Cover Image: The Psychology of Time Travel

The Psychology of Time Travel

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I liked the story. Very light and funny. This is a good book to read during the weekend or during a travel. I wished to see more leadership of certain characters and more details of the scientific process.

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The main characters are strong, brilliant, independent women. While I can't say that I absolutely loved the book the story was intriguing. It is uniquely different from the cliched time travel stories,
I found myself coming back to the story frequently to see what would happen next. It was a totally unexpected experience in time travel stories and a fantastic tip of the hat to feminist fiction. The morals and ethics around time travel that are explored were quite thought-provoking and a bit controversial. That being said I am not certain that it is a book that I could I recommend to everyone in my personal circle,

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*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***


I feel obliged to start off this review with an admission. Anyone who has read my background or even some of my reviews will know straight away that I am a HUGE sucker for Time Travel stories, I just love them!! This one was unique and did not disappoint. The Psychology of Time Travel is many things but it is glaring a mixed bag of genres that will resonate with many demographics. These include: Mystery, Science Fiction, Feminist Fiction, LGBT friendly, and of course Timey Wimey bits. Warning: This book might not be for you if you are using it as a sleep aid or to zone out. There are some potential sticky spots like the chapters jumping around eras/dates and POVs which can get a bit muddled with who is connected to whom and when major events take place BUT in the end it is pretty easy to suss out if you're paying attention.

This book is most decidedly pro female with almost no male characters in sight. The women depicted are not only interesting but absolutely brilliant! The plot is rife with hot topics like various mental health issues and hope to deal with them in extremely high stress situations, Love relationships of all forms, Death, Time Travel and its unlimited possibilities/ messy bag of entanglements. How are paradoxes avoided? How are Time Traveler crimes overseen, investigated and persecuted? How are various relationships navigated when two people are from two different era? Etc...

The world development was unique and extremely interesting. The relationships were written quite well and felt genuine, so much so I shed a non allergy related tear near the end at Grace's gift to Ruby... the last reveal was sweet as well. The antagonist was robotic yet dastardly and vile and the Protagonist? Well, there were a few but all the different voices joined together nicely which is a tricky thing to pull off with so many differing POVs. I will say that there was A LOT crammed into this Who-Done-It which, being overly complex may or may not have worked to its advantage. Personally, I enjoyed it.

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The premise of this story is unique and fascinating: four women in the 60s discover time-travelling and fifty years later they, their relatives and lots of other wonderful women still have to deal with the repercussions of what went down around the time of the discovery.

The Psychology of Time Travel is a really interesting book from start to finish. I find the concept so unique and it was just so enjoyable to try and piece together what happened or what is going to happen. This book asks questions I have never read a book about: What effects does time-travel have on the travellers? How can you solve a crime without changing history?

While I loved the concept a lot I, however, didn't quite love the execution as much. I never felt particularly connected to the story and the plot was interesting but not really gripping and lacked in drive and stakes. I also had some problems with how time-travel works in this novel. It never got explained how certain things work or how the Conclave is able to have such a huge unquestioned authority and I really missed these explanations.

Also, while all women in this novel are fascinating and diverse and I loved reading about their different roles and reactions, many times I couldn't understand their reasoning and choices at all. I felt like the characters have such a huge potential but this potential isn't turned into actual development too often.

Still, I had a good time reading this novel and it certainly offered a very interesting perspective on time-travel and its effects.

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First, I would not class this as a thriller. It's got a bit of intrigue, and it's definitely scifi/fantasy, but there weren't many moments when I found myself in any sort of suspense. That said, this is a really well written and engaging novel, and I don't think I've ever read a book that so aptly matched its title. Yes, this is about the psychology of time travel, in a different version of our world, where it's done so regularly that it's not uncommon to run into multiple versions of yourself revisiting milestones in your own life. There is a mystery, but it's examined like everything else, as though it were in a lab, being discussed, and walked through, and it develops and comes to closure in a very calm way. I liked it, quite a lot, and I loved how she went into the ways time travel can affect people - from Bee, one of the founding developers, to her family and those around her. Glad I read it, and would recommend, if you're looking for a relaxing, yet interesting, book.

