Can't really give a proper review as didn't finish the book, i struggled to get in to it as it just wasn't for me, doesn't necessarily mean it's not a good read as it has had some great reviews

Elan Mastai's 'All our wrong todays' is one of my favourite books of the year! This speculative narrative is clever, knowing, ironic and laugh out loud funny. Tom, our hapless hero, stumbles into a temporal conundrum that becomes increasingly complicated as he tries to navigate his way out. At the heart of all the alternative worlds he inhabits, is the connecting thread of love. Never sentimental, Mastai is a whip smart conceptualist, with a big beating heart.

I usually enjoy time travel novels but found I couldn't get on with this one, sorry to say. One main reason was that I just didn't like the characters very much. It is supposedly comic but I just found some of the lines irritating. It was very long and I found myself skipping through some chapters to finish and move on.

I couldn't get in to this book, sorry, I had 2 attempts, hoping that if i went back to it i would feel different but I still couldn't get into it. thanks for allowing me to read though, much appreciated.

At times, I really loved this book. I thought big sections of it were well written, absorbing and enjoyable.

But –

I love time travel novels and novels that mess with time and Dystopian fiction. All Our Wrong Todays should have ticked all my boxes.

Except, in the end, it didn’t.

The main issue was the narrator Tom/John. I found him irritating, repetitive at times, dull mostly and just plain tedious, repeating the same rubbish over and over as if on the 300th turn it will suddenly become interesting.

I have major issues with the way women are treated in the novel. They are either killed horribly or raped or have their brains melted / get cancer from time travelling hijinks. The misogyny is a little too much at times.

I also found the novel really confusing towards the end with different realties and versions of characters bleeding into each other until it becomes one hot mess.

I was in equal parts awed and irritated by this book. For the first few chapters I pretty much hated it. Self-referential hoop jumping! Writerly injokes! Talking directly to the reader! But All Our Wrong Todays crosses and re-crosses the line between annoying gimmicks and truly imaginative and inspirational storytelling throughout. In the end it’s the breath-taking innovation that really stays with you.

It’s a time travel tale, but it works primarily because it’s also a love story, an examination of family dynamics, and a book with an irresistible “would you rather” question. It’s dripping with pure imagination, and bizarrely plausible. It’s also staggeringly complex, both philosophically and technically: there are plates spinning in this book you can barely imagine lifting in a stack, with so many circles revolving around themselves it’s stunning Elan Mastai was not sucked into a black hole. Worth persevering with.

All Our Wrong Todays.

Read from 9th July-20th July

3 Stars.

This book requires a lot of patience, with the language and the main character-Tom Barren. Even at this point, I'm not sure I liked him. This is a complicated, science fiction novel imbued with some romance.

I did however like the story, just not how it was told to the reader. Sure, there were witty parts but it was too conversational and casual that I felt the story telling didn't seem substantial or worth noting.

The book follows Tom Barren, a man who has been nothing more than a disappointment to his genius inventor of a father. Tom Barren makes a huge mistake and it involves time travel. He may have just changed the course of history altogether, his action may mean the world will never arrive at its full potential. With this single mistake, he has erased the lives of billions, some of whom were his closest friends. Will he go back? Will he fix this? More importantly, will he fix it successfully?

I think this book's only redeeming quality was the technologically advanced world Elan Mastai created. It was so close to this modern age but still so awesome, as were the theories about parallel universes and alternate realities....Definitely the book for a curious reader or for someone who feels they have been born in the wrong time.

A suitable read for 16+ as it contains some mature content.

I received this book through NetGalley.

The world Tom Barren lives in sounds incredible. An endless supply of clean energy launched a series of technological advancements that have made for an enviably advanced society. What's not to love? Tom on the other hand, feels like a failure. His dad is a revered scientist, and inventor of time travel, and Tom has spent his life falling shirt of his dad's expectations. Tom, always trying to do the right thing, finds himself making choices that impact not only on the world he lives in, but the lives of everyone he's ever know, when he's stranded in an alternate version of 2016. The thing that scares him most, is that he starts to feel at home there, and has to decide whether to risk losing the world he's know forever, by staying, or to travel back and lose a life he now feels is where he truly belongs.

