Kerryn Mayne truly has the most insane knack for writing the most beautiful and bizarre characters. She is a masterful writer and absolutely this book is another 6 star read like Lennie Marks. This is a heartbreaking, beautiful, funny, and thrilling story within the same community from Lennie Marks. The girls and Joy are all extremely complex and loveable characters, and they will stay with me for a long time coming. Can’t wait for Mayne’s next life changing read!

After enjoying Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder, I was so excited for Karryn Mayne's new book. The US cover is striking to me, and I was so glad to be approved for an early copy.

📖: Joy Moody runs Joyful Suds laundromat with her twin daughters, Cassie and Andie. The twins have always been kept on a short leash. Joy has told them they are from the future, and they are crucial warriors for the revolution. Joy is found dead before she could tell the girls the truth about who they are. Now Cassie and Andie feel lost and figure out what Joy was hiding.

🤝: This may be a good fit if you enjoy:
- a past that unravels throughout the book
- complex parent-child relationships
- found family

💭: This was a quirky mystery that took me a while to get into (a ME problem - see below). Once I got into it, I enjoyed the uniqueness of the plot and the characters. I appreciate Mayne flirts with this line of dark and light in her novels. The characters and voice can seem cozy, but the plots turn out more intense and emotional. I especially enjoyed Andie and the "helper" characters.

I usually go into books blindly. This is a time I wish I would have read the synopsis. For the first part of the book, I was like "Is this really a sci-fi/time travel book? Is Joy a conspiracy theorist? WTF is happening?" I thought it might be a little too weird for my taste. Joke's on me! 😆

🎧: I was so happy to see this book is narrated by the same person as Lenny Marks. Annie Maynard does a great job and captures the voice and quirky humor of Mayne's books so well. I recommend this format if you're into audio books.

Finishing this book was an endurance test. It felt like a marathon, and I'm left feeling more tired than satisfied. Throughout the story, I kept listening with the hope that the ending would provide a satisfying resolution to all the questions. The novel is centered on the countless lies Joy Moody tells her twin daughters, leading to an immense amount of miscommunication.

While the ending did offer some answers, I'm still struggling to define what this quirky and strange book truly meant to me. The feeling of being "absolved" in my pursuit of answers was missing.

On a positive note, the ability to switch seamlessly between the audiobook and the ebook was a helpful feature. However, as a fan of the author's previous work, I have to say this one just wasn't my cup of tea.

I absolutely loved the narration and the premise of those book! So unique and the plot twist was crazy. Highly recommend for fans of suspense and mystery.

Kerryn Mayne definitely has a distinctive voice-- I could tell that this was written by the same author as Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder. Luckily, her voice just WORKS for me. As for the plot: this was pretty out there, but again, I was sucked in and kept turning the pages and listening to figure out what exactly happened here.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC AND an advanced listening copy (ALC)-- given that I had this book in both formats, I flew through it in a day! I loved the narrator, and Kerryn Mayne has now proven herself to be an auto-read author for me.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

I don't know what I expected with the premise of this book, but I was surprised at the different directions thos story took. At first I thought this was going to be a supernatural time travel thriller, but that's not where we were taken. The different reveals were done well even though none of them were completely mind-shattering.

