The Space between here and now is such an awesome book concept. I really enjoyed the time traveling and when Aimee would learn more about herself. Once I started this novel, i couldn’t put it down! We need more time travel books. I felt for all of the characters, Aimee, her father and her mother.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this DRC.
This is a completely fascinating book about a teen girl with Sensory Time Warp Syndrome. Aimee Roh physically returns to past memories that are triggered by scent. Aimee is also dealing with a other who has physically left and a father who has emotionally checked out.
I loved that Aimee is not the only character with STWS. There are support groups and on-line chat rooms that help explain this condition. Not everyone experiences it the way, and her eventual willingness to explore and research her condition was fascinating. It added a wonderful layer to the story and to her. I definitely did not want this story to end.
#TheSpacebetweenHereNow #NetGalley

The Space Between Here is a really interesting speculative read: what if there was a disorder where someone popped into memories in the past for extended periods of time? Aimee has Sensory Time Warp Syndrome (STWS) goes back in time with triggering smells. She doesn’t know how to control her ability, and recently she’s been going back more and more often, all of her memories somehow connected to her mother who disappeared.

SPOILERS:

The mystery with the mother is an engaging engine for the narrative, and I appreciated the anticlimactic reality, that her mother wasn’t stuck in a time loop. She just abandoned her family. It’s devastating and mundane and so real. But it also means Aimee has to come to terms with her mother’s choice and absence, and figure out how to relate to those who are present in her life now. The way Aimee reconciles with family members was so beautifully done

The way the author Sarah Suk captures the nuance of stigma with STWS—it feels so authentic and realistic, the way people treat them and romanticize the illness, or talk about it in uncomfortable ways. It’s a smart way to critique the kind of stigma and ableism we face in our real world. This is a really innovative take on the time travel genre, infusing the speculative with grief make for such a powerful, memorable read.

Such a great book and unique concept ...traveling back in time revisiting memories. The story was well developed and rather mature in its take on acceptance other people's choices although those choices may cut you to the core. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thanks NetGalley.

Memories are precious and fleeting. What if we could go back in time via a vivid memory and relive certain times again? It is this unusual plot idea that drew me to Sarah Suk’s newest novel. The Space Between Here and Now is a speculative work where certain people have a condition which makes them transport back to a past time in their lives based on a sensory experience. This situation can happen at any time for Aimee, a teen who is embarrassed by it, yet also intrigued by the memories that she relives. Aimee’s Mom left her family years ago and when Aimee relives the memories of her, she sees details that are new. So the teen decides to look for her Mom and try to find out the answers behind why she left. Being a Young Adult selection, this book has great pacing and I read it in two days. I love this author’s writing as her characters are realistic for their age, without being cutesie and immature. The friendships are real and the family relationships are loving. Aimee is Korean and I was drawn in by the food and culture, which was explained but not over analyzed. This story was sweet with the smallest bit of romance and science fiction ideas that were set in places seamlessly. A quick read, it added supernatural situations and smiles and I suggest it for a reading slump or between heavy novels. I will be following this author in the future! Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in return for my honest opinion.

This was a very interesting novel. Almost immediately one is brought face to face with the protagonist's problem: disappearing into other time periods and missing seconds of the present.

I loved the world building of this novel. The author wastes no time in throwing the reader into the story and making me want to turn the page. I found it to be enjoyable. The setting of going back in time to Korea was also very good. Although the story dragged in some parts, I thought that this was a novel I would recommend to my friends who like sci-fi type of stories as well as stories set in multiple countries.

For world building and the idea of the plot I give this book 5 stars. Since it dragged for me in some places, I give it 3, so over all 4 stars.

I look forward to seeing what this author will write next!

This is my honest review.

Wow. This book was so good! Well-written. Beautifully written characters. The time travel element was flawless. The power of connection and family. Not only blood family, but chosen family. Wonderful. Thought-provoking. So many feels. I absolutely LOVED this! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

This book!! What a gorgeous, perfectly developed look at the impact of memory on our family history and identity—the speculative hook worked so well, and each character was finely-drawn and sympathetic. A winner on many levels.

The Space between Here & Now is a cool YA story with a time travel focus. I was drawn to it by the premise, Aimee has Sensory Time Warp Syndrome (STWS) which projects her back in to old memories at various times. She finds these time traveling events both nostalgic and unsettling. As she experiences more and more intense episodes she realize she needs more answers to things in her life that her father won’t talk about.

