I enjoyed it at first, but I kept putting it down and never picked it back up again.

I felt there were too many characters and didn't feel invested to learn more about them. I was 49% through when I stopped reading. I might pick it back up in the future, start from the beginning again, but not at the moment. But, as always, thank you to Net Galley for allowing me early access

Time Travel. It is diverse, it is complex, and it is limitless. When Time Travel is in a novel, it can take you anywhere. It can be historical, and futuristic. It can be dangerous, and fun. You can pick the good times, or blindly leap into the unknown. That being said, The Psychology of Time Travel was an interesting read. Triapsing through diverse ideas, playing with the very construct of reality. Kate Mascarenhas has constructed a gem of a piece, that is by focusing on the psychological impacts of such magnificence, shes opened the already limitless idea of Time Travel and made it more. It is realistic, and fantastical enough to leave the reader hooked and wanting more. | Spoilers |In this novel, we see four women inventing time-travel in the 1960's. After using this miraculous machine, one of the women (Barbara) loses her mind. She struggles with the mundane, unable to form a coherent sentence. After this is discovered on live television, the women disown Barbara in an attempt to retain their scientific credibility. Their research, concludes that Barbara as someone susceptible to mental illness, was open to the detrimental effects that time-travel can result in. As a result their tests are rigorous, ensuring that the candidates for time-travel are psychologically sound, and not weak-minded. In writing this, Kate Mascarenhas jumps through perspective. Perspectives jump across people, areas and time. As the novel progress', it does so with the added boost of the discovery of a dead body circa 2017. With something as fundamentally world-changing as time-travel, how does one find a murderer. Adding another spanner to the works, this women is a Jane Doe. Not a single iota of identification is found on, or near her body. She's so badly damaged that she could be anyone. By anyone, we are literally talking about anyone. You could have jumped through time - a future you - and committed this murder. You wouldn't know. Discovering this murder, and perhaps investigating something in relation could be what leads you to commit this murder. It really acts as provocation for some rhetorical thinking. Shall we ignore the mind-boggling intricacies of what-if, and the very really potential of this technology already existing and this situation being something that could happen? I digress.Kate Mascarenhas, a intelligent women with a PHD in Literary studies, and Psychology adds an interesting dimension to the novel. Her academic background lends brilliance, and imagination. It leant enough structure that the messiness of the plot did not detract from the overall story-line. Despite this, Kate Mascarenhas has created a well-throughout, provoking novel with themes that traipses the normal boundaries of time travel and make it more.

Great concept and an enjoyable story. Glad to see women with intelligence and determination highlighted in a science based novel. Will recommend to others.

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I loved this book so much!!!!!!!!!! Time travel, women in STEM, and a murder mystery. This book is literally made for me to enjoy. All of those words are my buzzwords for things that will get me to pick up a book. I'm excited to read more from this author in the future and can't wait to see what's next!!!!!

I love time travel stories but this one felt different than others I've read due to the focus on the 4 women rather than the journey of time travel. The 4 women are scientists and their lives and relationships are scattered across different parts of time. There's even a murder thrown in that one of the women tries to solve which I found interesting and unexpected. The way the novel unfolds, however, often felt messy and chaotic. I often struggled with feeling like the plot details seemed out of context or jumbled around. While I enjoyed following the women and their relationships, struggles and journey, I don't think i enjoy feeling like I have to concentrate quite so much to keep ahold of a plot. In the end, the story did come together and I appreciated how it was tied up but it wasn't the easiest reading experience

Psychology? Time travel? Pretty cover? Of course I had to read this book!

Told across a few points of view, and timelines, we learn about four female scientists who discovered time travel in 1967. And how that impacted on their minds, friendships, and relationships. Fast forward to 2017 and one of the founding time traveller's has a grand-daughter who becomes interested in an unusual murder scene.
The book jumps around a bit and it can be hard to get your mind around the whole timey-wimey part, but I thought all in all it is really enjoyable and easy to read. The mystery takes a bit of a backseat to the character development, which is totally fine by me, but it was nice to get a good explanation of the mystery (even though it is a bit mind bending too!). I also thought this would make a great start to a series, and it really is left open to learn much more about these characters - so hopefully there will be another book in the works.

I'd recommend this to anyone that enjoys time travel books which are more alternative reality rather than sci-fi, and is ok with time periods jumping and multiple characters. You just kind of need to close your eyes and go for the ride :)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

I really wanted to but couldn't get into this book. I was so optimistic about the female protagonists and the premise of the book seemed really interesting but the characters felt too forced and fell flat for me personally. DNF

This was a good book. Definitely a twist on time-travel I had not yet experienced. And the mental health consequences of a career of timeline hopping, well that was definitely an interesting layer. If you enjoy spec. fic and don't mind turning some long accepted time-travel tropes on their heads, give this book a go. Just keep an open mind....