The narrator of this audiobook was possibly the best part, she did a fantastic job and I enjoyed listening to her accent while reading.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What first attracted me to this book was the title, it had so many possibilities! This book is written through three people, Joy, Addie and Cassie, Joy and her twin daughters. According to Joy, her daughters are from the future and on their 21st birthday (originally their 20th, but that didn't happen, so now it's the 21st) they will be picked up, brought to the future where they will be warriors and lead the country to victory.
The book is centered in a small town, where Joy owns Joyful Suds, a laundromat where the girls work and the town does their laundry. The girls interact with their neighbors, but Joy told them along ago not to reveal information about themselves, because "the people" are trying to find them and stop them. While Cassie believes her mom completely, Addie doesn't and thanks to her only friend, she learns her life is a plot in a series of science fiction books. She decides to do a genetic test, hoping to find out the truth.
Then Joy dies, she was out of time and never told her daughters the truth about their birth. Now the girls are dealing with detectives who think they might have killed their mom, their uncle who wants to steal the laundromat from them, and their biological father, who just wants to know them and learn the truth of what happened to the twins mother. And when the girls are under attack, the town works together to help them, which is a truly fun part of the story.
The book is enjoyable, and in the end, everything is cleaned up and happy. I listened to the audio version and found it a great book to listen to, I was able to follow it comfortably. It is long, over 9 hours, and at time it was a bit wordy at times, but it didn't take away from the story.
I recommend this book to anyone who just wants a story that has not educational value, who just wants a good enjoyable book to read or listen to.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗦
Joy Moody runs Joyful Suds laundry and lives in the apartment behind along with her twin daughters, Andie and Cassie who are about to turn 21.

And when they turn 21, they will travel in time to the future to 2050 where they will have to save the world.

Yep, this is what Joy has raised her adopted girls to believe, the story stemming from the colorful stories she began telling them when they were just young.

But now, Joy is running out of time, time she thought she could use to explain. So many things.

When they wake up on their birthday to find the woman they called mom has died, the girls quickly realize that everything they believed is a lie.

Joy kept her girls close - homeschool, no phones, no TV, fantastical tales of time travel - and now they are lost.

𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦
Lenny Marks was a delightful surprise last year, so I was excited to read the newest from Mayne. Another crime based novel filled with quirky, imperfect characters, found family, and difficult situations, I was immediately pulled in.

It’s told with multiple POVs, the narrator dependent on who can share the most relevant information. It also jumps in time, but it’s always clear and makes narrative sense.

I loved these imperfect characters and their questionable choices, the acts done in the name of love, even if they are morally gray.

Maybe crafts the most compelling characters and this time she doesn’t hold back at all.

The audio by Annie Maynard is fantastic, her lilting accent a calming presence in a book that is at times frenetic.

𝗩𝗜𝗕𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞
The Rosie Project and A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Convenience Store Woman

𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗗
Absolutely, if cozy crime mysteries are your jam. I loved it!

𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞𝗦
@macmillianaudio and @netgalley deserve all the thanks for this advanced ALC, due out August 19.

I loved Lenny Marks. I figured I would love this.
Not so true. I liked it, but it didn’t love it.

This is a quirky story about a mother and her daughters, interlocking with some odd sinister moments.
I honestly don’t want to ruin this book for anyone, so a synopsis feels impossible.
If you’re looking for something different, here’s your ticket. Joy Moody is out of time is an extremely unique tale.
Thank you netgalley for the arc!

"Joy Moody Is Out Of Time" ~ Kerryn Mayne
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Audiobook
Releases 8/18/2025

"Strange, smart, and full of heart."

When Joy Moody is found dead on her twin daughters' 21st birthday, the real shock isn’t her death, it’s the secret she’s kept for two decades. She told her daughters they were from the future and would return there on this very day. What started as a lie to protect them slowly consumed her, hiding the truth about their real mother and Joy’s own unraveling mind.

Kerryn Mayne balances dark humor, emotional tension, and a quirky suburban mystery with care. The novel moves between timelines, peeling back Joy’s layers as her daughters uncover the truth. It’s a story about motherhood, identity, and the weight of secrets, both bizarre and deeply human.

A few plot turns are a bit obvious, but the originality and emotional payoff make this a memorable, offbeat read.

Joy Moody owns and operates Joyful Suds, a quirky suburban laundromat connected to her home by a breezeway, where she raises her twin daughters, Cassie and Andie. Though they have a few neighbors, the family mostly keeps to themselves — and for good reason.

Since they were ten, Joy has told the twins that on their 21st birthday, they’ll be sent to the year 2050 to reunite with their biological parents and join a revolution. Raised in societal isolation, Cassie and Andie have taken Joy’s every word as truth — but lately, Andie has started to question the reality of their world.

