Ida was a clever but downright confusing read with a choppy plotline. I went into this story with moderately high expectations - there were so many of things that could have gone right, I couldn’t see where it could go wrong - but the story’s less than stellar execution of its incredible-sounding premise left me unsatisfied.

The basic storyline follows Ida who possesses the ability to go back in time and change any decisions she has ever made. However, at the start of the novel, she realises that instead of time-travelling, she is actually switching between alternate timelines. Her constant use of this power means she has been creating millions of different timelines in a relevantly short period of time and it’s hit the point where the timelines are starting to blur together… Obviously, chaos is the result. I was in love with this idea. At least, I was at first. The consequence of having any form of superpowers is an aspect most stories avoid so I was eager to see how it played out. I also just love complex time travel stories. Yet, despite my enthusiasm for this concept, Ida did not quite go in the direction I thought it would. It went beyond merely being complicated - it was downright confusing. The plotline was choppy and all over the place. I found it incredibly difficult to follow what was happening, especially with the constant timeline jumping. I was too busy trying to piece everything together to pay attention to the smaller details so I often got lost or had to reread passages. The entire book felt about 100 pages longer than it needed to because of this. I disliked that the story made is a chore to keep up and the ending - which was rushed in my opinion - was icing on the cake.

The writing style did this story no favours. I don’t know how else to describe it other than vague. Everything about the story felt distant from us readers: the characterisation, the dialogue, the descriptions. All of it was described with the vaguest detail possible. There were far too many aspects of the character’s relationships that transpired through subtle body language or cryptic dialogue that the characters seemed to be able to decipher but left me a confused puddle of misery. I struggled to piece together events from these little vague statements and I hated that I felt left out of the story - like the characters knew way more than I did. I was often left wondering if I missed something. It was so frustrating.

However, despite my problems with this story’s execution, there was one element that exceeded all of my expectations: its representation. To my knowledge, this is an #ownvoices story and the author’s experience certainly shine through. There was never a moment where I was not impressed by the subtly of the author’s commentary - which raised a lot of relevant issues without making it an “issue” story - or the depth of the characters. Ida and Damaris both had such strong voices.

Ida - our main protagonist - is bisexual and biracial (Vietnamese-Australian). Her partner - Daisy - is a genderqueer POC who uses them/they pronouns. I have never read a character who was genderqueer before and I appreciated how organically Evans incorporated discussion about society’s approach to pronoun usage and non-binary gender identities.

While I did feel like many aspects of Ida and Daisy’s relationship, I did think that it could have done with more screen time - as a lot of it is told through flashbacks, due to the time-travelling/altered timeline aspect of the story - and having Ida simply telling us about their relationship was not enough for me to understand their relationship dynamics like I would have liked. I also felt that many aspects of Daisy’s home life were glossed over. We knew that their parents were having problems but it was only hinted at - maybe their father was abusive or alcoholic? I just don’t know. It was never addressed or explored like I would have preferred. This meant that I struggled to understand Daisy fully as a character and definitely retracted from my investment in their relationship with Ida.

On top of that, our other protagonist - Daramius - who was genderfluid and had a genderfluid love interest (!) did not get enough screentime. I really liked her spunk and her personality. She was the type of character that I could really see myself getting behind if I had had the chance to get to know her on a more intimate level. I also just did not feel her relationship with her LI - whose name is escaping me at the moment - was too reliant on past feelings that we did not know about. I did not particularly care whether or not they got together and I really wanted to.

I also want to quickly note that there was a prominent secondary character - Ida’s cousin, Frank - who is a transboy. The reason I mention it is that Frank talks about wearing a binder (and experimenting with different kinds). It was something that I had never seen mentioned in a YA story before and thought it was amazing that it was incorporated, even in passing.

Overall?

This story had a lot of potential as something fresh and different in the sci-fi genre. The premise was there and ready to wow us but its execution was too choppy to be entertaining. I struggled to follow what was happening and the vague writing style compounded this issue. I did really love the diversity - especially the genderqueer and genderfluid rep. - and felt that they were incredibly well-written. This is not something that I would recommend on a whim but I do think it is worth keeping an eye on this author.

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.