Cover Image: I Am Not Thirteen

I Am Not Thirteen

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Member Reviews

A.O. Monk's I Am Not Thirteen presents a gripping and suspenseful narrative that delves into the intricacies of time travel and the profound consequences of altering one's fate. Amy Snowberger's journey through time serves as a catalyst for redemption and a chance to rewrite the tragic events that have shaped her life. As she grapples with the opportunity to change the course of history, she is confronted with the daunting challenges posed by a sinister cult and a relentless pursuit to shape the future according to their twisted vision.

The novel skillfully navigates the complexities of time travel and its impact on the fabric of reality, offering readers a tantalizing blend of suspense and intrigue. Monk's adept storytelling and compelling character development create a vivid and immersive reading experience that keeps readers engaged and invested in Amy's journey of self-discovery and redemption.

While the novel successfully maintains a gripping pace and a suspenseful plot, a moderate deduction from a perfect rating is attributed to certain pacing elements that could have been further streamlined to ensure a more seamless narrative flow. Additionally, some aspects of the plot could have been further developed to provide a more comprehensive exploration of the intricacies of time travel and its implications on the characters' lives.

In conclusion, I Am Not Thirteen is a captivating and thought-provoking read that delves into the complexities of fate, redemption, and the consequences of altering the past. A.O. Monk's skillful blend of suspense and time-travel elements creates a compelling narrative that resonates with readers long after the final page. With its intriguing premise and well-crafted plot, I Am Not Thirteen stands as a testament to the author's ability to craft an engaging tale that navigates the complexities of time and the enduring power of second chances.

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I loved the use of scifi, horror and time travel, it really added to my enjoyment of the story. The plot was beautifully done and I enjoyed getting to know the characters.

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One day Amy Snowberger wakes up and finds that she is no longer her 26 year old self but has gone back in time to inhabit her 13 year old body while still possessing her 26 year old mind. She then has to negotiate the surprisingly dangerous world of being 13 when your mum seems determined to send you to a special school in the wilderness and when people keep going missing and you are somehow at the epicentre of it all, while trying to uncover the mysteries behind how she has travelled through time.

As with any time travel based story, it was always at risk of getting very confusing, and if I'm honest I haven't the foggiest idea what was going on in terms of a coherent plot, nor were the characters particularly rounded and memorable, and yet I didn't dislike it because some parts of it were written really well.

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To label this book a time-travel story would do it a huge disservice. I am not Thirteen is so much more. It's a thought-provoking thriller with mystery overtones. The places and events mentioned are so vividly described, you feel as if you are right in the thick of things.

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I'm hooked. Amy is attached by her strung-out sister on the night before her 26th birthday. During her escape she is struck by a car and ends up in the hospital. Upon her release, her best friend takes her home to her mother's house and they decided to hold a sleep-over, just like the good-ole-days. That's the end of normalcy.

When she wakes up it is her birthday, her 14th birthday, her father is alive, (which is a dream come true), and her sister is not hooked on drugs. The down side is she is stuck in middle school with the same people who were mean to her the first time. She sees her best friend, who hates her. They only become friends in high school.

I couldn't put it down. She has to realize it is not a dream. She has to face middle school and people not knowing the adult her. She has to face her clean and loving sister knowing what she becomes.

I was given the opportunity to read this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Amy is an adult who lives a life like most adults. She has a job, not over her ex, and ends up in the hospital due to a car crash. When she wakes later she is home with her family and she has a birthday where she will be 13 years old. There is only one problem as she is really 26 years old. Amy doesn’t know what ha caused her to go back in time. She doesn’t want to be 13 years old again. Amy wants to be 26 not a teenager.

The novel is not a time travel story as one usually thinks of it being as in most novels. Amy goes through a path of seeing people she knows but doesn’t recognize them at first. It is an adventure with mystery, a cult (at least I think it is even though it lacks some of a cult’s habits) and trying to come to terms with the people she loves and herself. In some ways, its not an easy book to read so I didn’t give it 5 stars.

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You know those synopsis that just completely hooked you? This is the case for me for this book. A premise of an adolescent woman that suddenly goes back in time when she was 13. I love that premise so much and very excited to read this. But unfortunately this book was not a hit for me.😑

This book centers on Amy when she goes back in time when she was just a measly 13 year old teen. It features her life and her family and people from her future.

This book has time travel, cult, religion and a bit of fantasy on it (which doesn't make sense to me). It also tackles family, mental health issues and tw for mention of substance abuse.

It has lots of concepts on one book that made a very chaotic read for me. I actually felt disconnected to the story and the characters. Scenes and settings are changing abruptly and confused me a lot. I also have issues with the characters as they are not making sense to me especially Leah.😒

It has a promising concept but unfortunately me and this book didn't clicked.

***Thanks to the publisher and author for making this book available for review via Netgalley.***

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I have been trying to finish reading this book for a full month, but haven't made it past chapter 6.

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This book starts with a very relatable but miserable life with the usual pains that come with adult life, she ends up in a car crash and somehow wakes up 13 again. She has to work her way through some of her biggest struggles, avoiding them, embracing them, ignoring them. I quite enjoyed this book.