This was a slow burner for me. Took about 30% of the way in before I found myself really engaged, but glad I persevered. There's a few sciencey parts, which are a scarily relatable and make you wonder how we've not mastered this technology in real life, which is testament to the writers skill. Above all though, it's an emotional journey, and a very real moral quandary that had me agonising over what I would do in Toms shoes, which I assume was the authors intention. Some great moments of humour, offset against scenes that really make you stop and think about the effects our choices can have on those around us.

Intriguing fast paced read. A 'what if' storyline that twists like a corkscrew.

What would it be like to live in a world where all of your needs are taken care of, where cars fly, teleportation exists and menial tasks such as showering, dressing and preparing meals are just completed for you, almost by magic. Well this is the world Tom Barren lives in. It’s 2016 but back in 1965 something called the Goettreider Engine was invented – and it was a game changer. It worked by harnessing the energy created by the movement of the planet itself and it’s so powerful that it’s made every other power source redundant. It also sparked a technology revolution that’s brought about this utopian state.

But Tom’s not a happy chap. He doesn’t have a woman in his life and he’s struggling to come to terms with the fact that his mother was killed by a flying car that fell out of the sky. To add insult to injury, he’s unfulfilled in terms of his career - he works for his father, who seems to employ him purely out of a sense of familial loyalty. And his job? Well, he’s training to be a time traveller. Yes, his genius dad has invented a time travel device and Tom is a backup for the team leader. Of course there’s no chance that he’ll actually get to pilot this device – but then, the best laid plans…

I won’t go into too much of the detail but suffice to say Tom is given the opportunity to see what his world would have looked like without the invention of the Goettreider engine. Things have worked out very differently for him and his family. In this parallel world, Tom is forced to make choices and it’s not as straightforward as you might think. Yes, there are many advantages of the techno-utopia he’s come from but this low tech world with it’s ‘dirty’ energy and a distinct lack of comparative home comforts still has something to offer.

The dialogue is sharp and witty and the whole thing is permeated with enough science that it makes Tom’s experiences feel rather more believable than you might think. I didn’t understand the science, of course, but it did provide a smidgen of belief that there is more to this time travel thing than hard-core sceptics would have you think. Well, I’m trying to convince myself of that anyway!

It’s an enjoyable romp. It’s certainly not fault free and in Tom I’m not sure that the author has created the most likeable of characters. But maybe that’s the point, perhaps we’re not expected to like him. My problem with this is that despite becoming gripped by the narrative I didn’t feel particularly invested in the fate of our lead man. That said, there’s a lot going on here and I do applaud the imagination and thought that’s gone into producing a book that I found entertaining and which also forced me to think a little more deeply about the world in which I live. Definitely one for time all time travel aficionados and and anyone who’s just in the mood for something different.

I found this book slow to start, but I am glad I stuck with it. I felt the novel was going in a particular direction but then changed very rapidly. It was at this point I knew I had to carry on reading. After the conclusion it left me quite reflective of my own life. I can imagine this novel being a book clubs dream to discuss and analyse.
The style in which this was written really worked. The short chapters left you thinking that you should quickly read another.
Tom as a character was very likeable. He is well aware of his shortcomings and is a good narrator.
The conclusion left no unanswered questions, all loose threads were tied.

I give this book 3 1/2 stars the reason it wasn't 4 is that I found it a bit hard to get into at first. Once you get into it you find that it's an unusual love story involving time travel. I think that this would also make a good film. If you read this and find it hard I advise you to keep reading you'll be glad you did.

I am not going to be reviewing this book, but thank you for the approval.

Tom Barron will never measure up to his genius dad. If he’s honest with himself he’ll probably never measure up to his self-sacrificing mother either. It’s always annoyed him that she does so much for his dad and had so little appreciation but now she’s just died it annoys him even more.

Still, at least his dad seems to be trying to do something for him now by giving him a job. He’s to be an understudy chrononaut.