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Thank you to Crooked Lane for allowing me to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

This book has the perfect title as so much of the story deals with how different people cope with the realities of time travel. Does time travel 'cause' mental health issues or just enhance underlying issues already present? Not many people think about what it would do to someone's thinking to move forward and backward in time, knowing information (good or bad) about those we love.

Margaret, Grace, Lucille and Barbara are the four scientists who invent time travel. The affects of time travel are different on each of them, both good and bad. When a woman is murdered in mysterious circumstances we learn more details about these four women and those they love. This story is very challenging as there are times when multiple versions of the four women are present, and there is a multitude of characters, timelines, and nicknames, last names, as well as first names used interchangeably. This makes for a very challenging read. The author does a good job of interconnecting the characters in unexpected ways. That being said, there is not a huge amount of scientific jargon to drag you down in trying to understand the specifics behind the time travel device.

The surprising part of this story line is that the women make this discovery in the late 60s (!) and the device becomes a common entity within society requiring detectives, currency, litigation courts, spin off products, etc.

I loved the appendix showing the psychology test used to score potential time traveller employees. I loved the addition of a glossary defining some of the time travel words. Both were additions the author did not need to include but made for a richer story.

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ARC provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I finished this book, all I could think was that I’d just read the literary equivalent of an ouroboros - the snake that devours its tale.

Very clever, this is the kind of book that you have to keep reading to let all the pieces fall into place.

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This is a (real) tough one for me.

Four women of science, the pioneers of time travel. Whats not to love,
I really like back and forth chapters. Chapters that flip between characters or timelines. In this case the book goes back and forth between characters and timelines, so you need to pay attention to that. Among the four pioneers is Barbara, right away I felt almost protective of Barbara, (which is unexplainable because she is not a weak character. ) In the future timelines you will meet Barbaras granddaughter Ruby. I guess you could consider her the protagonist in this story. There is a clear mystery to be solved, and fighting crime is tough in a seemingly endless number of timelines.

Right off the bat, I love the cover, it is what initially drew me to this book, and once you get into the book you see how the cover ties into the story.

The book started out really strong, it grabbed me. I thought for sure this was going to be a 5 star book.
It was fast moving, it kept my interest, I loved the characters, I cared about the characters ... and then, it was over.
There was no big climax, no shocking twist. It was just done, I think because the book had such a strong beginning, I raised my expectations, started holding the book to a higher standard, maybe thats not fair, not all great books need a twist. but I felt it was just missing something.

This book had the potential to be great... no amazing, I saw myself talking about it to my friends, I was already writing a glowing review in my head, at the risk of sounding dramatic, this book broke my heart.
Had it been just "ok" throughout, this would not be such a tough review to write, but like I said, it started so strong, so I expected more. The fact that it fell short at the end is a real disappointment. I just wish there had been more, I wanted so much more from this book.

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I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the review copy. All opinions are my own and not influenced by the publisher. 

Mascarenhas' debut novel is so delightfully fun! Reading the blurb, you'd expect the mystery to be the main thrust of this novel, and while it is certainly a major focal point, there's so much else going on that the mystery ends up feeling like a bonus. The novel has several POV characters in several different timelines, but Mascarenhas has made it fairly easy for the reader to keep the various characters straight.

The story begins with Ruby's "Granny Bee," or Barbara, in the 1960's as she and her colleagues are putting the finishing touches on their newly developed time travel technology. Barbara suffers a mental health crisis which seemed to have been triggered by time travel, and she is ousted from the group to prevent bad PR. If the public at large gets wind of a link between mental illness and time travel this early in the game, their careers will be over before they've truly begin. Barbara's contributions are swept under the rug and her colleagues rush onward to fame and fortune without her.

Fast forward to modern day, and the Conclave founded by Granny Bee's former friends now operates on its own terms, outside the laws of the land. The logic for this is that laws change over the years and that a time travel organization necessarily needs a constant set of a rules. Sound logic, perhaps, but an organization policing itself is dicey at best. The Psychology of Time Travel is as much about the corrupt politics of the Conclave and the twisted mindsets of long-term time travelers as it is about the mystery.

