All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

Discussion in 'TMB Book Club' started by LKRFN88jp, Jun 23, 2017.

  1. Lorne Malvo

    Lorne Malvo Aces!
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    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27405006-all-our-wrong-todays

    Wanted somewhere to talk about this book because it's awesome and I'm loving it. I have 30% left, looking forward to finishing it tonight. General thought dump at 70% in:

    I love how different of a novel this is all wrapped up in the first 3/4ths. Especially since the world reset to "our" version of 2016. It was basically one giant story with very little dialogue for the first 40% or so and since then it's turned into a more back and forth conversational story. The dinner scene with his family was freaking great. Penny is awesome, big fan. When he explained everything to her right away, I was kind of disappointed that it was all out there. But I thought it went in a great direction.

    Also, the part where Tom woke up as John and essentially raped her, then said it was the end of Tom's story, I was floored. What a piece of writing. And then the follow-up to that and all the problems that it caused. Wow.

    He just finished his conversation with big wig from the 60s + his daughter (I'm at work without the kindle so I forget his name for now) and now seems to be going to Hong Kong. Can't wait to see how it finishes + if the bad version of him returns at all. Good stuff.

    Thanks to Truman for the recommendation.
     
    #1 Lorne Malvo, Jun 23, 2017
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2017
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  2. Truman

    Truman Well-Known Member
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  3. Lorne Malvo

    Lorne Malvo Aces!
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    82%

    Lionel Goettreider is something else. And the fact that he ended up killing the love of his life because he fucked with her brain like that - wow. I continue to be blown away by the writing of this book and how many different ways it's gone. I highlighted something earlier on my Kindle (for the first time ever) because I thought it was perfect - "And I also feel like - this is not what I signed up for. You probably feel that way too. This was supposed to be, like, a time-travel romp, you know?" - I mean come on, that's great. The cover and the quotes from a reviewer that surround the title absolutely nail it. Great book.
     
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  4. Lorne Malvo

    Lorne Malvo Aces!
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    Wanted to expand on my thoughts from the books read in 2017 thread:

    I continued to be surprised at how many different ways it went at the end. Another timeline where everything goes to shit? Wow. At that point the Dark Matter/Back to the Future parallels made even more sense as it was like BTTF 2 with a bunch of different things happening in different timelines. Good stuff.

    Him battling himself to fix everything to get back to "our" 2016 was really riveting, as the clock counted down. And the fact it took him 51 years of real time to go backwards? Sheesh. Only part that kind of confused me there was how he didn't age at all in that timeframe, didn't need food, etc. That was the only thing that took me out of the moment.

    I thought the ending was ultimately earned though. Penny not being 100% happy was a good touch, I thought, because she did have reasons to be worried moving forward.

    Just a badass fun novel. I'm gonna have to re-read Dark Matter sometime this year.
     
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  5. laxjoe

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  6. Truman

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    Good point about him not aging and shit. I didn't even think of that, I was so wrapped up in the story to take time to think about that.
     
  7. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    On chapter 51 (I'm loving the short chapters!)
    Really like it so far. Don't know if I'll finish today, but definitely finishing it very soon. Thanks for the rec
     
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  8. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    Lol at the fuck fuck fuck shit fuck chapter :chan:
     
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  9. rv12

    rv12 Cowabunga
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    Does anyone have a .mobi or .epub of this? laxjoe or Truman
     
  10. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    If Truman doesn't get you one, I can get you a copy when I get home from work tonight
     
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  11. Lorne Malvo

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    Thoughts on the book beyond the four star on Goodreads?
     
  12. rv12

    rv12 Cowabunga
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    Truman sent me one. Thanks so much!
     
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  13. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    no
     
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  14. laxjoe

    laxjoe Well-Known Member
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    just kidding - just haven't had time to expand. but i thought it was an excellent book. i loved the style of the book - i'm not sure if breaking the fourth wall is putting it exactly how i mean, but things like the passage LKRFN88jp highlighted above did a great job keeping the reader engaged (even though i didn't need any extra help). i'd have finished a day or two earlier if it wasn't the 4th of july and i had to go see people...

    the thing about time travel, multi-dimension type books is, if you really dig into the details, it can start to unravel, no matter how good the author is. so it's up to the author to make you care about the characters, to provide an engaging story where time travel becomes just a piece of the story. and i thought this book did that about as well as any i can remember. i cared about tom, penny, mom, dad, his sister, and, by the end, lionel and even john.

    this is another instance where i wish goodreads provided more specificity in their rankings - i'd give this an 8.5 or 9 out of 10.
     
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  15. The Blackfish

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    I just finished it. Really enjoyed it, lots of twists I didn't really see coming. My main problem with it is that he really just told you everything about the characters instead of showing you. Penelope is great at everything, Tom is a disappointment etc...

    Small gripe, excellent story