His father has developed a time machine and plans to test it by sending someone back to the moment the world got unlimited power in 1965. The 2016 Tom lives in is very different from ours.

But even though Tom is only the understudy and not supposed to be traveling, events somehow unravel and he accidentally changes the past and ends up in our 2016. Can he put things right? And when he realises his own life is so much better in our 2016 will he be selfless enough to do so? After all in his 2016 there is no poverty and no climate change, but in our 2016 Tom has love.

This book is incredible! I LOVED IT! The cleverness doesn’t stop for a second but Tom Barron is such an ordinary (slightly disappointing) bloke that it never feels too complicated or cloying. The characters and their dilemmas are in turn fascinating and mundane and they react both rationally and irrationally just like we all do.

But beyond the great characters, fabulous plot and terrific writing is something more. This is a book that makes you ponder! And there is nothing I love more than a book that makes me do that!

5 Bites … and if I was handing out awards this book would be getting them!

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews

Tom lives in a different 2016. A better 2016 than the one we had (which, to be honest, isn’t that difficult) made possible by a never-ending source of clean energy discovered in the 1950s. Tom’s world is peaceful, carefree, perfect. But his life isn’t. His father, a brilliant scientist, is distant and disinterested. Tom feels like a failure.
It’s quite a complicated plot, but suffice it to say, Tom messes with his father’s time machine, changes the course of history and ends up in our, rather crappy, 2016.
The concepts behind time travel give me a headache. I just can’t get my head around the whole idea. And neither can Tom, really. But he has to sort things out to save all those people he accidentally got rid of. Of course, it isn’t that simple. There’s his new family to consider, who are much nicer that the old one. And there’s the new Penelope too.
Tom is a great main character. Aware of his short-comings, he’s an honest narrator. The reader really feels his panic about what he’s done, the dawning reality of where he is and what his new life means. The journal style works very well and does help the reader to identify closely with Tom. The other characters are, on the whole, also well-drawn and three-dimensional and the author allows their flaws to show. The novel explores his complex relationships, and at the heart of this is a love story.
There are a few places where things are a little repetitive and long-winded, but they are few and far between. And I did feel that new Penelope was rather too perfect. But aside from these minor points, the novel was clever, well-written and very readable despite its complexity.
I still don’t really understand time travel though.

This is a quirky story about time travel and alternate realities. I was expecting a bit more action from a sci-fi novel and the techo-babble (particularly in the first quarter) was a little tiring, but overall it was an entertaining read.

This is a brilliant book and I loved it. The premise is clever and the plot, although far too complicated to summarise succinctly, centres on time travel. Granted, the internal logic is convoluted, but also plausible enough to drive the narrative forward very effectively. Thematically the novel is wide-ranging, reflecting on utopias and dystopias, human nature, cultural norms, love, death, science – which all makes it sound rather earnest and dull, but it really isn’t. Both funny and metaphysical, All Our Wrong Todays is extremely readable, has a genuinely quirky charm and, as I say, I loved it.

Tom Berren, has messed up the present, or at least his present, as he now inhabits the present we have always known. Tom grew up in what we would think of as a post-scarcity utopia. People still work in that reality, but they work to achieve new entertainments because in Tom’s world most of the problems we have today in regards to dwindling resources and the energy crisis were solved decades ago with the invention in 1965 of a device called the Goettreider Engine. When switched on released a clean renewable energy that the creator Lionel Goettreider gifted to the world.

The story is told as an autobiography by Tom, so this is his version of the truth. From the start, it is interesting to see how self-absorbed Tom is. When we read about Tom’s life in the alternate present, he never seems happy, mostly he compares how superior the world he lived in is in comparison to our present. At the same time in his new timeline, Tom’s counterpart John has a much happier family life and is also a visionary architect. Yet Tom is not satisfied with this life either, Tom believes that John is a plagiarist, as the buildings he envisions and designs come from Tom’s memories of his reality. Tom doesn’t acknowledge that this isn’t John’s fault or intention.

