My inner 80s child was lured by the title which is the same as one of my fave teenage anthems. This is a YA time-travel novel with a murder twist and some real heft. Justin soon finds himself in the same town, same school, but the year is 1985 and he bonds with a fellow student Rose, who helps him find himself and stop the murder of his grandparents before it even happens! Important themes are handled delicately, and it is a great read for teens!

Absolutely wonderful! This book had me engaged the entire time and the ending was completely unexpected. Its been a long time since I've read a book and had nothing that I would change. Great Book! Thank you so much for an advanced copy.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. I think had I known it was young adult I would have had different expectations. I didn't realize it was young adult until after I read it and the writing seemed so basic. And really, I am not sure I have actually seen that it is officially young adult. I enjoy reading YA but when I am expecting it. Great story and premise but felt like the characters could have been a bit more developed.

I loved this book. I'll just leave it at that. Lauren Thomas does SUCH a good job weaving characters, making them feel believable. We see Justin, the main character, on a collision course with disaster when suddenly, he's transported back to 1985. I adored seeing time travel in a contemporary novel. Justin's life is woven with many other characters for the chance to change history. I can't wait for Thoman's next!

I love time travel and sci-fi woven into a mystery or thriller. This one is more YA than I expected, but I liked how it hit on real teenage life and the issues and pressures they face. It made the characters feel real which enhanced the plotting for me with the murder mystery.

This book so painfully slow. I have read YA thrillers but this book didn't hit the spot for mr unfortunately. This book had so much potential. I loved the idea of time travel but it wasn't executed well in my opinion.

I stopped reading after a few chapters and at least four points of view. It was too much to keep track of and I had no sense of what the story was after four or five chapters.
As well, it reinforced that I"m just not into young adult books.

I'll Stop the World is a twisty-time shift murder mystery. We start off in 2023 but end up in 1985 with 1 week to find out who set fire to the high school where Justin's grandparents died.

I found this book to be really good! It was a little confusing as it's told in several different perspectives at first, but once the time shift really happens, it becomes much easier to follow!

I did not know what to expect when I began reading this. I felt a little confused initially trying to remember whose perspective was being read. As the main characters are teens and the manner of the writing, I felt this was a YA book.
I did enjoy the book once I read more of the story. I was trying to figure out how the stories intersected and how it would be resolved. As it was a little different than most of the novels I read, I did begin recommending it to others. It is a little different and I liked that.

I did not realize that the iconic Modern English song is about dying in a nuclear meltdown! But that song will be playing in your head the whole time you’re reading this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book. Justin is tired of his life in a small town going to a school named after his dead grandparents and living with his weird cousin Stan. Rose lives in the same town and is upset about how distant her sister has become and frustrated that she doesn’t have the courage to tell her best friend she’s in love with him. When Justin makes a bad decision to leave the homecoming bonfire he runs his car off a bridge but wakes up to Rose stopping to help him. They soon discover that this is not a chance meeting and Justin has traveled from 2023 to 1985. Can Justin save his grandparents from dying and get back to 2023? A great YA novel that I look forward to also being made into a movie. 📚📚📚 #netgalleyarc #netgalleyreads #netgalleyreviewer #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #mindykaling #illstoptheworldandmeltwithyou #my2023readingchallenge

Lauren Thoman's I'LL STOP THE WORLD is an interesting time-twisting mystery. I thought it was an adult mystery, so pretty annoying to wade through all the teen angst (hence a lower rating), but overall a well executed story. Also enjoyed all the 80s references sprinkled in.

This is a cute story. I got it first from Amazon first reads. I like the storyline. It was gripping me like I was hoping but overall it was a good read.

I do love a time travel/time loop story!

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the review copy.

Hmm, I love the title, the time travel idea, that it went back to 1985 and all the pop culture references. But overall it was a slow burn. It took me 6 weeks to get through it. Books never take me that long so I think that it just didn't grab my attention like it should have.

The premise was good, as was the mystery aspect. Unfortunately, there were a lot of POV'S and a lot of characters which was hard to keep track of (they all had flat basic names too so it was harder to remember who was who). There's a fair bit of waffle, lots of teenage angst and bad decisions.

A good read that I think would be better with a bit of tightening up and name changes.

This seemed a little slow, so then I looked it up on goodreads and discovered that it was a YA novel, which I am too old for. I will rate it but not publish a review.

