Ingrid Jonach

Lillie is your average small-town-Alaskan high-schooler. Crackpot hippie mother not-withstanding, Lillie’s life is pretty normal until she starts dreaming of her own death every night.

Then new guy Tom strolls into school; he’s handsome, rich & British, a swoon-worthy combination if there ever was one.

But he is also strangely familiar, Lillie instinctively knows things about him she couldn’t possibly know. Do they really have some kind of weird connection, or is a simple teenage crush show more making her read way too much into Tom’s every word or gesture?

The beautiful cover and intriguing title should give you an idea of the lyrical, atmospheric flavour of the book. It doesn’t lack in sass either, with Lillie’s opinions and descriptions rendering the small town and its inhabitants in vivid detail. I was particularly impressed with the expert portrayal of teenagers, which hit just the right notes of frailty, bravado and cruelty in turn. The parade of couchsurfers moving in and out of Lillie’s living room never failed to provide comic relief.

The revelation of a supernatural aspect to the plot came fairly late, allowing the high-school drama to take front and centre stage for the first half of the book. That’s a relatively large portion of the story which is solely dedicated to Lillie’s everyday life, as well as that of her family, friends, frenemies, and even the town.

This early focus allowed the reader to immerse in Green Grove sufficiently to understand exactly how devastating an impact the later reveals could have.

One initially very sympathetic character turns suddenly sinister shortly after the central crux of the story is finally revealed, and the reader feels this twist all the more cruelly for this attention paid the character in question early on.

The lack of a supernatural plot-twist before the mid-point also provided its own little pinch of suspense. There is a certain amount of meta at play; when you pick up a book from a genre publisher, you expect some kind of science-fiction or fantasy element.

Yes, the weird dreams could just be dreams, except the reader knows they’re not. I spent the first half of the book wondering, at the turn of every page, is this next one the page I’ll find out?

By the time Lille finally gets told what is going on, the seasoned genre reader will have probably guessed the most likely answer (I did), but Jonach builds on the beloved sci-fi concept and creates a beautiful, multi-layered hidden fantasy world. There is almost a bit of cognitive dissonance between the high-school drama and high-concept sci-fi portions of the story, but if you enjoy both genres, like I do, you will love both halves equally.

I read this book on holiday and I must say it was close to the perfect summer read for my taste – a fun, witty story, with enough emotional resonance to make me root for a happy ending, none of the unnecessary sap I always dread from romances, and a decent grounding in sci-fi without any arduous info-dump. It feels great sometimes to step back and read a story not about the end of the world, but the tearing apart of someone’s little world, which is just as dramatic when it’s done well. show less

When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love) by Ingrid Jonach is the author's first book for young adults (her earlier works are for younger readers) and the first book to be released by Strange Chemistry by an Australian author.

This book was awesome and a lot about it was not what I had expected. I have to say, prior to reading, the title conjured up images of a love story set on the flat world at the top of the Magic Faraway Tree... for some reason. This book is (unsurprisingly) nothing show more like that. And, in fact, the title doesn't really make sense until about halfway through when mysteries start to be revealed. That is part of the problem with writing this review; I want to talk about a lot of the things that come up in the second half of the book, but that means a lot of spoilers. If you don't care about spoilers (although I think you should in this case because not knowing adds to the mysterious vibe of the first half), you can read my spoilery thoughts under the jump and also by highlighting the white text.

When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love) is about Lillie, a teenage girl in small-town USA who starts having weird and disturbing dreams in which she dies, every single night. And not just dies, is murdered by a figure in a balaclava. Her resulting unsettled demeanour gives the narrative a dream-like quality with a dark vibe that I really enjoyed. Probably my favourite thing about the first part of the book is the eeriness Jonach effectively evokes with her writing.

A reasonable amount of the story involves Lillie's interactions with her two best friends, Jo and Sylv, and their former-friend, now-cool-girl-enemy, Melissa. Jo and Sylv were less thoroughly detailed characters than Lillie (as often happens with first person narratives) but they weren't two dimensional, both with their own issues which, although we only see the surface, hint at complexity. Sylv wants to be a model and in her day-to-day, hams up being a "slut". Of course she cops flack for it from the cool crowd, but doesn't really care what anyone thinks of the image she's projected. Jo has to deal with her father's cancer after his relative absence in her younger years and issues at school which I won't spoil. There isn't much change in the main group's relationship with Melissa throughout the book — the popular girl exists mostly to be annoying. I wondered at first if there might be some sort of reconciliation with her during the story, as I've seen in other YA books, but thinking back on my own high school experiences, that doesn't seem realistic and — more importantly — would have sidetracked the main thrust of the book.

The main thrust, of course, being Lillie's nightmares and the mysterious new boy in town, Tom. She does spend a lot of time dwelling on him, but I was glad to see her being annoyed at his "hot and cold" attitude towards her, before his mystery was revealed (which is a spoiler). I also liked that while there was another boy in the picture, he was never a serious love-interest for Lillie and Jonach avoided a pointless love-triangle (huzzah). On the other hand, I thought Lillie's feelings towards Tom jumped to "love" a little bit too quickly, but I was willing to overlook that given how much I was enjoying the book otherwise.