Mascarenhas asks what death would mean to a seasoned time traveler and explores that in this novel. If your father dies, but you can hop into a time machine and go on visiting him anyway, does he seem dead to you? Why should he seem any more or less alive than any other person if you can travel hundreds of years into the future and then pop back to 1973 later on that day? What happens to you when the only death that truly feels final is your own? And what happens if you already know the date and circumstances of that death?

The Psychology of Time Travel is a science fiction story wrapped in a thought experiment and tied together with a murder mystery. It features multiple female scientists as prominent characters and gives great attention to diversity. The world building is phenomenal and the story is infinitely engaging. I look forward to seeing what Mascarenhas writes next!

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This was an interesting take on time travel with some mystery/thriller thrown in. I enjoyed the book, but was confused in some parts. It only took flipping back a couple of pages to remedy that.

Overall, a well written book with excellently detailed characters. I totally recommend it.

"I would like to thank the author/publisher/Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review"

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The Psychology of Time Travel appeared (due to the letter from the author) a story about strong women in physics and how their contributions have been constantly side-lined. That this story was to help acknowledge real role models for women in science.

The story follows the time - travelling life of four women; Barbara, Grace, Margaret and Lucille. These fantastically deep woven characters develop the first time travelling device with the help of their lab mascot (aka, first animal test subject) Patrick the Rabbit. At started off as a light, at points funny read un-winded into a dark, murderous story which flashes back from future to past to present.

This story was a great read, although I found that it was less to do with female empowerment within a scientific field to a group of women trying to fight for fairness under the narrsasistic Conclave president Margaret while trying to uncover the identity of a murder victim and murderer. I found it become very complicated towards the end with multiple character back stories and future stories etc. And I felt the story then just finished? Although I enjoyed a majority of the story, I felt that it just lacked something personal?

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This book is something rarely seen in the literary world, The title itself was enough to intrigue me and the synopsis sold me on the story. I didn't have too high of an expectation though, so it totally blew me away.

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This is a delightful exploration of the power of the female intellect, the achievements of female scientists and a great mystery to boot. It tells the intertwining stories of Barbara, one of the four pioneers of time travel, her grand daughter, Ruby who finds herself entangled with a time traveller and Odette, the museum volunteer who finds a body and must investigate the crime. What I really enjoyed about the prose was the matter of fact quality to the story telling. Time travel is a fact, it was invented in the 1960s by these four pioneering women and the world has progressed with these facts since that time. So the world of the book is just like our own, with a little tweak. I thought that the characters were compelling and that their interactions were authentic, although I did feel that of the pioneers, Lucille was given a little bit of short shrift. The unravelling of the mystery plot was really well done and although it was a little predictable, the nature of the narrative meant that this wasn't an issue - in fact, I'm not altogether sure that we weren't meant to know who done it from the start! All in all, I found this to be a very enjoyable read and would recommend it to anyone who knows how boss women really are.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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Didn't care for this book, the science very vague, the characterizations not well presented. and the different plot lines were not well handled.

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This is a touching story about four women who pioneered the invention of time machine in 1967 and how their lives were affected by it. It was a refreshing story for almost all of the characters were women and it transcends genres, too. There were elements of science fiction, historical fiction, as well as a bit of mystery and crime investigation thrown in this book.

It's alternately set in the past, present and near future. And it's quite interesting how characters from the future are living and breathing and working in the same era wherein their present selves were either still children or yet to be born. I particularly liked the idea of being in varying time periods at once as illustrated in this scene:
"All Grace Taylors are off site today,"
"Is she in this period?"
"Yes, two of them are, but only until tomorrow morning."
"Can I make an appointment to see Grace when she's back?"
"There's no availability in her diary for three months."

Seriously, how amazing would that be?! Another enjoyable component in this novel is how meeting your past or future will not result in terrible deaths of either versions of you. This book explores the time travelers' adaptation to the idea of death, but not necessarily theirs.

It was quite fun to read though you shouldn't expect to see action until the last quarter of the book. I also liked how it was written, especially the alternating points of views. Which reminds me of the line uttered by a character's silver self: "A relationship between equals isn't possible if one person has all the knowledge,"

All in all, I pretty much enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more of the author's work in the future.

An ARC was provided for through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review; Thank you!