With shades of Back to The Future, this is an enjoyable YA novel about Justin whose life has been defined by the suspicious and unsolved deaths of his grandparents. He travels back in time to prevent their deaths and meets Rose Yin, whose life has connections to him via interactions with his grandparents. Thank you to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing and author Lauren Thoman for the advance read copy of this book.

So this book caught my interest with Mindy Kaling’s hearty review and then proceeded to disappoint…the first hundred pages were long and kind of slow , with nothing really capturing my attention. When the time travel finally happened , it did t really make sense…the same people from the present were in the past, with similar things happening which made no sense and made my interest really lessen. So I had to stop. I was almost halfway through so I felt I gave it a good chance and it didn’t live up to the review.

In 1985, a fire at a small town high school killed the guidance counselor and his wife, leaving their infant daughter orphaned and alone in a running but parked car. The man who was arrested for the after hours fire was put in jail without much proof, not to be heard from in about thirty years. Who really set the fire? What, exactly, happened that fateful day? Such is part of the premise of I'll Stop the World, a new novel from Lauren Thoman. There's quite a bit more to it, though.

You see, this is a book about time travel. Within its pages, presented by Amazon Publishing, a young man named Justin Warren finds himself transported from our current year to the year 1985 with no idea of why. In one moment he's leaving an annual school bonfire at the home of its richest students; the next, he sees something in his roadway while crossing a bridge and ends up going over the edge. Alcohol certainly had something to do with it, but something happened. Instead of dying, or waking up in a drowned car, Justin awakes on the bridge and soon meets a young woman named Rose who's traveling home from the same bonfire. The only difference is hers was in 1985 and his was in 2023. The boy thinks something is wrong with his new friend, though, because there's no way it can be the mid-80s. Time travel doesn't exist, after all.

This is a story of trying to right wrongs, attempting to solve mysteries and also trying to keep people alive. Justin and Rose believe that he's been brought back for a reason, and they intend to make good on that by trying to figure out who set the school fire and why. Not only that, but whether a previous fire was related. The thing is, although she wants to believe him, Rose has a hard time coming to grips with the fact that she may be talking to someone from nearly forty years in the future.

I'll Stop the World, which is titled after a famous 80s song of the same name, is an interesting, relatively deep and emotional novel with numerous themes including the ones mentioned above. It's told from several different viewpoints, including those of Rose and Justin. They're joined by others, though, such as Rose's sister Lisa, her citizenship award winning boyfriend, Shawn, and the folks who perished in the fire, not to mention a young boy who's being terrorized by three bullies reminiscent of the Henry Bowers Gang from Stephen King's IT. Despite its multiple viewpoints, and the reader never really knowing which one will come next, the book is pretty easy to follow and has a lot of characters with depth. They all have their own problems, needs and desires, too, including Lisa's attempts at telling those she loves that she's gay. It all kind of coalesces around an upcoming debate, too, as Rose and Lisa's mother is in a dogfight for the position of town mayor in the year of 1985.

If I made it sound confusing, don't worry. It's not. In fact, I was quite impressed with how the time travel element was introduced. I wasn't expecting it to happen when it did, and thought that it was really well handled. It's also nice that the book doesn't jump from one time frame to another over and over again.

I'd never heard of Lauren Thoman before, but would definitely be willing to read something else by her. She's a good writer, who delivered a strongly written and easy to like novel herein. For a free Amazon First Reads book, this was quite impressive. That said, things do get a little muddy at times, and you have to suspend belief a bit. Otherwise, it reads like a normal book about things like small town life, small town mysteries and trying to look after your family, friends and those you care about.

If you're in the market for a good read, and don't mind some suspension of belief, I'll Stop the World by Lauren Thoman should be on your list. It's a quality, well written book, with good characters and an intriguing story that keeps you wondering. At least it kept me wondering from start to finish. Just note that, while it's definitely good for all ages, this one might best be classified as a young adult read.

This book is based on a free copy we received. We originally got it as an Amazon FirstReads freebie, but then also chose to 'Read it now' on NetGalley. Receiving a free copy from NetGalley and Amazon Publishing did not sway our review or impact our thoughts.

A very nice book by Lauren Thoman. I’ve never read a book by this author before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the story and the characters.

Way too many POVs to keep track of. Also very slow to get into the plot. Things didnt really start happening until at least 100 pages in. I also think im just a little too old for YA. But the writing was good.