by Margarita Montimore
1000 points for creativity!
I am a huge sucker for time travel stories and this one was super unique! Our main character, Oona, begins to time travel as a teenager. The trigger? New Year’s Eve. At the stroke of midnight every New Year’s Eve, she jumps to a different year in her life and stays there to live out the year, but like the title says, every year is out of order.
This set up makes so many things possible, and the author makes full use of her creativity! I love how every January first, Oona either meets new people, suffers new consequences of behavior she hasn’t acted out yet, or jumps into an adventure she did not plan. I loved the rollicking adventure, the comedy and sometimes the pain.
I did not always love Oona. Music plays a huge role in her life and in this book, but the music is not my cup of tea. I KNOW it would make this book an amazing experience for people who know and love that kind of music, but I could not experience that extra layer myself. Montimore created a playlist to go along with the story, so check that out and see if you love it. I know it will make some readers super happy!
Another thing about Oona, is that she makes terrible choices. The author did a brilliant job at making me root for her to make good choices, but Oona failed me at many turns. However, if I think about living a normal life on a normal timeline, I often fail myself by making bad decisions. Add in the stress of time travel and losing control of her life, I think the choices the author presents are definitely true to Oona’s character.
Overall, this book is worth the read because of its uniqueness. So many lovely little things happen because of the time travel. I wish I liked the character more, but that is probably a vain wish that she was more like me. The story is a wild romp. You can find it here.
Content: graphic sex, drug use, lots of language (i.e. lots of skipping down the page for me and some may want to avoid the audio version)