Book Review: Wrong Place Wrong Time

I've been thinking about this book review since I finished listening to it. It's been a while since I felt myself identify with a character like I have Jen. I'll tell you more about that shortly. One more note, this book is written by a British author. I listened to the audiobook, which was read by a British voice actor. For the last two weeks, as I have silently read documents for work, the voice in my head was British. 🤣

My Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Cons: This book isn't Christian fiction. I always like to give that disclaimer. It does have random curse words. Thankfully it's not every other sentence. It does also mention male and female body parts by name. Probably not a book I'd recommend for my middle schooler, but I wouldn't worry too much about my older high schooler reading it. He probably hears worse at school.

Pros: Characters you can identify with. Suspense. A new way of telling a story (backward!). Turns I didn't expect. All the things I love about a good novel.

My Thoughts: The night before Halloween, Jen waits up for her adult son to return home. As she watches for him, she witnesses him brutally stab and random stranger on the street. She goes to bed that night brokenhearted and scared. (Wouldn't we all?) She wakes the next morning on October 29. The day before her son stabbed someone.

Each time she goes to sleep, she wakes up further in the past. But why? Is it to stop the murder? Or to find out why the murder happened at all?

What would you do if you could travel back in time?

Jen pays closer attention to little things she didn't notice the first time around. Outside of why her son murdered this random stranger, she begins to question her parenting.

Is it her fault her son murdered a man?

Surely she wasn't much of a mother if he committed this kind of crime.

Did she not pay enough attention to things he enjoyed?

As she moves through the past she makes a conscious effort not to pick up her phone so much and to ask questions about the things her son values more.

Ah, Jen. I see you. I think every mother questions her parenting at some point if not every day.

Have we done enough? Or too much?

Do our kids know we love them?

How could we do it better if given the chance?

I don't think it's a spoiler alert to say that Jen eventually realizes that she did love her son enough. His shortcomings aren't a reflection of her parenting but rather of circumstance.