God's Junk Drawer

by Peter Clines

God’s Junk Drawer is a mind-bending tale of mystery and adventure set at the dawn of time.

Welcome to the Valley …

Forty years ago, the Gather family—James, his daughter Beau, and his son Billy—vanished during a whitewater rafting trip and were presumed dead.

Five years later, Billy reappeared on the far side of the world, telling an impossible tale of a primordial valley populated by dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. Little Billy became the punchline of so very many jokes, until he finally faded from the public eye.

Now, a group of graduate astronomy students follow their professor, Noah Barnes, up a mountain for what they believe is a simple stargazing trip. But they’re about to travel a lot farther than they planned …

Noah—the now grown Billy Gather—has finally figured out how to get back to the Valley. Accidentally bringing his students along with him, he’s confident he can get everyone back home, safe and sound.

But the Valley is a puzzle—one it turns out Noah hasn’t figured out—and they’ll need to solve it together if there’s any chance of making it out alive.

Pulling from Earth’s past, future, and beyond, Peter Clines has created a complex, dangerous world, navigated by a dynamic ensemble cast, and a story that is thrilling as it is funny and heartfelt.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Time Travel, Thriller, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy

560 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 2025

About the author

Peter Clines is the author of the genre-blending -14- and the Ex-Heroes series.

He grew up in the Stephen King fallout zone of Maine and--inspired by comic books, Star Wars, and Saturday morning cartoons--started writing at the age of eight with his first epic novel, Lizard Men From The Center of The Earth(unreleased).

He made his first writing sale at age seventeen to a local newspaper, and at the age of nineteen he completed his quadruple-PhD studies in English literature, archaeology, quantum physics, and interpretive dance. In 2008, while surfing Hawaii's Keauwaula Beach, he thought up a viable way to maintain cold fusion that would also solve world hunger, but forgot about it when he ran into actress Yvonne Strahvorski back on the beach and she offered to buy him a drink. He was the inspiration for both the epic poem Beowulf and the motion picture Raiders of the Lost Ark, and is single-handedly responsible for repelling the Martian Invasion of 1938 that occurred in Grovers Mills, New Jersey. Eleven sonnets he wrote to impress a girl in high school were all later found and attributed to Shakespeare.

He is the writer of countless film articles, several short stories, The Junkie Quatrain, the rarely-read The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope Robinson Crusoe, the poorly-named website Writer on Writing , and an as-yet-undiscovered Dead Sea Scroll.

He currently lives and writes somewhere in southern California.

There is compelling evidence that he is, in fact, the Lindbergh baby.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the pre-release copy of God's Junk Drawer by Peter Clines. Below is my honest review.

What a wild ride! Dinosaurs, time travel, aliens, Neanderthals, glass obelisks, all sorts of random things bring this story right into the zone of "weird."

I really can't say much, because this one would be easily spoiled with the wrong word, so I'll say this: interesting characters, complicated but understandable scenario (with actual explanations in the long-term), and a really cool setting.

Highly recommended for people who like a weird sci-fi tale with a lot of twists and turns and dinosaurs!

[Books_the_Magical_Fruit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this book took me on a RIDE. I may not have fully understood all of the sciency/math stuff, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it.

Also, I LOVE the idea of God having a junk drawer, not that I believe it actually exists, but how fascinating!

Billy Gather, his dad, and his sister Beau abruptly find themselves in a very strange valley while literally going down a raging river. There are forests that suddenly change to other climes, and none of them would ever coexist at the same time on Earth. Also…dinosaurs?? Neanderthals. Random artifacts that seem to be from both the past and the future. It’s a mishmash of time periods—kind of like what’s shoved into that junk drawer we all seem to have, except on a much bigger scale.

Billy is somehow returned to his time after a few years and gets absolutely roasted by the public. He changes his name and dedicates his life to returning to the valley.



The novel then cuts back and forth from young Billy to him as a man, when he finally figures out a way to get back to his own personal “Land of the Lost.” Trouble is, a bunch of grad students manage to be right next to him when he does, and EVERYONE is taken along for a ride that they never would have agreed to otherwise.

It’s here where things get really intriguing. Billy the grown-up thinks he knows everything there is to know about the valley and its inhabitants.

He’s about to get a GINORMOUS wake-up call.


———


As mentioned above, I really liked this story, but be warned, it does meander a bit, and it definitely gets weirder and weirder. I was invested, though, so I was open-minded about the eventual revelations as they came. And the reveals are FASCINATING.

Also, I think it’s important to mention that when there are injuries and/or deaths, they are extremely gruesome, detailed and shocking. Some of them will be hard to get out of my head. YMMV.

4.25 stars, rounded down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion. All views are my own.

[Robin (Bridge Four) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

If you've read Peter Clines before you know it can get weird, like Lovecraft levels of weird.  And while God's Junk Drawer is a puzzle type mystery set in a world seeming to be be Lost in Time it is at its heart the story of a group of people trying to figure out how to get out of the strange Land of the Lost type place they have ended up in.

The story is told through multiple PoVs with some snippets of Billy's time in the Valley when he was a young boy.  Billy went on a rafting trip with his Dad and Sister and they ended up in the valley almost forty years ago.  He got out, leaving his sister behind and has spent his entire life trying to figure out how to get back in and save her.  He finally has it calculated and is ready to jump when it all goes wrong and he ends up dragging some random students and a guide back into the valley with him.  One problem, everything he thought he remembered and knew to get them back out seems to be wrong and there is now no guarantee that Billy now known as Noah can get them back out unless they figure out what the Valley really is.