Then Joy suddenly turns up dead on their 21st birthday, and the girls are left without guidance, forced into a world they’ve never known — and under police scrutiny. With nothing but Joy’s odd instructions to go on, Cassie and Andie must navigate a confusing present while unraveling the past.

Though marketed as a mystery, the plot isn’t especially hard to figure out. The real intrigue lies in how each twin responds to life beyond Joy’s reach. Readers will need to suspend disbelief for the premise to work, but the novel offers an entertaining and thought-provoking ride. That said, I found Kerryn Mayne’s debut Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder more compelling overall.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and author Kerryn Mayne for the advanced copy of the audiobook. Joy Moody is Out of Time is out on August 19th. All opinions are my own.

Joy Moody Is Out of Time is a quirky Australian crime novel about an unusual family. Twins Cassie and Andie have been brought up by their mother, Joy, to believe that they are hiding in the past from the future dystopian world that they are destined to travel to and save on their 21st birthday. The family lives in a house attached to their business, a very pink laundromat called Joyful Suds, and the girls have been sheltered from reality their whole lives, knowing no one except their business neighbors. When Joy is found dead on the twins' birthday, they have to contend with the truth behind Joy's lies, along with all of her long-hidden secrets. This was definitely an odd book, but I found it thoroughly enjoyable, and Annie Maynard did a great job with the audiobook narration. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an audiobook review copy.

this is a quirky and interesting book. I must say it is unlike anything else I’ve really read! At times it really had my attention, but others it didn’t quite do the same. Definitely worth a read if someone is looking for a title not like anything else!

This pains me to write. I loved the author’s previous book, Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder. I was excited to get an early audiobook copy of this book, which had been on my radar for months. Unfortunately, the book was a total miss for me.

The entire premise is implausible. We’re supposed to believe that the twin young women, soon to turn 21, are completely naive and wholly gullible. This might have worked if they’d been raised by Joy in a rural area, where the twins had no contact with anyone or anything outside of Joy’s control. But they live in a normal town, listen to current music, read books, talk to people, and interact with the world. Keeping them away from TV and homeschooling absolutely does not account for, well, any of what follows.

Pacing is slow, and I almost gave up early on. I should have, to be honest. Around the halfway mark, things start happening that further stretch plausibility. And worse, we learn things about Joy that make her impossible to empathize with.

Plus, there are plot holes galore. (MINOR SPOILERS!) The twins’ birth was never recorded. They have no birth certificates. So did they never go to a doctor? Never get vaccines? Did Joy not have one single acquaintance that questioned the twins’ sudden appearance? Did they never require an ID for anything? They didn’t want to drive, like normal kids? They simply accepted the bizarreness of their mother’s rules? And why not just tell the twins they were adopted? Why create such an elaborate and ridiculous story? Ugh. (END SPOILERS)

Okay, I’m done ranting.

Annie Maynard does a great job narrating the audiobook, which is really the only thing that kept me engaged.

*I received a free audiobook download from Macmillan Audio.*

Joy Moody has been preparing her twin daughters to head years into the future on their 21st birthday building up a false fantasy of sci-fi heroics. When their special day rolls around Joy is found dead.
🎂🥂
They grew up without television, electronics, or travel. They don't exist on paper. Joy's elaborate lies were something she always anticipated having more time to clear up. Soon Joy has trouble telling fact from fiction becoming more confused by the day. She always said she was doing what she had to in the name of protecting her girls but now <i>Joy Moody Is Out of Time</i>.
🧺🧼👚
There are many aspects of this story that stand out for uniqueness. A laundromat may seem like an odd setting for a novel, but it made for an interesting stage. Anyone could walk in, and it was the perfect way to showcase the main characters' traits and quirks. The supporting characters were full of personality and had me wanting more on page time from them. The sisters Cassiopeia (Cassie) and Andromeda (Andi) had different takes on their mother which produced a wide range of emotions. Joy handed them a lot of hardship by not preparing them for life, but she also them showered them with a fierce love. Annie Maynard's narration of the audiobook was a fantastic fit. We get multiple PoVs throughout both past and present and it was interesting to see the events through different pairs of eyes. It was a great way to tell the entire story and fill in any holes.
🫧🧼
There are many interesting discussion points throughout. I didn't have every thread nailed down and so I got a few surprises as things came together which I love! Take this novel for a spin if you're looking for something beyond the same old rinse and repeat.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an ALC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Joy Moody is Out of Time (audio) 3.5⭐️