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Thankyou to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Kate Mascarenhas for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The Psychology of Time Travel.
I found the book to be an enjoyable read. The storyline was woven together beautifully and the central characters were well developed and engaging. The description promised a lot and I thought it certainly delivered.
Definitely well worth a read.

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MY REVIEW:

"We need fictional and real role models for women in science."

The year is 1967. Margaret, Barbara, Grace and Lucille are all very different women, but they have one massive commonality - together they discovered time travel.

"Margaret was a baroness turned cosmologist. Lucille had come from the Toxteth slums to make radio waves travel faster than light. Grace - who never gave the same account of her history twice - was an expert in the behaviour of matter. And the last was Barbara: the baby of the group.. She specialized in nuclear fission. All four women were combining their knowledge in a new, and unique, project."

When they were ready to debut their time machine to the Press, one of the women has a breakdown on national television. The others force her off the team to protect what they see as the integrity of their invention. Of course, this means that despite her contributions, one woman is left in obscurity while the other three team members go on to become famous.

Fast forward fifty years. Time travel has become BIG business.

Someone leaves a mysterious newspaper clipping for Ruby Rubello's "Grandma Bee," (Barbara who was the woman forced off the original team) Ruby becomes obsessed with the information contained in that article. This leads to fascinating and sometimes sinister events. 

Because this is a time travel novel, it skips between multiple people and multiple years. It could easily have become confusing and difficult to follow for the reader, but author Kate Mascarenhas has somehow kept that from happening.

What I love the most about THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TIME TRAVEL is the fact that all the lead characters are female and, not only that, but they are from varying races and of diverse sexuality.

Despite the fact that this is her debut novel, the author is able to keep the story flowing perfectly despite multiple characters and multiple timelines which would be a challenge for even a seasoned author. This bodes well for her future projects and I can't wait to discover what she comes up with next.

I rate this book as 4 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and I recommend it to readers who love a good mystery as well as those who are interested in time travel and in books containing strong female characters

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3.5 stars

This was an ambitious and interesting book. There are a lot of characters and different timelines and it sometimes got confusing but it was still an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC.

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The Psychology of Time Travel represents a fascinating thought experiment in how the use of time travel technology would effect the personalities and personal relationships of time travelers. A complex, non-linear narrative rich in interesting characters facing difficult choices is woven around a linear chain of events involving the protagonist. Along the way, the author portrays some pretty intricate details regarding the practical implications of time travel for such aspects of modern life such as money and law. Underneath an unfolding murder mystery and related plot twists that consume the reader, the author provides a profound exploration of the fragility of life and the power of love.

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In her debut novel, Kate Mascarenhas tells a beautifully woven story with an all female cast. In the late 1960's four women scientists create a time travel machine, and their lives are completely changed in an instant. They're given government funding to build the same thing only bigger, and it really changes how the whole world operates around them. One scientist in particular though, has a hard time dealing with the difference, and suffers a mental breakdown on television while being interviewed. Barbara is then taken into a mental hospital, diagnosed with manic depression, and forgotten about, and never even given any credit in the project. That is, until her granddaughter Ruby takes it upon herself to understand more of what happened. In this intricate book, the viewpoints not only switch between many generations of characters, but also different years, decades in between the last.

I just want to say how much I absolutely loved reading this book, I was drawn in by how different the cover was compared to other books, and the description just leapt out at me. If you loved the Time Traveler's Wife, you're going to love this book. Not only is it a time travel tale, but it's also a murder mystery, and I couldn't put it down for a second. I loved how much the world changed around them because of their invention, not only did it allow people to go back and forth in time to visit past and future loved ones, but it created jobs around it as well. Could you imagine if your career had a time travel aspect to it? Instead of commuting to work, you would be going maybe twenty years into the future to do your job.

My favourite quote in the book would have to be when Ruby is watching old videos of a time travelling lawyer named Fay, and in the last video she says, "When you're a time traveler, the people you love die, and you carry on seeing them, so their death stops making a difference to you. The only death that will change things is your own." It's just so interesting to me, being indifferent to death enough that going to a loved ones funeral is just another thing on your to-do list for the day. The book is very easy to read, and easy to follow, even with all the characters switching around so much. I definitely recommend you checking it out if you get the chance.

Thanks for reading!
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

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