I usually like science fiction. I like the premise and usually it’s filled with mystery and some bit of suspense. I felt like nothing really happened, tho. This could have been so much better, but it is lacking and left me with a feeling of “meh”. I only finished it because it was an ARC.

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for providing me with a ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are wholly my own.

Loved the novel description, but ultimately found the novel meandered too much and was too slow to hold my attention. Did not finish.

This had a great premise, but didn't follow through. I wanted to like this, but honestly it was just boring.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

You will need to really pay attention to the story line in this book. What is real, what is imagined or dreamed.

this book was very very mid. i wasn't invested in the characters, and the supernatural element of the story wasn't incorporated well. plus the ending made me wonder what the point to the entire book was? it didn't really do anything to develop any of the characters we followed.

I always love a good mulit-verse book. However, I feel like there was something a little lacking in this one.

If, Then takes on the premise of “what if I made this decision differently, then my life world be different” to a whole new level. People in a small town wake up in an alternate reality and see different versions of themselves.

I honestly found this book confusing and hard to follow at times with all the different perspectives. I did think it was an interesting and unique premise though.

“If, Then” by Kate Hope toys with the idea of parallel universes. Philosophers and scientists have considered the idea of other universes for years. It’s a fun premise to consider. Most of our actions can have multiple consequences. It’s those forks in the road; those decisions we make that form our realities.

Four neighbors begin to see visions of themselves with different lives. At first they feel they are a bit crazy. These visions lead to two of the characters making life-changing choices.

Hope writes a almost science fiction novel that encourages the reader to consider parallel universes, to consider if different choices in life had been made, is there another version of yourself living with those consequences? It’s an easy and quick read that engaged this reader. Hope writes the characters realistically, which makes it easy to identify with them.

Love anything by Kate Hope Day! IF, THEN is compelling, well-written, and gives you much to think about. I recommend this book to everyone.

Could not get into it maybe because of tall the hype this book was getting. I know I’ll come back to it. Thank you for eARC. I greatly appreciate it. Was not in mindset for suburban drama.

Dr. Ginny McDonnell is a surgeon who, after 15 years of marriage, dreams her affair with her scrub nurse and co-worker Edith could be more permanent.

Ginny’s husband Mark McDonnell is a behavioral ecologist who, based on research studying animal behavior, thinks Broken Mountain, the volcano he lives on, is no longer dormant. His dreams — or rather, nightmares — contain his family of three (Ginny, himself and their pre-teen son, Noah) being in danger.

Cass is Mark and Ginny’s neighbor — the one with the large black dog and baby. She gave up her PhD in metaphysics to be the wife of Amar and mom to Leah. She could go back to school. Her philosophy professor and graduate advisor, Robert Kells, really wants her to come back and help him expand on his research on hypothetical parallel universes.

Samara, another one of Ginny, Mark and Cass’s neighbors, has moved back to her childhood home after her mother died following a procedure Dr. McDonnell personally oversaw. Her mom’s still alive in her hallucinations.

Together, these neighbors make up the threads of Kate Hope Day’s debut novel, “If, Then,” a confusing, forgettable and unsatisfying book that might have worked better in a parallel universe in another form.

As much as “If, Then” centers around Ginny, Mark, Cass and Samara, the reader never really gets to know them beyond the archetypes (doctor mom, scientist dad, neighbor, neighbor) they’re supposed to represent. You don’t come to care for them. You hardly remember them. It’s as if the characters themselves are placeholders — forgettable and undeveloped in favor of a plot where nothing really happens except characters seeing another version of themselves in their present timeline. (If “If, Then” were a movie, the viewer wouldn’t remember the characters names. When summarizing the plot, they’d probably refer to them by the much more famous actor portraying them.)

If “If, Then” were a movie, it wouldn’t be the main draw. It’d be released in the summer, paired with a summer blockbuster (maybe a superhero movie or a romantic comedy) at the drive-in. It’d be a filler, a bonus second or third act that you’re only staying to watch because it’s free with the price of admission and you can’t say no to free stuff.

If “If, Then” were a movie, it wouldn’t win any awards (except maybe a Razzie). It might be what you watch if there’s nothing on television or if you’re too stoned to care. It might be so bad that it’s good.

If “If, Then” shed some characters and focused on developing one (like in the animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” or Blake Crouch’s novel “Dark Matter”), then it might have been better.

But we don’t live in a world of “if, then.” As it is in this universe, the fate of “If, Then” is as doomed as lifeforms living near an active volcano.

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC of “If, Then” from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for this honest review.

I have no idea what the point of this book was.

This is a domestic drama with dashes of philosophy and multiverse theory. A handful of neighbors are living their lives per usual until they begin seeing alternate versions of themselves. One of these individuals is a scientist studying animal behaviors in response to seismological activity and so we start to get the feeling that the "dormant" volcano located near their shared Oregon town may not be as sleepy as commonly believed.

Given how early that seed of doubt regarding the volcano's dormancy was sown, I'll give you one guess how this book plays out. All the rest is just a meandering build-up to that point.

The author had an interesting concept here and I did enjoy the surgeon's sections. Those were highly reminiscent of the early seasons of Grey's Anatomy (back when that show was even partially good), but this book, as a whole, was extremely boring.

I was really excited to read Kate Hope Day’s IF, THEN and thank the publisher and NetGalley. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to connect with the story and at times wondered what I was reading. The story jumping around was distracting and I ended up DNF-ing.

I wanted to love this, especially with the enticing premise, but overall it fell flat for me. There were numerous characters that the chapters shifted between, making it difficult to feel connected to any of them, and it felt more like reading roughed out character sketches. The promised alternate realities felt more like loosely related dreams that were already fading, giving it more of a wispy vs sci-fi quality. The actual writing was very well done, but this book could have been so much more.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the complimentary advance copy. This had no impact on my review.

This was an interesting and fast read. The characters to be well developed and believable and the theories of multiverses were compelling. I found it to be a really quick read, but engaging. Highly recommend giving this debut novel a shot.

OK to be fair science-fiction not my usual thing. I just had a hard time connecting with the story for some reason. The idea of a parallel universe is intriguing, it just did not work for me on these pages.

I should have known better than to read a book that compares itself to The Immortalists. It was really boring and honestly just went nowhere. I thought there would be more character development, but it just fell flat. The best thing I can say is it was fairly short, so it didn't take me long to read it.

I thought this book was interesting, but could not find my footing nor was I really engaged. Perhaps it's just a consequence of the time, but I have to DNF this one all the same. Nevertheless, thanks for allowing me to read in advance — I really love the cover!

This was an interesting read. It was fun to try to piece together the different POVs to get the whole story and timeline. I liked Cass and Samara a lot. Not so sold on Ginny. It reminded me of Station Eleven.