Joy Moody and her twin adult daughters live a quiet life running a laundromat. They’ve always kept to themselves, and for good reason: the twins, Andie and Cassie, were sent from the future and will return to the year 2050 on their 21st birthday. Well, at least that’s the story Joy has told the girls since they were young.

This was an enjoyable book, but no major “wow” factor. It’s told from multiple POVs and highlights complexity of family and grief. Narration was wonderful and soothing.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio
for this ALC. This review will be shared on NetGalley and Goodreads.

Pub Date Aug 19 2025

*ARC review*

This book is unique and layered and I really liked the time travel angle. The characters had depth and the plot kept me interested.

Joy Moody runs the Joyful Suds laundromat with her twin daughters Cassie and Andi, who are about to turn 21. This is a date that has extreme significance for the girls, as it is the time when they will finally be catapulted to the year 2050 where they will fulfill their destinies to save the world from evil forces. Or that is the story their mother has told them from the time they were young. Because the girls have such important work to do, Joy has kept them somewhat isolated as they grew up. She has homeschooled them (each focusing on different specialist subject matters to help with their future world-saving missions), ensured they don't have access to TVs, cell phones, or the Internet, and limited their interactions with the outside world. The girls have been told "the people" might come back from the future to try to prevent them from returning to 2050. So when the book opens, the three women are sitting in the backyard of their combined apartment/laundromat, waiting to be beamed up. When nothing happens, they all must try to understand why not.

The story was told from the points of view of various characters and jumped around in time, mainly between the present day (2023) and 21 years in the past, when the girls were born. It turns out Joy has a lot of secrets she's kept from the girls, which they start to suspect, but with little outside contact and no real understanding of how the modern world works, it will be difficult for them to figure out just what is going on, and how they came to be living with Joy. I wasn't sure I would like the story when it started with the whole "time travel" thing, but I ended up really liking it. The narrator did a really good job of making the characters distinct (well, maybe not the twins so much!), and I enjoyed the Australian setting. All the loose ends were tied up at the end, and it was a very interesting journey to get the answers.

Joy Moody will do anything to protect her twin daughters, including lie to them their entire lives. She promises her daughters something big will happen on their 21st birthday and she was right. Joy Moody is out of time.

This took a beat for me to get into, but then I realized that this reminded me so much of Laine Moriarty's books (minus the many many POVs). As the book went on, I was liking it more and more.

I would recommend this book broadly! Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ALC

Joy told her twin, 21 year old daughters, Cassiopea and Andromeda, that on their 21st birthday they will be taken to 2050. She runs the Joyful Suds Laundromat. The girls were homeschooled, no TV, no internet, to keep them safe. Their neighbor Monty loves them and runs his own business. Joy also has a terminal glioblastoma and hasn’t told anyone. Cassie and Andie are going to time travel to 2050 in order to save the world.

This book has really different pacing. You can’t think of it as beginning-middle-end. It goes in a different direction at 50% of the way through, which is pretty intriguing. The characters are easy to love but their behaviors are confusing. I didn’t love it, but some will! I liked it and I’m glad I read it.

Although the blurb suggests magic/fantasy, it’s more of a mystery or coming of age book. If you’re in the mood for something different, put this in your TBR.

Audiobook review- appreciate the performance. Australian narrator and good dialogue. This story is good an audio.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the ALC. book to be published 8/18/25