Alba DeTamble has never lived a life in order. Born with the same rare Chrono-Displacement Disorder as her father Henry, she slips unpredictably through decades, haunted by the secrets of a future she can witness but cannot change. As Alba strives to maintain a normal life with Zach, her safe, supportive anchor, she forms a tight-knit community of artists and activists who fight to take care of each other in an increasingly unstable world.

At once intimate and expansive, Life Out of Order plunges readers into a world of Niffenegger’s dazzling imagination: from the riot-torn streets of a dystopian Chicago, to a digital museum for forgotten memories and lost artifacts. Curating this ever-expanding museum is Isadora, Alba’s mysterious stepsister and an unsettling presence in their family – whose fate may be intertwined with Alba’s in more dangerous ways than she knows.

Told through a kaleidoscope of perspectives, the story moves through a boundless, unfolding universe of virtual reality, skimming the wildest reaches of technology and our natural world. The result is a testament to the power of art and community to sustain us in these fractured times—and an epic tale that’s set to define an entirely new genre in a way only Niffenegger can.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

This might be one of the hardest reviews I’ll write all year. The Time Traveler’s Wife sits somewhere in my top two or three favorite books I’ve ever read, and I have read a shit-ton of books. That final chapter gets me in the feels every single time. So when I found out a new book was coming that followed Alba’s story, I was beyond excited.

I figured we’d get a little more of Henry and Claire here and there, but mostly I wanted to see how Alba, and her love life, would survive the time-traveling gene. But then I read a few early reviews that worried me, so I adjusted my expectations. I could accept that this was going to be more dystopia than romance, and I was determined to like it for what it was. I was going to be an outlier and love this book. I held onto that until I got about halfway in and then I just couldn’t do it anymore.

If you’ve read the first book, you know that Alba has the same condition her dad had, so she gets yanked around through the time with no warning. She catches glimpses of what’s coming and can’t do a thing to change it. She’s trying to build a regular life with Zach, who is steady and kind, while surrounded by a group of artists and activists who look out for each other as the world gets darker and more dangerous for anyone who dares challenge the system. She also has feelings for Oliver, another time traveler.

Honestly, the beginning gave me a little Handmaid’s Tale with a time-travel twist, and I thought, okay, Alba as June Osborne careening through time. I can do this. But then things started getting weird, mostly around Alba’s stepsister Isadora. As we learn who/what Isadora is and how she came to be and we start getting into AI and transferring human thoughts and existences into AI all while also hopping heads and times and storylines . . . It got mentally exhausting. There were just far too many POVs, and the book never felt grounded. There was no anchor.

The first book was told mostly from Henry’s and Claire’s points of view, so we got close to them. And even though Henry was pulled back and forth in time, the two of them were always each other’s anchor. The story was theirs and it focused on them. Despite Henry’s chaotic life, they always found their way back to each other. With this book, I never felt close to anyone. Just when I’d start to settle in, the story hopped off to someone else. And the story was more confusing than engaging.

The jumping around hurt the tension too. Time hops are part of the deal with these books, but here they came so often that nothing had room to build. Just like Alba and a few other time travelers bounced through time, we bounced through so many storylines and so many moments that I never felt settled. It felt like the author had a lot to say about the current state of our chaotic world but didn’t know how to say it all in a cohesive way, so she just dumped it all into the heads of several different characters and hoped for the best.

To be clear, I didn’t want another version of the first book. I applaud Niffenegger for taking chances, expanding this world, and giving us something new. I just wish it had been more cohesive. If you adored The Time Traveler’s Wife, go in knowing this is a very different kind of book. It feels strange to write a review like this about an author who gave me one of my all-time favorites. I’m glad I tried it, but super sad that it didn’t click.