This book is different. At some points it hit me at good vibes and disappointed at others.
It is about six girls and effect of time travel on human psychology and everything is interwined with a thrilling inquiry into a murder.
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First of all it is layered and jumps between past and present and you have to suppose a lot of things like time machine, its fuel, its research team and lots of other things.
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Everything is different and although story takes place in London, time travel corporation has its own rules..

.lt is superficial in narrative with lack of focus on minor details. Lots of stuff is left to imagination.
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There is weired law mechanism where court decides fate of accused by providing him to complete a task..

It will need a lot of focus.
But it is Innovative and different and hence will require focused reading.
Best part which is moving is chapter 40 when time travelling daughter tells a painful secret to her family..

It is a thriller with moving backgrounds which is always just behind its magic.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for review copy.

"Four women will invent time travel.
Three will make their mark on history.
Two will do anything to be remembered.
One will not survive."

I’ll be honest: I didn’t like this book nearly as much as I was hoping I would.

Don’t get me wrong, the story itself was intriguing. We follow the lives of the four women who invented time travel and forever altered society. Fifty years later, following a mysterious message that hints at a violent death in the near future, Ruby Rebello suspects that it is about her grandmother, Barbara – one of the original pioneers – and starts to investigate. Concurrent to this storyline, we also follow Odette (one year later) as she makes the initial gruesome discovery and commences an investigation of her own.

I think my main problem with this book stems from the fact that the author tried to do too much, and as a result, I don’t feel like it was as realistic as it could have been. I think it would have fared better if it was either a science fiction or a murder mystery – not both. Because of this disparity, the science fiction wasn’t science-y enough, and the mystery wasn’t as gripping as it had the potential to be. There were also too many timelines going on at the same time; I get it’s a time travel book, but still. Not only do we get a more-or-less chronological portrayal of the history of time travel – from its invention in 1967 – but we also follow Ruby in 2017 and Odette in 2018; further interspersed are accounts of other secondary characters that offer a behind-the-scenes look at time travel culture.

I did really liked the female-centric storyline and the fact that these “genius” women were able to make significant scientific strides without question. However, it was unfortunate that the author simultaneously seemed to gloss over gender and racial inequality as non-contributing factors to the story; it was as if time-travel was this convenient blanket, e.g., “Inequality is not an issue in the future, thus it is not an issue in 1967, 2017, or any other year in between or beyond” (since the Conclave existed in all times with time travel simultaneously). It was all too easy. I also felt that most of the characters were too one-dimensional: Margaret was ruthless, Barbara was naïve, Grace was mysterious, and Lucille was largely relegated to the background. Even Ruby and Odette felt flat, though I admittedly liked their characters better than the others.

Overall, I liked the story, but the execution was not as well-done as it could have been.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Publishing for a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

This was well written and an interesting story. Science Fiction is not my major reading category. It does read as a very plausible story. Starting in 1967 4 women build the first time machine. When one of the ladies begins to question their invention she is removed from the team and her name banished from all records. 50 years later Ruby begins searching for information about her Granny Bee who she knows worked on the original project. The story pops all over time which I find distracting but overall I enjoyed this book. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Time travel is confusing, very confusing. This book couples time travel, multiple points of view, and highbrow language. I spent most of this book feeling confused and stupid.
There's a story here, but it's faint; small tendrils in each of the women's chapters but not strong enough to tell the complete story. For all the different characters, there’s no character development. This book focuses on the psychological impact time travel has on people. This is more a montage of scenes seen through the different women's eyes.
3.5 stars because of the murder mystery and the fact that the last 20% ties up all the loose ends.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a sucker for all things time-travel and this title did not disappoint. There were interesting points made, new ideas introduced, and I'm still pondering and processing the possibilities. It was a delight to read and I cannot wait to add it to my personal library of time titles.

Firstly, if you are in the habit of diving in and skimming your way through a story – that reading tactic won’t work here. This is a densely written, tightly crafted book with a non-linear timeline that means you need to slow down and pay attention when reading this one. And if you approached this one, thinking that you would be in for the kind of adventurous mayhem offered by Jodi Taylor in her Chronicles of St Mary’s series – again, you’d be wrong. It’s nothing of the sort. So now we’ve got the two fundamental mistakes I committed when first approaching this one out of the way – let’s address what it is.

For once, the title is spot on – this book addresses what regular time travelling does to the travellers. Unlike most time-travelling books, this one doesn’t take us on forays into the past or future, but concentrates on a small handful of people who are profoundly affected by time travelling and follows their story. I was intrigued that some didn’t even time travel themselves – Ginger, for instance – but were connected in some way to people who did. Told in multiple viewpoint, the story weaves around a tightly-knit group for whom the ordinary rules of the universe no longer apply. Led by someone innately arrogant and entitled, Grace’s viewpoint pervades the group and anyone who disagrees with her viewpoint is forced to leave. Apparently driven by a fear that the project will be shut down on the grounds that time travel causes mental illness, Grace institutes rigorous checks, including nasty games designed to foster an indifference towards death in the travellers.

