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Alice In Time by Penelope Bush
The Blurb On The Back:
Things are at crisis point for fourteen-year-old Alice. Her mum is ruining her life, her dad’s getting remarried, and Sasha, the most popular girl in school, hates her guts …
Then a bizarre accident happens, and Alice finds herself re-living her life as a seven-year-old through teenage eyes – and discovering some awkward truths.
But can she use her new knowledge to change her own future?
14-year-old Alice is fed up. Her mum refuses to buy her a mobile phone, her dad’s getting remarried and her stepmum wants her to wear a hideous dress and Sasha, the most popular girl in school has made a big point of not inviting Alice to her party. It’s all so unfair. But life suddenly starts to improve when a new sixth former, Seth, shows some interest in her. So the last thing she needs is for a freak roundabout accident to send her back in time. Now she’s seeing her life as a 7-year-old through 14 year-old eyes and those eyes are being opened to some awfully awkward truths about her life …
Penelope Bush’s YA novel is essentially a ‘do-over’ tale wherein Alice is given a chance to re-evaluate who she is and everything she thinks she knows. It’s a slim plot and while the writing is fine (albeit I’m not sure that a teenager would use the word “horrid” as much as Alice does), it lacks oomph and I felt that the ending was a bit of a let down given how vile and utterly self-unaware Alice is at the start of the book. All in all it’s fine but it didn’t excite me. I would however check out Bush’s other work.
Alice is utterly self-absorbed. She dislikes her younger brother for taking up her time and not doing what she says and is only nice to her dad (who she idolises because he buys her things) and new stepmother because she hopes to move in with them. I wish there’d been more of her disagreements with her mum but I also wished that there’d been some shades of grey to her parents – the twist about the breakdown in their relationship is never in doubt. There was a hint of this in her friendship with Imogen and I wish that there’d been more of a confrontation about Imogen’s revelation but the book opts instead to skirt around it, which is a shame while the rivalry with Sasha is ho hum fare.
The ending is a bit of a missed opportunity and I’d have liked Alice to really confront herself rather than reach a gradual realisation. I also think she got rewarded for accidental changes as much as for the deliberate ones. Ultimately this is an okay read though and I’ll check out Bush’s other books.
The Verdict:
Penelope Bush’s YA novel is essentially a ‘do-over’ tale wherein Alice is given a chance to re-evaluate who she is and everything she thinks she knows. It’s a slim plot and while the writing is fine (albeit I’m not sure that a teenager would use the word “horrid” as much as Alice does), it lacks oomph and I felt that the ending was a bit of a let down given how vile and utterly self-unaware Alice is at the start of the book. All in all it’s fine but it didn’t excite me. I would however check out Bush’s other work.
Thanks to Piccadilly Press for the free copy of this book.
Things are at crisis point for fourteen-year-old Alice. Her mum is ruining her life, her dad’s getting remarried, and Sasha, the most popular girl in school, hates her guts …
Then a bizarre accident happens, and Alice finds herself re-living her life as a seven-year-old through teenage eyes – and discovering some awkward truths.
But can she use her new knowledge to change her own future?
14-year-old Alice is fed up. Her mum refuses to buy her a mobile phone, her dad’s getting remarried and her stepmum wants her to wear a hideous dress and Sasha, the most popular girl in school has made a big point of not inviting Alice to her party. It’s all so unfair. But life suddenly starts to improve when a new sixth former, Seth, shows some interest in her. So the last thing she needs is for a freak roundabout accident to send her back in time. Now she’s seeing her life as a 7-year-old through 14 year-old eyes and those eyes are being opened to some awfully awkward truths about her life …
Penelope Bush’s YA novel is essentially a ‘do-over’ tale wherein Alice is given a chance to re-evaluate who she is and everything she thinks she knows. It’s a slim plot and while the writing is fine (albeit I’m not sure that a teenager would use the word “horrid” as much as Alice does), it lacks oomph and I felt that the ending was a bit of a let down given how vile and utterly self-unaware Alice is at the start of the book. All in all it’s fine but it didn’t excite me. I would however check out Bush’s other work.
Alice is utterly self-absorbed. She dislikes her younger brother for taking up her time and not doing what she says and is only nice to her dad (who she idolises because he buys her things) and new stepmother because she hopes to move in with them. I wish there’d been more of her disagreements with her mum but I also wished that there’d been some shades of grey to her parents – the twist about the breakdown in their relationship is never in doubt. There was a hint of this in her friendship with Imogen and I wish that there’d been more of a confrontation about Imogen’s revelation but the book opts instead to skirt around it, which is a shame while the rivalry with Sasha is ho hum fare.
The ending is a bit of a missed opportunity and I’d have liked Alice to really confront herself rather than reach a gradual realisation. I also think she got rewarded for accidental changes as much as for the deliberate ones. Ultimately this is an okay read though and I’ll check out Bush’s other books.
The Verdict:
Penelope Bush’s YA novel is essentially a ‘do-over’ tale wherein Alice is given a chance to re-evaluate who she is and everything she thinks she knows. It’s a slim plot and while the writing is fine (albeit I’m not sure that a teenager would use the word “horrid” as much as Alice does), it lacks oomph and I felt that the ending was a bit of a let down given how vile and utterly self-unaware Alice is at the start of the book. All in all it’s fine but it didn’t excite me. I would however check out Bush’s other work.
Thanks to Piccadilly Press for the free copy of this book.