Edward Raymond Shea Jr.

It’s what you can expect

Revisado: 12-04-21

The magic of the first story couldn’t be captured, which is no surprise. After listening to the first story last year, I hadn’t planned on listening to the second one. After rewatching the Netflix series based off the first book, I wanted to try to listen to the second book.

The story is okay. It’s a little over the top and cringe at times, but that’s okay. It’s just that some of the characters are so over the top and unbelievable that it can be annoying. Boomer, for instance, is annoyingly idiotic. “I can ask that girl Amber in my chemistry class to put out an alert.” If his character said things to be funny, that would be one thing, but it’s the fact that the characters all genuinely believe he means the things he says that makes it annoying. The show made him into a real person. In the book it seems like someone wants to make a joke of people on the autism spectrum. It’s infuriating. There are other characters too that just seem so flat when they shouldn’t be.

The performances are great.

Honestly if you just want an easy listen that is sweet and cheesy for the holidays, it’s not a bad choice. It just could have been better. Or maybe I’m just outgrowing my love of YA.

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It’s fun, but eh

Revisado: 05-10-21

This was a fun story, but it honestly felt like Cline didn’t want to write it, or he was motivated for the wrong reasons to write it. It is predictable and at times unnecessary. It basically worked to hit all the elements of the 80s that the first one missed.

At the end of the book, I am unsure how I feel about it. I don’t think I would recommend anyone go out of their way for it. I was entertained. It also got me to watch some classic movies I had never seen, but for the most part, it was kind of just a silly convoluted mess. It was really predictable, but at times that’s nice when it comes to fiction. Sometimes we just want to have a bit of predictability.

If you really liked the first one, it’s worth listening to. However, it’s unnecessary as well. The first one ended the way it seems it should have. Maybe Cline was pushed into writing this one or maybe he just wanted money. Maybe he just wasn’t sure how to do this story. I loved the first one, but just kind of eh about this one.

SPOILERS BELOW

So to elaborate on some of the silliness of this book:


They have to fight 7 iterations of Prince with musical weapons, and it’s just silly. They have to also move through movies like Pretty In Pink, and it just feels silly.

The ending of it reminded me exactly of the ending of “A gift of time.”

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Fun story, tries a bit hard

Revisado: 03-13-21

Overall, this was a fun book and a great listen. The story tried a bit hard to show “how the sausage is made.” It really wants to explain how time travel would work and all the elements of it, and some times that gets in the way of the story. The synopsis tells you it’s about time travel, which means by picking up the book, you’ve decided to believe in time travel. A bit of explanation is all well and good, but parts of the story lull convincing us to believe in something we’ve already accepted.

The story goes surprising directions, which made it more fun and less predictable. It does a good job of keeping the stakes high and the curiosity of where the story will take you.

Overall, it’s a good listen. It was a great performance by Christopher Lane.

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Show was better :(

Revisado: 11-26-20

90% of the time, the book is better, but in this case I found that the Netflix show was much more enjoyable. The show took the characters and made them more believable and likable. For instance, Dash’s good friend Boomer is annoyingly stupid in the book, but the show makes him into a real human. The show also wrangles in Dash’s obnoxious and pretentious personality to make him more approachable. Lily comes off as too childish in the book and much more realistic in the show. Also, how the show deals with her childhood trama is much more relatable and heartbreaking.

The book was good in a goofy don’t take serious type of way, but the show caught all the cuteness of the book and developed it more believably and only cut the over the top scenes. The flow of the show was just better.

The narrators did a good job, but the way Ryan Gesell narrated Lily’s dialogue made me hate her. Tara Sands did a good job of Dash’s dialogue.

Overall, the book was enjoyable enough. I can’t decide if I will just wait for season two or listen to book two.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Interesting enough

Revisado: 11-15-20

It was a good story and great performance. The ending was a little underwhelming, but it fit the narrative. It’s a good listen.

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As good as my childhood

Revisado: 04-03-20

I grew up with Harry Potter, and even now as I approach 30, it’s still delightful.

My mother and I read the first 5 books together, as in out loud to one another, so it is a nice way to reconnect with my childhood listening to these. The performance is much better than ours.

Whether you’re returning to or coming for the first time, the Harry Potter saga is one of great entertainment. I’m excited to see if the fourth is still my favorite all these years later.

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Never saw the movie

Revisado: 09-12-19

I have never seen the movie. Of course I know of all the iconic scenes and lines, but I had never sat down to watch it.

This book was great. The writing isn’t the most skillful, there is some cringe inducing racism and sexism, but that is the story, so you can’t really be mad that the author was true to the characters. The story is what is good. Intense. Grips you.

The performance was the greatest aspect of it.

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Good concept, cheesy story, okay performance

Revisado: 08-30-19

The great thing about this book is that it’s aware of its own cheesiness. Overall, it was an enjoyable listen. The guy doing the reading was great at the narrator’s character, but the other characters were a bit cringeworthy. Attempts at accents would come in and out of the story regularly. But the main character was done perfectly.

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Great concept, too kiddie

Revisado: 08-23-19

I wanted to really like this story. Being that I grew up in SoCal and droughts are becoming normalcy, I loved the concept. However, this is truly a young adult book. I was hoping for a YA book that was going to toe the line between YA and more adult themes, but it toed the line between YA and children’s fiction. It was a bit too innocent at times for the world it was depicting, which is part of the story, that this young innocent girl has to go through a harrowing experience.

This concept could go endless directions, but it went a direction for a younger audience, which is good, but not what I was hoping for.

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Good enough to go for the second book

Revisado: 04-20-19

At first I almost didn’t get this audio book because the narrator seemed annoying, but in the end Dotrice really grew on me and did a good job with characters for the most part.

I haven’t watched the show, but everyone raves about it, so I figured I would listen to the book and maybe check the show out eventually. It took me a while to finish this book because for the longest time I hated all the characters and was just hoping they would all die, haha. Eventually some grew on me, then they died. The ending was enough to prompt me to go for the second one.

It gets to be a bit much at times following all the characters.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but the story isn’t one that grips me like others have.

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