this was a unique setting for a young adult novel, I really enjoyed Jason as a character and the use of time travel device.

This book actually surprised me a little. I wasn’t 100% sure it would be for me, but I was impressed pretty early into the book. The portrayal of someone who has spiralled into depression was extremely accurate. The despair, the complete negativity, the apathy, lack of self esteem and distortion of their problems, taking responsibility and blame for everything that goes wrong, however small and unrelated to them. As someone who has suffered from severe depression and anxiety for 30 years, from the age of 10, I recognised a lot of the behaviours. Sometimes depression seems to be a difficult thing to write without condescension, but Mattix manages to infuse the writing with palpable despair and the exhaustion that goes along with battling through each and everyday. Jason also has injuries from an accident when he was 16, leaving him in pain with a bum hip and knee, with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), which only fuels his depression and sense of despair.

Jason begins the book preparing to commit suicide. There has just been too much tragedy in his life, from losing his father to leukaemia at the age of 5, being held responsible for an accident which ended his childhood friendship with his crush, enduring the deaths of his best friend and mother, to struggling with financial issues and an uncertain employment. His isolation is complete, with only a small glimmer of hope of budding relationship with his co-worker, Nell. His suicide is disrupted by a man appearing out of thin air and dying after landing on power cables. I really appreciated and recognised the fact that despite the fact he had been about to kill himself, the arrival of the man startled him so much he almost fell to his death. He wanted to commit suicide on his own terms, without his hand being forced. He also thinks that despite the interruption the disruption to his plan is all down to him being a screw up. Despite knowing he may well be made redundant soon, due to a large chain store stealing business from his employer, his depression makes it impossible for him to to be a conscientious and engaged employee. Due to his lack of attention he ends up losing his job when the mayor’s wife ends up in a slight accident caused by his half hearted work. His sacking causes him to be unable to drive Nell home as he promised, and she is abducted as she walks home from work. Young women have apparently been disappearing from the small town for years, including the sister, Jennifer, of his former childhood friend Laura.

When he awakes the next morning and finds out about Nell he is guilt stricken, as he blames himself because he didn’t drive her home. Nell’s disappearance starts to penetrate his depression, he realises that he may have feelings for her and is distraught at the idea of her being in danger. While he is trying to deal with Nell’s abduction and work out what he will do to make rent, he finds a small metal sphere in his pocket, which he had picked up the night before after the dead man interrupted his suicide plan. When he examines the sphere it activates and sinks beneath the skin of his arm. An AI avatar appears and explains that the sphere is a time travel device (named T.I.N.A - oooook)which the dead man stole before jumping back in time from 2244 whilst being pursued by a marshall. After a test to prove it works, he decides to jump forward a few days to get lottery numbers to ease his financial problems. The device only has a limited battery, which can’t be recharged as the technology needed doesn’t exist yet, so Jason knows he needs to plan carefully if he wants to achieve his goal to return to important moments to save his loved ones from danger, pain and death.

He goes back to the previous night and changes the circumstances which led to Nell’s abduction, which saves her, but he later finds out that a young single mother was taken instead. He decides he must try to stop the kidnapper and prevent the murders of young women with his newfound power, but not until he saves his mother’s life by getting her treatment for breast cancer earlier. He attempts to stop his best friend being killed in action in Iraq but his actions merely delay the death for a few days. Disheartened he starts to rethink how he can successfully intervene again to avert the death. Meanwhile he decides to return to the day of his accident, to prevent his TBI and other life changing injuries.

He eventually realises the only way to set everything right and goes back to age 13 in 1993, just before the point that his life started to go down hill. Once back there is a longish section of the first few months, then it sort of feels like diary entries, with important events described over the ensuing years, until he reaches the point in time that he went back. Luckily the majority of his work has solved the past problems, and his life is much more successful, but he still struggles with depression- which is so accurate for this illness. He’s also guilt stricken at having not stopped the serial killer, and tries to rationalise it by blaming his age, and believing that he did good just by saving the people he knew.

There are a few moral points raised. For example, he knows about 9/11 before it happens and toys with the idea of informing the FBI, but Tina explains the far reaching ramifications on the future if he does so. Thousand of people from the tragedy itself, their family members life plans changing, the people lost in the ensuing wars. It forces you to ask the question ‘would I change history knowing it may make a worse future?’ It’s an interesting thought provoking idea. I’ve always found the butterfly effect fascinating, and this book does it pretty well. One point that the author seems to have missed, however, is once he changes his old friend Laura’s life, he wipes out the children she had, which seems harsh and would surely effect the future heavily? Three kids who will never now live, who may have played a big part in the future, not to mention the change to the lives of their future spouses and children. This is where time travel and the butterfly effect gets complicated, and difficult to write without tying yourself up in knots. Having said that, Mattix still does an admirable job and doesn’t write himself into corners often.

This book is listed as YA but I’m not sure I’d class is as such. At a push maybe New Adult? Less because of language and mature scenes, but simply because it doesn’t ‘read’ like YA. It’s not naively optimistic, people experience trauma and the themes are a little more mature in general. I’m guessing the reasoning is that Jason goes back to relive his life from the age of 13 so is a young adult himself, maybe? Not sure. Although it does have a happy ending for the most part, so maybe it is more naively optimistic than I thought!

As I said, this book was a pleasant surprise. There are obviously some issues, as no book is perfect, but it’s one of the better time travel/sci fi stories. It’s strength for me, however, lies in the aforementioned portrayal of depression. Anyone who has suffered from mental illness will recognise a lot of the behaviours displayed by Jason. It lends a humanity to a sci fi story without ever feeling like pandering.

If you’re a sci fi/time travel fan I think this book will make a nice read. The writing is easy to digest, it’s well written and not too heavy - despite things becoming slightly more diary like, which can sometimes feel a little clunky - even with the spot on portrayal of depression, grief, disabilities and suicidal ideation. Plus the exploration of adult themes and morals. There are a couple of instances where I disliked the language and attitude towards women, I don’t think it’s particularly necessary in many books, and this one is no exception. I’m looking forward to reading more from Mattix in the future. I also think this would make an interesting film or TV series if done properly, as there is plenty to work with and doesn’t feel particularly stereotypical or cliched, despite the use of much employed sci fi staple time travel.

Jason had reached the lowest point in his life. He was broke, jobless, in constant pain and utterly alone. He has decided to put an end to it all. Then something amazing happens...he discovers time travel and it changes his life. Jason has the opportunity to do things he has only dreamed of including a chance to stop a serial killer.

I did not know what to think of Jason at the beginning of the book, as the story progressed I began to see his character change and grow into a better person. I really like the format of this book. It had straight-forward short chapters that kept moving you forward in the story. I liked how even though it was a sci-fi time travel story, it stayed down to earth in everyday life. Everyone can identify with some aspect of the story and can think of a time in their own lives that they would like to go back to and change. There was also the air of mystery and anticipation to see how things would work out...in his life changes and also with the murders.