“Entertainingly mixes thrills and humor.”—Entertainment Weekly “[An] amazing debut novel….Dazzling and complex….Fearlessly funny storytelling.”—The Washington Post “Instantly engaging….A timeless, if mind-bending, story about the journeys we take, populated by friends, family, lovers, and others, that show us who we might be, could be—and maybe never should be—that eventually leads us to … be, could be—and maybe never should be—that eventually leads us to who we are.”—USA Today
Elan Mastai’s acclaimed debut novel is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms.
It’s 2016, and in Tom Barren’s world, technology has solved all of humanity’s problems—there’s no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocadoes. Unfortunately, Tom isn’t happy. He’s lost the girl of his dreams. And what do you do when you’re heartbroken and have a time machine? Something stupid.
Finding himself stranded in a terrible alternate reality—which we immediately recognize as our 2016—Tom is desperate to fix his mistake and go home. Right up until the moment he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and the woman who may just be the love of his life.
Now Tom faces an impossible choice. Go back to his perfect but loveless life. Or stay in our messy reality with a soulmate by his side. His search for the answer takes him across continents and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.
Filled with humor and heart and packed with insight, intelligence, and mind-bending invention, All Our Wrong Todays is a powerful and moving story of life, loss, and love.
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½
“…when you invent a new technology, you also invent the accident of that technology. When you invent the car, you also invent the car accident. When you invent the plane, you also invent the plane crash. When you invent nuclear fission, you also invent the nuclear meltdown.”
And when you invent a time machine… yeah. Written in memoir style, All Our Wrong Todays showcases Tom Barren, the significantly less talented son of a scientist/physicist/inventor/genius, who tests his father’s newest invention. The end result is a world that resembles our present-day 2016. Only for Tom, this is total opposite (in a bad way) of what his 2016 was. It was kind of strange, but the contrast was very interesting to me as a reader as it shows that technological advances don’t always equal happiness.
I saw All Our Wrong Todays described as Dark Matter meets Back To The Future and I honestly can’t describe it any better than that. Overall, I liked All Our Wrong Todays. I got a bit lost now and then with the technological jargon but I found it engaging, humorous, and surprisingly emotional. There is also a romance element I wasn’t expecting but was a likable part of this story nonetheless. If you like time travel stories that aren’t too heavy on the sci-fi aspect, I would recommend All Our Wrong Todays. Check it out!
A thrilling tale of time travel and alternate timelines with a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity’s future.
This may well be my favorite read of 2019. It’s written memoir style from the point of view of Tom who lived in a wonderful Jetson style future where the world and people were in perfect harmony until he took a trip through time and wound up stuck in a dystopian alternate timeline aka our world circa 2016.
I don’t want to give too much away so I won’t go into more details. What I want to say about this book is that it asks the big questions, it tackles the big issues like what life truly means and what lengths we’ll go to get what we want, but it’s also full of so much wit and personality that I often found myself laughing aloud. It’s a fast-paced adventure with a deeply profound love story framed within and combined with the time travelling sci-fi aspects I could not put it down. I read it straight through in one day. I take back what I said in that first line, it’s not a maybe. This IS my favorite read of 2019.
This book feels so original and fresh to me. I loved the voice of it, and I’m always here for an examination of optimistic sci fi subjects. The depth of the story really surprised me — don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I highly recommend it.
More of an alternate timeline story than a time travel story (though there was time travel.) I’ve read a lot of time travel stories and this one had a couple original ideas. Too bad the author went with the bootstrap paradox for one small part of the story. I hate the bootstrap paradox.
A novel about time travel has no right to be this engaging. A novel this engaging has no right to be this smart. And a novel this smart has no right to be this funny. Or insightful. Or immersive. Basically, this novel has no right to exist.
Elan Mastai has conjured up a witty and freewheeling time-traveling romance that packs an emotional wallop. All Our Wrong Todays is a page-turning delight.
Time travel bends our minds, and in the right hands it can tickle our funny bones. All Our Wrong Todays is a twisty, provocative, creative tale of one person at the center of multiple branching timelines. It’s an extremely enjoyable way to get yourself thinking about our world and the ways it could be very different.
As a novelist, I hate Elan Mastai for writing a perfect book. As a reader, I couldn’t be more grateful.
I enjoyed this book so much on my kindle, that I bought a hard copy for my son. We are both English teachers, and we both recommend it. Time travel in literature is nothing new, but finding a new way to present it, is. What a fun ride!
just reminded that I recently read this one, thx mae. loved it. fascinated me right off. then it changed course, I got more curious. then again-more curious again. then again, then I was baffled, n even more intrigued. maybe halfway before I caught up, but enthralled. think it was somewhere in the middle of it that I fell in love with it. then toward the end, as all those absurdities pile up, they combine to reveal some painfully beautiful realities.
I flew through Elan Mastai’s All Our Wrong Todays—smart, witty, and fast-paced sci-fi with the perfect amount of quirk. This time-travel-gone-awry story takes Tom from his Jetson-esque “future” and traps him in his dystopia—our present. .
I found myself writing down thoughtful quotes and thinking through all the what-ifs of these characters. Such a fun, original read.
To say this book is thought-provoking is an understatement. Truly one of the best I’ve ever read. It’s about a world that was, wasn’t and could have been. Absolutely full of the Big Questions, a romp through improbable science and a rocking good love story.
This book was chosen for my Book Club for June. I was really intrigued with the premise of the book, however the reading of it fell short for me. I think the story is there, and it’s a really good one, but the telling of it was extremely wordy. I found myself struggling to get through the book because it was just so long without seeming to have a reason to be. I think the story could have been told in about 200 less pages to be honest.
That being said, if you are a person who enjoys reading scientific explanations in your sci-fi books, you probably won’t mind the wordiness of this story. Much of the excess, in my opinion, was the attempt to explain how the science of the situation was possible or impossible.
I did enjoy the actual “meat” of the story. The idea of time travel and alternate realities is interesting to me and so that part of the book was what I did love. I also loved the relationship between Tom and Penny and the introduction of Greta.
Boring, boring, boring.
A fun read
The best time travel story I’ve read yet. Usually, even interesting ones have illogical plot elements that you have to ignore in order to follow the narrative. This one has intriguing logic and interesting characters and engrossing story. I highly recommend it.