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This book had a great idea behind it and should have been really good. However, I felt it was very disjointed at times and I was really confused about what was going on. Too many times I had to re read sections because they didn’t make sense (and even then they still didn’t make sense). It didn’t really seem to end properly either, like it came to no proper conclusion.

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In 2016, we meet Amy Snowberger, on the day before her birthday, as she is being held at knifepoint by her older sister, Leah, who is an addict. Escaping from her sister, she meets her best friend, Casssie, and they head to the home of her mother, who is living alone after the death of Amy’s father many years ago.

She wakes up on the morning of her birthday to find that while she has her mind and memories of her adult self in 2016, she is in the body of herself at age 13. What’s more, her father is very much alive. At first, she thinks it might be a dream, but when the dream shows no signs of ending, she panics and tries to run away from home, hoping the shock will end the dream and bring her back to 2016. Instead she finds herself in a questionable part of town where she encounters Claude Belissan, a man who might know more about her strange predicament than he is willing to admit.

Meanwhile, there are other challenges. Upset with her for running away, Mum threatens to send her to rehab camp.

Amy has the benefit of future knowledge regarding some of her classmates, but that doesn’t make middle school any less of a challenge. Eager to learn more and to find a way back to her real time, Amy’s investigation leads her to a man named Sebastian Spars whose grandiose dreams of being able to forge alternate realities were nurtured by his daughter Beatrice, who went on to run her own cult. And one of Amy’s close family members was a prominent member of that cult.

Eventually the cult loses steam, as Beatrice warns, We must not turn our eyes away from the stars to gaze adoringly at streetlights.


The story is presented in the first person present tense PoV of Amy, in 2003 and 2016.

There is a lot of psychaedelia, hippie culture, cultism and time travel, which is confusing for a while. The story is so complicated that I can’t say anything without giving away spoilers. All I can say is that like Amy, we struggle, sharing her confusion, as we try to figure out what glitch has caused her to return to 2003 and why the year itself is markedly different from the 2003 of her past, in which her father died as a result of unhealthy eating.

The chapters are named oddly, so there is no correlation between them, or so it seems. Ultimately, there was a resolution, just not the kind I had been hoping for. But the disappointment was offset by these words:

Tempus edax rerum - time, devourer of all things. Every blade of grass will die, replaced or not replaced by another... And then what? Soon this planet will be void of life, spinning through empty space, without a soul to disturb its mountains, winds, and empty waters.

Only that isn't it -- not really. There is another force, above or outside of time, creating and recreating all things seen and unseen. An eternal negation of temporal decay... It's in the roses planted on a grave, the bees that feed from those roses, the honey and the honeycomb. It's in every creature's will to live and to make life.

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Amy is an adult and does not have an easy life. Her job is decent, an X she wishes she could forget (we all have one) and not too much hope for her future. But then she has a car crash and wakes up to being 13! Is this a dream or a new reality? Amy has to relive some of the most traumatic times in her life. What does she have to do to get back to her present?

This was not what I expected but still found it a compelling and gripping read. It had some elements of time travel similar to "The Time Travel's Wife" but also had paranormal and suspense elements. You cannot just call this time travel book, it is so much more than that. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this. I would definitely read more by this author. Loved the creepy cover, it was suiting for sure.

Recommended because it is freaky, suspenseful and haunting but not in the typical way.

Thanks to Netgalley, AO Monk and Books Go Social for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 3/3/21

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This book was a wild ride! I enjoyed it a lot. The writing is strong and the story is compelling. I was hoping for an explanation of the supernatural mystery part, but even without it, I was satisfied with the ending. Very well done.

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If you like stories like Big, or 13 Going in 30, you might like this. However, there are parts of this story where you as the reader may feel confused as the main character about some of the trippy things that happen in this time travel story. Though I usually hate narratives with letter or diary excerpts, these were interesting. Overall, however, I found the mystery underwhelming after spending so much crime seeking answers.

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This is not my go-to genre (supernatural), but I sometimes dip into it. That may be why I didn't enjoy this a much as regular readers of this kind of tale, in addition to probably being too old for it (my fault). But it did make me pensive at times, and I enjoyed the writing style. The author has a good imagination and also created some good suspense along the way. Recommended for thriller fans.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

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The basic plot is that 26 year old Amy wakes up as her 13 year old self.

The author realistically depicts the nightmare of having to relive middle school. There are questions raised, but not necessarily resolved, about time travel.. By reliving the past, can Amy affect the future? The plot pertaining to time travel is murky. A cult from the 1960s discovers how to achieve it at the behest of its leader.

I felt that I was older than he target audience. I didn't get some of the author's more obscure (to me) cultural references. In turn, that made it more difficult to relate to the book.

I received a free copy of this book. I am leaving my honest review

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Amy is thrown back into age 13. This is a captivating story of teen-aged angst, paranormal events, and relationships.

I loved it - I found it compelling . . . finished it in one day. A few hours.

The feelings, the characters, all pulled me in, wishing there was more.

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Time travel + middle school + dreams + drugs + cults = what? Well, a pretty strange story that starts in 2016, goes back to to 2003 with glimpses of 1967. Can knowing the future change it? Can being twenty-six change your thirteen-year old self. Junior high is a mess by nature, but supernaturally, it’s even stranger.

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