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.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. It didn't disappoint! Must read!!

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.

This story begins in the present, in a small town, where the main character struggles to see the point of his life. After a particularly disastrous school/town event, his car runs off a bridge. The next moment, he's in 1984, meeting a girl who decides to help him out because she's kind and horrified when she learns of the school fire in her time that has very personal repercussions for him. The two realize that he's the grandson of her high school guidance counsellor, who's destined to die in a week in the school fire. The two try to figure out how to stop the event, and also figure out who burned down the garage of a kindly old woman that the girl knows. Along the way, we meet the girl's family, and discover all the relationships and actions that will potentially lead to revealing who was responsible for the tragedy.

That's a bare bones description of a book that was rich in its characterization of its two main characters and PoVs. There are also a LOT of other characters, who have PoVs:

Present:
-Justin, though descended from the family whose name graces his high school, lives with his mother in poverty. He has trouble focusing in school, can't afford his ADHD drugs, and knows he can't attend college, so he sees no future for himself. His mother is an alcoholic, and was blamed, by her father's family, for the deaths of her parents when she was a toddler.
Justin is hopelessly in love with his friend Alyssa, who's off to New York City and art school after graduation.
-Stan: Justin’s uncle, and the only family who took in Millicent, Justin’s mum, when she discovered she was pregnant.

1984:
-Rose Yin: relentlessly optimistic, biracial, and pining for years over Noah Hanley. Noah is smart, kind, Black, but the bigoted town does not see him for the person he is. He is unaware of Rose's years-long infatuation.
Rose is struggling emotionally this year in high school, feeling like her best friend, now stepsister, is leaving her behind. She's also kind, giving, and trusting, even of the volatile and often difficult Justin.
-Lisa (Davis) Yin: Rose's best friend, now stepsister. Lisa's mother Diane is running for mayor. Lisa is going out with Shawn, but uses him as cover for her love for Charlene Derrin, daughter of a conservative, wealthy family in town who are supporting a local rival of Diane's for mayor. Lisa and Charlene are trying to figure out their feelings for each other.
-Noah Hanley: Smart, kind, Black, but the bigoted town does not see him for the person he is. He is unaware of Rose's years-long infatuation.
-Shawn: Cares for Lisa but can't understand her cooling feelings for him. He's personable and eager to leave the town for college and to escape his abusive father.
-Karl Derrin: Charlene’s younger brother, who steals objects from his family, and is relentlessly bullied by kids in school.
-Veronica Warren: Justin’s grandmother, who is also Diane’s campaign manager.
-Bill Warren: Justin’s grandfather, the high school guidance counsellor.

I needed to write all the above down so I could keep the characters straight in my mind as the plot progressed. This is one downside to this otherwise entertaining book. There is much drama as the 1984 teens deal with bigotry, bullying, abuse, identity, and romance. Also, big hair and big shoulder pads, of course, feature, and Lauren Thoman uses a variety of musical and other cultural references to give the 1984 setting colour, while also showing the racism, misogyny, and homophobia prevalent during the period.

This is an enjoyable book, and though the time travel aspect is not explained, except in a "fate brought Rose and Justin together for a reason" way. The plot revolves around us sympathizing with Rose and Justin, and their immediate circle, and Thoman, despite my initial trouble tracking all the characters (hence the descriptions above), kept the story moving and me engaged. All the teens are trying to figure themselves out, and it's handled well, with moments of poignancy and heaviness, with the situations and conversations feeling real. It's an emotional book with a satisfying ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Mindy's Book Studio for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I'll Stop the World is a time-travel masterpiece. I generally cannot follow time-travel storylines. I can't keep up with the timeline or the characters or really understanding the plot. But I thought this novel was beautifully written and kept my attention from start to finish. I really felt for the characters and rooted for all of them. I laughed out loud many times when Justin would say something about the modern day to Rose from the past. I thought the book was well written and I was surprisingly happy with the wrap-up and the ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of I'll Stop the World by Lauren Thoman in exchange for a fair and honest review.

There were a lot of viewpoints in the back-and-forth storytelling via several characters. Being a time travel book, I had to concentrate in the beginning of who was when. Justin Warren has had a hard time of it, especially having to live up to his family name gracing the school his grandparents died in when his mother was a toddler. After putting in an appearance at a school party and being summarily told to leave, Justin heads home, crossing the rainy bridge when he sees a figure in the road and swerves into the river. When he wakes up, Rose Yin, stepdaughter of a mayoral candidate, gives him a ride and believes his story about what time he came from. When he discovers it is shortly before the fire that takes his grandparents, Justin figures he is in 1985 to save them. The young adult viewpoints resonate in both time periods. It's long, it's a mystery, it's coming of age and so very good.

3.75 Stars, Rounded Up

If you love the movie Back to the Future, you'll probably enjoy this book. What am I saying? Everyone loves Back to the Future. I guess what I am saying is that there was a lot to love about Lauren Thoman's novel, I'll Stop the World.

This Young Adult novel tells the story of 2023 teenager, Justin, who travels back to 1985 to prevent his grandparents murder. Compelling plot, right? I thought so too. But here is where the book goes from being a five-star read to 3.75 for me. The time travel element is not introduced until 100+ pages in the book. The first 1/4 of the book is setting up the story with chapters that switch from character to character faster than I put the McFly's futuristic dehydrated pizza on my vision board.

I lost count of how many different POVs we get in this book - all I know is it is a TON. Some are in 1985 and some are in 2023 and without labeling them, it is hard to piece everything together and keep track of who is who. As an added level of confusion, there are interludes that transport you to a different point in the story to fill in background that helps the story come together and make sense.

At times, I felt like I needed a bulletin board with red string ala Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny (or I guess Stan from this novel).

But, after the halfway point in this novel, I finally felt like I had a good handle on who was who in this cozy time-traveling mystery and I was able to finish the last 60% of this book in one sitting.

The second half of this book is where it shines. Things set up in the beginning make perfect sense and the final payoff is amazing. I did guess where somethings were going, but others shocked me. It is a YA novel and it feels like it, so don't get into this thinking you're in for a dark and twisted thriller because that isn't this book's vibe.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed I'll Stop the World and I would highly recommend it to others. I do think that the first part could use a little editing so we can get to the action and meat of the novel a little quicker and I think some characters POVs did not serve the story (sorry, Lisa). These aren't minor quibbles, because they made me tempted to DNF the book after 80 pages, but once I pushed through I was happy I did.

This is Thoman's debut novel and I can tell she is an expert at crafting a compelling story. I'm curious to read her future work and hope that others enjoy I'll Stop the World as we await for what else she has coming.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy of I'll Stop the World by Lauren Thoman in exchange for a fair and honest review.