You might be wondering why I've tagged When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love) as science fiction but haven't talked about the SF aspects at all yet. (And if you know me at all, you'll know that I can't refrain from talking about science for very long.) That's because the science fictional premise is a massive spoiler. If that doesn't bother you, I do talk about it below the jump. If you're after hard science fiction, this is not the book for you. The scientific concepts, when they do come up, are introduced in a very hand-wavey way, which works in context and serves to reduce potential errors, but hard SF it does not make.

When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love) is an excellent read. Even if you ignore the premise and just look at the mundane interactions between the characters, it doesn't read like a stock-standard YA yarn. The mood evoked by the writing sets it apart from many other YA novels. I recommend it to YA fans looking for something a little bit off the beaten track.

5 / 5 stars

I have more spoilery discussion of some aspects of this book at my blog. show less

Sigh.

I did a lot of sighing during this book.

Sighing for the unrequited love and for the things I saw coming and didn’t really want to happen.

This book got into my head. It burrowed itself deep into my subconscious to where I was dreaming about alternative dimensions. Other realities where I would make an opposite decision in my life and completely change the course of my lifetime. There was even a time at work where one of my coworkers said she should have done one thing instead of the show more other thing she actually did, and all I was thinking was “well, you definitely did in another dimension.” So yeah, I was affected.

Ultimately, When the World was Flat (And We Were in Love) is unique. The concept of reincarnation has been done before, but this book switches it up and adds a spark of time traveling! (AWESOME!)

Lillie was a great character, although I was once again, sighing, at her utter naiveness. And for a while she did a Bella Swan thing and shut out the rest of the world for lack of a boyfriend.

I loved her friends. I liked her mom even though she was a bit off kilter. I like Jackson.

I loved Tom. Loved. Tom.

And um, Mrs. Jonach is an Australian author, so of course the writing is appealing and delightful. show less

*I was provided with an advanced electronic copy of this book from the author and Angry Chemistry in return of an honest review. No monetary compensation was provided in this exchange.*

Review originally posted on Moonlight Gleam's Bookshelf as part of Around The World in 80 Days Blog Tour

Final Rating 3.5/5

Not much happens in Green Grove, Nebraska. Ask 16 year old Lillie, who has spent her whole life in the small town with her eccentric mother and two friends who are basically from opposite show more ends of the spectrum. So when word gets around that there is a new face in town, it brings curiosity and wonder to Lillie and her peers. Tom Windsor-Smith arrives at Lillie’s high school and changes everything. His mysterious demeanor and timid actions are followed by gossip left and right. The girls are all head over heels in love (including Lillie), and the boys look at him as nothing but competition. Despite the attention, Tom seems to have no particular interest in Green Grove and it’s citizens. But for some reason, he is drawn to Lillie (though he would rather ram his BMW into a lightpole than admit it).

Tom’s arrival changes not only their schoolmates, but something deep within Lillie herself. She becomes victim to nightmares almost every night, and it doesn’t help that her closest friends seem farther away than ever. She imagines a life with Tom in incredible details that she wonders of their relationship. Tom’s presence in her life increases over the months, and she finds her feelings growing past the physical want to something deeper. When a night out with a friend and peer pressure turns into an unnecessary risk on her life, Tom’s hot-and-cold actions begin to reveal themselves. As Tom shares with Lillie the his true nature and that of their relationship, it alters her worldview and very being. Tom’s secret is not only his own, it is much bigger and involves many more people… and it threatens to separate the two for good.

I will definitely admit that I am a hopeless romantic. I love a good love story, and Jonach definitely did not let me down in that aspect of WTWWF. I really liked Lillie’s character from the start. She is not a damsel-in-distress, she is a teenage girl who puts herself first and looks at all of her options before making a decision and sometimes doesn’t notice the state of her other friendships. She gets confused and scared of new things. She is a typical teenage girl and I thought she was very likable and relatable. Tom, oh Tom. There were a lot of times where I found myself annoyed at Tom’s hot-and-cold attitude towards Lillie. But in the end, I ended up really enjoying his character. He is well bred and loyal to a fault and is willing to sacrifice everything for the one he loves. Their romance grew on me as the story went on. I really enjoyed the minor characters as well, I thought that each character added to Lillie’s story and improved it, as well as help the reader understand Lillie’s own character.

I liked the science/physics aspect of WTWWF. Jonach has put a unique and interesting spin on science fiction, and while it was complex, it was well-explained and it made sense. Her approach to Einstein’s theory made me appreciate Tom and Lillie’s relationship so much more, because it truly shows the significance of love. For when one falls in love, they are changed forever. They will never be the same. They will always put their beloved above themselves. And as Lillie and Tom’s story unfolds, us readers see that. We see how far two individuals in love are willing to go to protect one another.

The title is so fitting. After the big reveal and all of the plot twists, Lillie is changed. Her new knowledge has changed her and she will never go back to being the girl that she was all those months ago. Just like all those years ago when those scientists and geographers determined that the Earth was not flat, but instead round. It changed everything. And once you finish the book, you recognize how perfectly titled it was. Because it’s the same for both Lillie and Tom. Once upon a time, they made decisions that, somehow, brought them together. And they could never be the same people that they were before that.

With When the World Was Flat, Ingrid Jonach creates a story of love, destiny, and – most importantly – choice. In Lillie and Tom’s world, one choice means everything. In the truest sense, one choice defines who you are. And I really liked that. For readers of YA and scifi, I think that When the World Was Flat (and we were in love) will definitely turn out to be a worthy and enjoyable read. show less