I think I might have found a new favorite author! I just loved how Emma Straub writes and I think we are struggling with the same middle-life crisis, seeing our parents age, grieving our youth, accepting our aging and the acceleration and blending of time as we become older. She put what I think and feel in much more beautiful words than I possibly could. I really highlighted and liked a lot of quotes.

The book is full of nostalgia. I grew up thousands of miles away, ok we also got Beverly Hills, 90210, but I missed many other references. Emma Straub grew up in New York, the Upper West Side and she mostly writes about real places - past and present. I think for someone who grew up in New York in 1990s, this could really be a nostalgic time travel book. New York is an alive character in the book we get to know intimately. I loved the opportunity to live on Pomander Walk and walked the Upper West Side with the privileged who call it their home. ( )

this was so genuine and bittersweet. i love thinking about the passage of time, whether i would change things if i could, the implications of those changes, and that love is the strongest force in the universe!!! perfect mix of lighthearted, funny, and poignant. it reminded me a little of happy death day (one of the best time loop movies ever tbh) ( )

40-year-old Alice travels back in time to her 16th birthday party, and makes some changes that she hopes will alter her future.

What a spectacularly emotional book about time travel. Alice moves past being mired in her own regrets, past the fear of her father's death and her compulsion to control the death, and into a better understanding of how love functioned in her life. Honestly, what would anyone do with time travel other than go visit the people that they have loved? ( )

2.5 stars. Disappointing. This was so saccharine I wanted to DNF it after the first part. I forced myself to read it only to be rewarded with more cliches. The only interesting character here was the dad, and he was not explored very deeply.
Everything in here is surface level, and even the 90s nostalgia didn’t do much to make it more bearable. This book could have been a lot better, but it felt so superficial to me. ( )

I read everything by Emma Straub. I love her work. When I saw this one I hadn't read yet, I got it from the library. I didn't read anything about what it is about. Turns out it is about time travel--and I don't care for books about time travel.
The relationship between Alice, the main character, and her father, Leonard, and the one between Alice and her best friend Sam are the best parts of the book. Straub is an excellent writer, and this book is no exception. I just didn't care for the time travel!
Alice sits by her father's bedside as he is dying, over a period of time. She works at the school she attended herself, and although she enjoys it, wonders if she's missing out on something. She likes being single, but wonders if she should be with someone (although early in the novel she turns down her boyfriend's proposal). I like Alice. I like most of the characters. I'm just not sure where Straub was going this time, and/or why she chose this time travel theme. ( )