How can an outsider find a way into this group to discover details about a mysterious death? As the story jumps between the characters and different timelines, we gain an insight into the motivations and lives of a handful of women all somehow involved in the particular death, or time travelling. It is an engrossing, clever read packed with telling character details that have had me mulling over this one ever since I put it down. And, exceptionally, I’m tempted to go back and reread it – something I hardly ever do. Partly, because while I thoroughly enjoyed it and am in awe of the writing talent that is Mascarenhas – I didn’t love it. Being a rather simple soul, I need to be able to bond with at least one of the main characters and other than poor Bee – I didn’t.

I’m really sorry about that, because the other outstanding aspect of this book is that the only male characters who appear are incidental. For once, I’m reading a book where every single person who has agency and matters is a woman – I can’t tell you after growing up in the 60s and 70s what an amazing feeling that is. I just wished I cared more about at least one of these brave, powerful females. However, that doesn’t diminish the book’s importance or lessen my appreciation of the writing skill on display and I shall definitely be looking out for more by this immensely talented author. While I obtained an arc of The Psychology of Time Travel from Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
10/10

There's more to time travel than simply travelling through time. In this debut, Mascarenhas crafted a world where it becomes a big business. She explores how life evolves and how important image and perception is. She explores how new terms enter the vernacular, laws and who and how they're enforced change, and the mind processes all of it. This debut novel creates an enjoyable story blending sci-fi with mysterious moments. The characters are strong characters manage and enhance the multiple time line narratives. I look forward to more of this author's writing.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from both NetGalley and the publisher. This has not altered my opinion of the book.

This was honestly one of my most anticipated books of this year and I knew that I wanted to read it as soon as possible. There are so few books about time travel that are not full of fantastical characters in adult fiction I feel. This book really fulfilled my desire for the scientifically accurate time traveling. There are so many rules and things that I hadn't even thought of (such as decontamination and desensitizing oneself to death) but are still very important. This story was super unique and really pro just about everything. One of the main romances is between two women and the entire company is run by women scientists. In fact, it was women (and a rabbit) who first discovered time travel and created the first time machine.

The story is told in three different time zones and from many points of view, which made following it a bit difficult for me. This was only proven more confusing when the timeline umps around. I almost wish I had written out a full timeline because I got so confused at points. In all honesty, this book took me longer to get through that I had thought. This doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, it just took a lot more thought and concentration to get through.

I highly recommend this book because it is scientifically very well done and really is quite interesting. Overall, this was a well written book, but hard to follow at points. 3.5 out of 5 from me!

What a hell of a book! There's always a thirst in a good novel for the ways that the events impact the surrounding world - you want to see the effect of magic on something so ordinary as the public transit system, maybe, or how resurrection can mess with taxes and census records. Here? Where we get to see the implications of time travel not only on psychology and mental health, we get to see how it affects payroll, crime investigation, and the public at large?

I'm still thirsty, but damned if I knew for what!

Every character is deep and thrilling, each event adds another layer to a painting in progress that you never get to see until the very last page. And the romance - the /queer/ romance? Be still my heart.

I wish I could unread this book so I could take it all in again with fresh eyes. The best I can do is recommend it to everyone I know so I can witness their emotional journey through the book.

Tl;dr: most excellent, should be required reading in any college course to showcase how a braided narrative can work even as a novel (up there with the likes of V.E. Schwab!), and this is the hill I will die on.

Title: The Psychology of Time Travel
Author: Kate Mascarenhas
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

In the 1960s, four women discover time travel. After testing their machine out, one of them has a nervous breakdown on live TV, and her three friends dissociate themselves from her in order to save their own careers, blaming her episode on mental illness.

Fifty years later, her granddaughter knows Bee was involved with time travel, but they never speak of it. Until she receives a newspaper clipping from the future reporting the mysterious death of an elderly lady. A year later, the death has happened, and no one knows how. Or why. But the girl who found the body is determined to do whatever it takes to find out.

I had a hard time keeping track of the various characters in their respective timelines/ages. If a character in 2018 can go back in time and speak with her now-deceased father (or herself in that earlier time) and not change anything…it seems like time travel is a concept with no repercussions or cost, and I just can’t make that work in my mind. (I’m aware of the irony that I can allow time travel…just not time travel with no repercussions.) Solid writing, but the concepts and time-jumping just didn’t work for me.

Kate Mascarenhas is a writer and psychologist. The Psychology of Time Travel is her new novel.

(Galley courtesy of Crooked Lane books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

Great debut sci-fi novel. Kept me interested and invested the plot and characters. I liked that the 4 scientists that invent the time machine are all women! However, time travel doesn't agree with everyone and one member of the group is exiled off the project. This book tells a story from alternating perspectives while jumping through the decades. Good read!

Kate Mascarenhas' top-notch debut should be a first buy for all adult collections and a recommended purchase for high shcool media centers. A fantastic addition to any library.