In Tom’s original reality, his family life wasn’t the best, his father Victor was a genius who worked in long-range teleportation, before setting up a company to work on time travel. Tom’s mother spent her time keeping her husband happy, without ever thinking of her own needs. Tom has grown up knowing he is a failure, as he is not a genius like his father which nurtured an inferiority complex in Tom. This sense of knowing he is a disappointment has allowed Tom to coast along in his life. At the age of 32, Tom has still never tried to achieve anything. A series of unfortunate events leads Tom to join his Father’s time travel team as they begin the countdown to launch day. Joining his father’s company means that Tom meets Penelope, the star chrononaut who will be the first person to travel back to the switching on of the Goettreider Engine. Which is exactly how Tom inadvertently causes his present to never exist.

The alternative versions of Tom’s parents are the antithesis of his own, John’s parents care about each other and their children, with John’s mother being the more successful of the two in their academic careers. Tom in this version also has an incredibly smart sister who can’t believe (when she hears Tom’s story) that he wrote her out of existence! This reality also has a version of Penelope, who Tom starts a relationship with, leading to the question: Is it ethical to start a relationship with a doppelgänger of a woman you knew in a previous reality, even if they are the only person who believes your story of not coming from this reality to be true?

It is good to know that in a technologically advanced society, you can still have character traits that mean that you are may not be considered a fully functioning human. Tom and the original Penelope although both very different personalities are both able to sabotage their lives. There does seem to be in the futuristic version of the world a lack of true communication, especially as everything is tailored to your wants and needs by computer algorithms, which can predict the jobs you should apply for, as well as the people you should date.

All Our Wrongs Today is a morality tale that allows Tom to become the man he has always wanted to be, to grow up and stop being resentful for all the things he never thought he had. This is a story about redemption and second chances. There is a lot of soul-searching from the characters, as well as a lot of time travel shenanigans. Mastai has created a well thought out tale, that takes into account the theories on why time travel shouldn’t work, without ever losing sight of the characters and their motivations.

A fantastic book! I strongly recommend reading it! It has already been released in the UK, and you can get it now!

Thank you so much to Penguin UK for allowing me to read a free copy of this book! It has been an absolute pleasure!

Spoiler free review!

My rating: 4/5

This book is about a guy named Tom, who lives in an ultra advanced 2016, with futuristic gadgets like floating vehicles, food synthesizers, buildings made out of new particles, and peace (that counts as a futuristic gadget, right?). During a trip to the past, Tom makes a significant enough mistake that places him in our world.

The story is about all the possibilities of worlds in which he exists, and how he changed based on what happened to him. Time travel takes a dark turn as it is finally understood that when you create something, you must be aware of its negative consequences, consistently.

I don't want to describe too much of the plot itself lest I spoil it, but here's the gist of it: It's really good! I don't really read a lot of things other that Young Adult fiction (most of the time I'm oblivious to the fact that other types of literature even exist because, since when?), and I was surprised to have enjoyed this novel beyond my meager expectations. I always expect adult books to be really boring and dull, but I am so, so, wrong. Mostly, adult books have more swearing, a little more inappropriateness, and that's basically it! There's nothing complicated or befuddling about it. According to the government, I am a child and I was 100% okay with this book. If you're okay with a little swearing and a little seriousness, you're all set for this book.

Anyways, the point is, this book is mind-blowing and here's why everyone should read it:

1) A really great main character. Tom is a really genuine and cool character. He's really fun to read.
2) Really interesting concepts. My mind was so fascinating with all the explanations for time-travel, they made perfect sense, and felt really possible. Though I 100% think time-travel is a horrible idea, it feels really cool that it could be potentially even a thing rather than a mere fantasy.
3) A great set of supporting characters: Even the villain in this story is on point. And Tom's family and love interest are so fundamentally enjoyable!
4) The writing style is fantastic! I loved the short chapters, it was just so effortless to get there, and fun. I honestly hate it when I feel like I have to finish a book just for the sake of it and not enjoy it. I was so sad when there was only 20 pages left.

So, yeah, these are my reasons! This book has filled me with the notion that I will never be happy until every single person in the universe has read it, so help me out here!

Thanks,
Yomna <3