The story starts off slow and a bit sad as we follow 16-year-old Odile who is a lonely girl after her only friend moved to a different part of town. Her life starts to look up as she is befriended by Alain and Edme, but she also learns a secret by accident, one of them will die before their parents.
See the other valley exist either 20 years in the future or 20 years in the past depending on which way you go. Occasionally grief tours are allowed in cases of sudden death of a child, but they’re carefully regulated by the Conseil a position for which Odile ends up applying.
Ultimately her life takes a turn for the worse and I spent most of the book wonder who would write such a morose story. It was intriguing but her life stumbles from one bad thing to the next, many not in her control. Still, without spoilers, I left the book enjoying the story even with all the time I spent watching her life spiral out of control.
What you ultimately get is a bit of a mind bending time travel novel. It ignores the science part of why this might be and instead focuses on the philosophy of the implications of interference between valleys.
- Purchase on Bookshop.org – support local bookstores
- Purchase on Amazon