behaviours. I strongly encourage everyone to read this book for that alone. I look forward to reading more of the authors work in future.

Thank you to net galley for this arc.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book - to be honest I picked it for the Greek mythology link - but I really enjoyed watching Cassandra trip her way through time.

I found the descriptions of how Cassandra experiences the world with her colours and routines fascinating. I could feel her frustration as she tried to make sense of her interactions amplyfying the usual first date anxiety to epic proportions as she whizzed back and forth in time. I loved watching her go back in time and try to reorder people and events with a desperate fervour that eventually dissipated when she realised she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

The characters were fresh and realistic. I enjoyed the menacing strand running through the book of the 'stalker' and how that turned out to be another defence mechanism. I loved that in accepting herself, Cassandra was better able to relate to the world around her and make genuine connections. Also the little nods to Greek mythology added an extra layer to the plot.

Thoroughly recommend.

Cassandra is an odd, undiagnosed neuro-divergent woman who manages to lose her boyfriend, job and living quarters all in one horrible day. Then she discovers she can time travel into the not-too-distant past in her life and sets about trying to set herself up to prevent these future disasters. I loved accompanying Cassandra on her journey and was pleasantly surprised by the ending.

Thought provoking unique story, is the best way to describe this book. Loved the time travel element, takes a bit of getting used to buy well worth if. Thank you netgalley for the advanced copy

Hmm, I was looking forward to this one but on the whole, it's just left me a tad frustrated. I loved the first paragraph, it gripped me and I was mentally clapping my hands thinking this is going to be good!... I felt the first few chapters were fighting amongst themselves as to what was going on. The events and Cass's internal thoughts were muddled I felt. However it did get better and the mid part of the book, although jumping around through time worked well. I felt I got to know the characters and understand them better.
However, I felt that leaving the big twist so late in the book meant that the ending was a rushed and everything was tied up a little too neatly for my taste.
Maybe this one just wasn't for my stable :)

Holly's first adult fiction book is brilliant! Cassandra is a wonderfully complex and misunderstood character. I adore everything about this book, but especially the fact that the main character is neurodivergent.

The time travel element is fun, but also incredibly thought-provoking. I loved seeing the world as Cassie does, it's eye-opening and super refreshing.

Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is awesome and will stay with me for a long time!

What an original story from a unique perspective. The story of Cassandra who has a different perspective from the average person - on life, friends, love, work, people in general. A really interesting, funny, quirky story from a neurodiverse point of view. I really enjoyed it - great writing.

Isolated and misunderstood, Cassandra Dankworth is having a bad day. Having been dumped and fired within the space of hours, she uses her ability to go back in time to try and fix it with mixed results and big consequences.

I initially struggled to connect and care about the characters, Cassandra in particular. I found the plot dragged in places, especially in the time travelling periods in the first half. However, as the story progressed and Cassandra’s backstory was explored, I found both the story and characters grew on me. I think the book draws parallels with Gail Honeyman’s ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ and Matt Haig’s ‘The Midnight Library’. I want to like this novel more than I did, but something I can’t put my finger on, feels missing. I would highly recommend to readers who enjoyed either of those books.