Some things I really liked:
-inclusion of Korea as a setting
- new concept of STWS
-complicated family dynamics with cultural expectations as another layer

Some things I’d have liked to see:
-more about time travel OR deeper into the family dynamics. Both could have been developed much further
-more time spent on time loops

Overall, a nice story that could have been longer!

This is so good! I'm not usually a YA reader, but I liked Sarah Suk's Made in Korea so I was very intrigued by her new book. I think the reason I am not usually a YA reader is that I'm a bit too mature of an audience for it. I'm not in my teens anymore, so sometimes the themes, particularly regarding parent-child relationships feel simple and frustrating. I can't tell if this is just me since I'm older, or if teens also feel this way. In any case, Sarah Suk's The Space between Here & Now is far from that. The parent-child relationship is something that feels so nuanced and very natural. It still has some of the simplicity for a teen audience, but I feel like the author also trusts her teen readers to have nuanced emotions towards their parents and be able to have enough maturity to grapple with those complexities, especially when they learn that there is more to their parents than meets the eye. The story is also fun and feels so much like being in a Korean drama!

today i finished the space between here & now by sarak suk(@_saraksuk). this book follows aimee roh, a teenager with sensory time warp syndrome. smelling certain scents will cause her to temporarily warp back in time to one of her own memories, and her estranged mother has been appearing in those memories more and more frequently. this book’s blurb is extremely compelling, and it did not disappoint at all. this is a minor thing, but aimee lives in vancouver, british columbia, and as somebody from the US, i like reading fiction that takes place outside the US. it’s a nice change of pace, even if it doesn’t impact the story at all. almost everything about this book is flawless, from its worldbuilding to its characters to its plot. i could not get enough of this book and of aimee’s internal monologue. she’s a deeply relatable and likable character, which also contributed to how easily i made my way through this book. the other characters that she interacts with were both likable and realistic, and her world is really fleshed out in a way that i enjoy. suk clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the minutiae of sensory time warp syndrome, or STWS, and it adds even more depth to the story. this story is packed to the brim, and normally i would think a romance would be out of place here. but the relationship between aimee and junho is very sweet and believably paced, which means it only strengthens the rest of the story. my sole minor complaint is that the main conflict of the book felt a bit pushed to the side by the end. without spoiling anything, i’ll say that it’s not something that one can easily get closure for, so this makes sense. i still felt that it was worth noting. if you’re a person who can read, you absolutely need to read this book. it’s incredible, and i’m absolutely getting a copy when it comes out on october 31 of this year. thank you to netgalley and harpercollins children’s books for providing me access to this title in exchange for my review!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!! This is really good. A blend of sci-fi with emotional drama. This takes you through a lot in a quick span of time and wishing you had more. If you are a fan of more believable sci-fi without the world ending doom coming down on you, and you want more family healing this is the book for you. Warning!! You might cry. Enjoy!

Perfect for fans of They Both Die at the End and You’ve Reached Sam, this gripping, atmospheric YA novel follows a teen with a mysterious condition that transports her to the past when she smells certain scents linked to specific memories.

a time travel book with a unique twist

The Space between Here & Now was a phenomenal read. The story drew me in right away and I devoured the whole thing in two days. The story follows Aimee, who is 17, and dealing with something called Time Warp Sensory Disorder, which is a disease that causes her to disappear back into her old memories when triggered by certain scents - literally disappear, like poof! Having TWSD is disruptive enough, but what makes it worse is her father totally not supporting her and basically ignoring that its a problem. When she disappears into a memory of her mother for 9 hours - longer than she's ever experienced before - she learns of details about mother that don't match up with the story she's always been fed about her mother leaving. Convinced that finding her mother might be the answers to learning more about herself and TWSD, Aimee travels to Korea in hopes of tracking her down.

Despite, TWSD being a fictional disease, Suk, does a great job of paralleling the isolation and anxiety that can accompany those with chronic illness through Aimee's struggles. This really is a perfect coming of age story that can be enjoyed by teens and adults alike. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself not wanting to put it down.

I loved this book. Such an inventive twist on the time travel trope, one I often see played out in ways that involve too much magic and not enough science. So many intriguing YA new releases are out in the world this year.

Aimee Roh, a Korean-American high school student who lives in Vancouver, Canada, has Sensory Time Warp Syndrome, a rare condition in which she disappears for minutes at a time into memories from her own past. Her condition is triggered by smells that take her back to memories associated with those smells.

