This is a really interesting premise - a trans man living in the city runs into some stumbling blocks with work and friends, and decides to return home to his small town for a while to regroup. When he gets there, some magical realism means that when he walks into the bookstore he once worked in, he meets his younger pre-transition teenage self.

It's an interesting idea. Unfortunately I think it's let down by the main character being too self-absorbed to be likeable. And somehow the most unlikely thing about this book isn't the bookshop time-travel ... It's this grown man hovering around a teenager and asking them way too many odd questions and having them find it awkward but not weird or creepy.

3/5 for an interesting idea and some decent character growth - but loses some points for the awkwardness and lack of self-awareness.

It’s an air of melancholy that hangs around the pages of Edward Underhill’s new novel. A lot of internal ruminations reminiscent of a brooding teen doodling on their schoolbook. As a reader of YA I’m used to seeing this in the protagonist, but usually there is a light air of youth about it that keeps the prose from feeling maudlin. Not so much here. In fact spending too much time in Darby’s head was somewhat of a downer for me, but thankfully we did have his Mum around to help balance out those scales. So going into this book you need to know that, otherwise there might be a lot of DNFs if you’re expecting something more akin to Matt Haig’s “The Midnight Library”.

At the start of the book, we’re given a brief introduction to an established friend group on a night out in Manhattan. A diverse and interesting collection of thirtysomethings. We soon learn that one of them, Darby, has lost his job and is considering moving home before he is evicted from his apartment. On his return home to visit his mother he stops by an old bookshop he worked at and sees a younger version of himself behind the counter. This sudden plot twist looked like it was the beginning of a sliding doors moment where Darby gets the chance to influence his younger self and change the course of his future. Sadly though it wasn’t. It was just the beginning of chapters and chapters of introspection, with incremental movements forward in slow character development.

The thing is the writing is actually not that bad. Its the pacing, the plot, and the character growth that did not work for me. I didn’t need the story to be too complex or over dramatic, but I needed something to engage me. With this type of writing you’ve got to care enough about the character to stick with them on this type of slower journey. Be invested enough in them to seek out the minutest of changes in their personality within the text. But if it’s not there for you then a book like this is going to be very hard going. And that’s how it was for me. As a central character I did not warm to Darby, and I really wanted to see him change and grow much earlier in the book. And although there was some change, it was too subtle for me. However, if you find a connection with the character, then I can imagine this book being somewhat of a warm blanket to cuddle up with. A chance to spend some time with someone whose company you enjoy. These books definitely have an audience, and they’re definitely more effective when you’re in the right mindset to receive them. Sadly I don’t think I’m that person.