The Vacationers - Emma Straub

57%

28.08.26

The wry observational characterisation almost made it not matter that there wasn't much plot or that the characters would be mostly unberable if they were real. What did matter was the lack of believability, whether that was fact checking (I'm starting to wonder whether New York time actually is ahead of Europe, it comes up so often) and the weirdnesses placed only to help the story along (why would you make your young adult, who has just graduated high school, take Spanish lessons on vacation?). Not as insightful as it's no doubt supposed to be.

This Time Tomorrow - Emma Straub

 

60%

09.07.23

Despite the quirky cover and the '13 going on 30' (or 16 going on 40) premise, this was solid literary fiction that interrogated all the big questions. Its knowing references to the 'Back to the Future' tropes prevented it getting too bogged down in its own dynamics, but it still lacked cohesion in many place - and the characters (which included New York) weren't particularly interesting. But, overall, a fun and thoughtful read.