Lately, the disappearances have become more frequent and longer duration each time, which frightens Aimee, who is stressed about school. The memories routinely take her back to times with her mother, who left the family when she was young, leaving only her and her dad, who has grown distant from her and won't talk about her condition or the past.

Aimee realizes it's a sign that she needs closure with her mom, who she suspects may have the condition herself and stuck in a time loop. Everyone's so shady about how her mom left, she jumps to the impossible things as teenagers do. She books a spring break trip to Korea to investigate further, where she runs into Junho, her first crush on a boy as a child, and a charming, slow-burn romantic subplot follows.

There, Aimee's investigations are fairly clumsy, but it's a story about finding yourself and getting closer to your family and friends, opening yourself up to the vulnerability of firsts, more than time travel, even though time travel is a large part of it.

I loved the parts of the narrative that focused on Aimee's identity as a Korean-American from a family who emigrated to Canada when they were young, about how she navigated the distances between several different worlds at once. I loved the descriptions of Korean food and since sensory details were a huge part of the plot, they had a prominent place in the story, too.

The time travel in this worked for me because of all the limitations placed on it. Time travelers cannot influence the past, only observe it; it's a rare genetic condition; the travel can be for minutes at a time, and the like. I found that an especially intriguing element of this book.

The characters in this were also very well done, with great character development and a YA novel with deeper themes about loyalty and belonging, struggling to understand your parents while figuring out yourself, that both teenagers and adults can relate to.

Sarah Suk is a fresh new voice with brilliant ideas, and I look forward to reading more of her writing. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a seriously beautiful and heart felt read. I wasn't sure what to expect going in because the premise is so unique. I enjoyed how the protagonists condition was described and used throughout the book as commentary on ableism and how others view things they don't know anything about. While it has a supernatural feel where she literally goes back in time and disappears, it all feels very real and emotional. The inclusion of Aimee attempting to find support groups but it is always awkward and difficult feels like something people might have to go through until finding the right people and community. I really related to Aimee's hard relationship with her dad; he is difficult and stubborn but they clearly love each other so much. Relationships with parents are so complicated and I liked how the author wrote about it. It was a relationship that wasn't abusive or bad, just a tangled mess and poor communication. Not every parental relationship has to be horrible and oppressive, everyone's circumstances are different. I love a good journey of self discovery and this definitely delivered. Aimee's relationship with Junho as a friend and place of support was charming and lovable. I could go on and on, I loved this book!

I haven't enjoyed a good book in a minute, and The Space between Here & Now did that for me. Our main character Aimee suffers from a disease that transport her throughout time triggered by one of her senses. The concept of her travelling through time is doesn't make her a superhero, or even a complete social outcast, but it leaves a heavy burden on her personal life and her teen years. I liked her character development and the pacing throughout the book. The book discusses identity and the ways our pasts influence our present and our outlook of the future. I hoped that this book would be a series, but am satisfied with the ending.

This is one that I would love to get picked up as a movie or a TV series.

I really loved this book. The concept was original and the characters were lovable. I was afraid the romance would be forced at the start of the book, but it wasn’t. it flowed properly. Perfect for fans of Adam Silvera.

This YA fantasy pulled me right in.

Our main protagonist, Aimee, has a unique condition called Sensory Time Warp Syndrome (STWS) where certain triggers make her disappear and go back in time.

Suk’s portrayal of Aimee’s experience with this rare condition was relatable to me as someone who has struggled with mysterious chronic illnesses. Aimee seeks answers in public forums and uses art as an outlet, but struggles to get too close to anyone because of her fear of vanishing out of nowhere!

The struggle with her illness was done so well that at one point I thought about Googling this condition to see if it’s a real thing. LOL.

There are family dynamics at play and trauma with Aimee’s mother leaving at an early age. She also struggles with her father who is kinda aloof and not in tune with the fact that her condition seems to be getting worse. He shrugs it off as almost like a lack of willpower?

Aimee starts to wonder if her mother had STWS too and if that’s the reason why she left her. The story unfolds as she goes on a quest, with her best friend’s help, to seek her mother out.

There were some parts that dragged a bit, but I thought the mix of the unique fantasy elements, chronic illness struggles, family dynamics and budding first love were done well and the ending bumped this up from 4 to 5 stars for me.

Recommended overall for those who like YA fantasy with family dynamics and can relate to the mysterious illness piece. 💛

Inventive and engaging, this latest book from Suk will surely delight a wide variety of readers. I kept turning the page trying to figure things out and was amazed by the ending. Highly recommend.