I'll Stop the World made me capslock directly to a friend multiple times as I stayed up far too late telling myself I'd only read ONE MORE CHAPTER, and if that's not an endorsement, what is?
Lauren Thoman's debut novel is impossible to review properly without spoiling the basic premise that doesn't officially reveal itself for over a hundred pages, but I will try my best to preserve the experience I had going in knowing so very little, which is how it is best read, so before I try to tiptoe around the moment that had me messaging "[FRIEND] WHAT THE F**K" (for the first time), here are some basic questions to ask yourself:
Do you like novels told through multiple perspectives, where you retroactively retrofit your understanding of each character from how they came off in someone else's scene? Do you like novels with predominantly teenage characters experiencing a lot of teenage angst and romantic longing and wondering what they're going to do with their life but ALSO some adult characters experiencing adult issues and romantic contentment and wondering what they've done with their lives? Do you like novels that establish plot-related goals for characters but concern themselves more with what the characters are feeling about themselves and each other so it feels like plot is mostly happening around them until it suddenly all slams together like an intricately constructed piece of emotional machinery that leaves you in awe of the author for pulling it all off? Do you like novels that explore our search for a sense of purpose, the importance of self-forgiveness, and the explicit and implicit effects we have on each other's lives? Do you like [element of book that doesn't officially reveal itself for over a hundred pages]?!?! Then this is the book for you.
Okay, so meet Justin, our only first-person point-of-view character because our mental and emotional journey through the book will largely mirror his, though we may be a few steps ahead of him at times because we have access to other POVs and understand that we are reading fiction that can utilize certain storytelling tropes. He's just a kid in high school with a crush on a girl and a crushing lack of self-worth. Justin is a cinnamon roll who must be protected at all costs. Also, by the way, hang this in the Hall of Fame for First Chapter Exposition Drops: "Plus, I guess the optics of having a massive inferno on the front lawn of a school that's named after a couple who burned to death in that school—making me, their grandson, a morbidly twisted version of Buford County royalty—are not great." That's right, Thoman just casually reveals that the protagonist's grandparents died in a fire, as you do. Of course, if you've glanced at any sort of marketing for the book, you understand the significance of this exposition drop, and if you keep reading this review, you will understand the significance of this exposition drop because it's setting up the secret premise of this book: Justin is going to try to save his grandparents from dying in that fire. When, uh, he ends up in 1985.
THIS IS A TIME TRAVEL BOOK oh God it feels good to just say it, but I have to warn you that time travel does not occur for a while, and I was impatient for it to occur, but when it finally did happen, I understood why Thoman did what she did. This is a brilliantly structured novel, and the structure is the point, as Thoman is deliberately weaving together a tapestry of interconnected characters whose lives affect each other, and there's a reason it had be told this way. In addition to jumping around multiple POVs, we occasionally get interludes from a different perspective or a different time, a couple cryptic and a couple not so much, and they come when needed to provide information that can't be provided through regular means. It's very hard to stop reading, as the chapters are very short and there's always something new around the corner because of all the subplots going on at once.
Because, well, life goes on. Justin naturally applies some cosmic import to his time displacement and his grandparents' deaths—I especially liked that despite never knowing them, he felt a moral obligation to save them because not acting on the knowledge he had would make him complicit in their deaths—but one relatively minor tragedy (no disrespect to those lovely characters) doesn't mean teenagers aren't going to pine for their friends or explore how comfortable they are expressing their true queer self to others or wrestle with their parents' expectations for them. Whether it's 1985 or 2023, some elements of the teenage experience remain universally relatable. Some of these being quite unfortunate, as Thoman knows that while society may have progressed somewhat with regards to attitudes toward POC and queer folk, we still have a way to go, and Justin offers some insight into the differences in the two time periods. I also appreciated his observations of life before we were always online and attached to our phones and how that affected the way people interacted and formed relationships.
Which is what you should pay attention to in this book! Justin does make a friend who helps him investigate, but the results of their investigation matter less than how they feel about each other. While there are some traditional moments of following clues and falling for red herrings, there is no greater mystery than the human heart, am I right. Yes, you will want to know who was responsible for the fire that killed Justin's grandparents, but the real satisfaction comes from watching these characters discover truths about themselves or learning truths about these characters. I was rooting for all of them.
I didn't understand how much I cared until the end, though. I generally do respond more positively to plot-heavier novels, and so I was prepared to declare my assessment of this book as a strong Like, but in the last couple pages, Thoman pays off her No It's Really About the Characters approach. I literally started tearing up during the last couple pages, and it was harder to read because all the text was blurry. Suddenly the weight of everything these characters had been through, the significance and consequences of their actions, it hit me with a force equivalent to the climax of Everything Everywhere All at Once, and I appreciated how beautifully Thoman had found a balance between plot and character so that they both mattered and worked together as one. And that was when I knew in my heart, I lettuce this book.
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Top reviews from other countries
Kindle Customer
Absolutely stunning book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2023Amazon Customer
A little predictable but couldn’t put it down
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2023
