This is shelved as dystopian speculative fiction, and it is, but what it struck me as primarily is character driven quest fiction. The friends surrounding and helping protagonist Hallie are growing and exploring the increasingly unstable timeline and trying to prevent the end of everything. The main value for me came from the character development and interaction, the scenery and descriptive prose. It's not an action packed read. The denouement is gentle, almost anti-climactic. Much of the plot centers around bar life and working conditions and rang believable and true.
I enjoyed the read, it was absolutely not what I was expecting, but it was beautifully written nonetheless. There are some slight elements of graphic body horror and descriptions. The language is R rated, but nothing extremely egregious.
As a small bit of nostalgia, the eARC of the book contains blurbs from several of the publisher's other imprints and backlist authors. I enjoyed the bonus and a couple of the blurbs appealed to me and I'll be chasing them down. It's always a good day when I find new authors to explore.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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