“I spent seven years getting laughed at. My entire teen years, I was either on television or in a magazine being mocked for thinking I saw dinosaurs, or I was . . .”
She waited, then prodded. “Or you were what ?”
His stride got heavier. “Or I was back in some kind of hospital being treated for my delusions. That’s what telling people who I really was got me. Seven years of being a punchline or a patient..."

Billy's time in the Valley as a kid was a wonderous thing and while yes it was horrifying in some ways due to the dinosaurs and other things that can kill you it was colored by the protection his dad and sister provided.  Looking back on it again after his return as an adult leads him  to believe that it is possible it wasn't exactly how he remembers and Noah (formerly Billy) is struggling with how things are so different from the valley he left.

I enjoyed getting to see the Valley for the first time through the eyes of the terrified college students that accidentally ended up on this journey.  Sam was well aware of the Valley and Billy's time there since he was obsessed with it the way only a twelve year old could obsess.  That said it is one thing to read about a place filled with Dinosaurs and lost to time but it is another altogether to be there and see it first hand.  With a few other students and the camping guide also stuck, they are in a fight with time to find safety and start to figure out what needs to happen to get back home.

I really enjoyed this story and the way details were doled out.  It kept the mystery high and the danger around ever corner.  In a land of dinosaurs and Neanderthals not everyone is going to survive. This was full of action, danger, huge emotional swings and I enjoyed it all.  Once the story made it to the Valley I was in a rush to read through and figure out with the cast what the heck the Valley was and how to survive in it and eventually get out of it.

I loved the setting, the clues and the cast.  It was just a fantastic ride for me.  As someone in their 40s, I well remember the Land of the Lost on Saturday mornings and grew up imagining the land at the center of the earth so this was almost nostalgic for me in some many ways.  That said there were great surprises and a satisfying conclusion that worked well for me and gave me some hope of seeing some other novels tied into this world later.

Noah still looked stunned. Josh looked worried. Parker looked . . . well, she looked like she was waiting for someone to pause in their lecture so she could ask a question.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

God's Junk Drawer is a lost world book. A young boy spent a couple years in the Lost Valley, ended up back in the real world, and spent decades trying to get back, inadvertently bringing some astronomy undergrads with him. It has a lot of the familiar Land of the Lost trappings like Neanderthals, dinosaurs, and things of that nature. There's also an underlying mystery and a fairly high body count.

I don't really want to give too much away. I guessed a couple of the twists ahead of time but one of them was very surprising. Some of the character deaths caught me off guard and I was pleased that the origin of the Lost Valley wasn't some Under the Dome hokum. Overall, I was very pleased with the reading experience. We just moved and I don't want to buy more bookshelves but I'm keeping this one to reread later. A pretty high compliment if you ask me.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: This review was originally published at FanFiAddict.

Peter Clines clearly remembers the joy of emptying out the toy box as a child to play with a mashed-up variety of various, disparate action figures. Remember having G.I. Joes squaring off against Darth Vader, while Batman single-handedly fought off a horde of Xenomorphs Imperial forces had corralled into duty for the Dark Side? I can’t but help think such childhood wonders provided at least a smidgen of inspiration for God’s Junk Drawer, even if it falls a bit short of wild, youthful imaginings.

Still, the conceit is similar. In the book’s opening, Billy Gather and his family are sucked back in time to a wild period that couldn’t ever possibly match-up with the historic record. It’s a land where dinosaurs and caveman live side-by-side, a la the nonsensical, science-defying creationist goofiness on display at Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter. But wait, there’s more! In addition to dinosaurs and neanderthals, there’s also an ancient Egyptian, a robot butler, an alien from a higher dimensional plane of existence, some futuristic cyborg warriors, and medieval woodworkers. People, places, and things from all eras of Earth’s history and future collide in one ahistorical valley that really shouldn’t be.

Billy somehow found his way back home and became the subject of tabloids and mental health counseling, until he disappeared again, but this time in more terrestrial fashion. He’s changed his name and thirty years later has become an astrophysicist named Noah Barnes. All his work has secretly centered around a singular pursuit – to rediscover the wormhole that launched him into god’s junk drawer and save the sister he left behind. He knows when and where the wormhole will reopen and has organized a camping trip for his students to observe the stars while he sneaks away to disappear once more. Worried for him, his curious grad students track him down and ignore his warnings to leave, and soon they’re all headed back to the… whenever, I guess?

Clines does a terrific job piling on mysteries, surprise revelations, and some shocking demises. Right from the get-go, it’s clear these kids and Noah aren’t in Kansas anymore.

But then things slow nearly to a crawl, and the rough and tumble excitement of the book’s opening segments settle into a strange sort of placidness. We’ve gotten a good sense of the unexpected dangers that lurk in this land out of time, and Noah and his misfit crew are repeatedly warned by other survivors that death strikes without warning. Yet, despite the body count, nobody ever really seems to be in danger and the crew just kinda hangs out, marveling at unexpected sights and trying to unravel the various riddles they encounter. Clines layers in plenty of logic puzzles and scientific mystery, but for such a dangerous land it all feels oddly safe and our central characters spend too much time in shelter for this book’s too-many pages. There isn’t even a central antagonist to confound their efforts to get back home until close to the book’s end.

God’s Junk Drawer’s feels like a Michael Crichton book at times, a sort-of Jurassic Park by way of Timeline, crossed with Land of the Lost, but without the constant, edge of your seat thrills. It’s sort of like wandering through an amusement park without ever getting on the roller coasters, ignoring all the other attractions, and skipping the elephant ears. Clines loads the front- and back-ends with plenty of action, but the middle is bloated and saggy. People stand around talking, get warned about danger, talk some more, solve a mystery, get warned about danger again, and then talk some more.

The mysteries of the valley are certainly interesting, the scientific gobbledygook is digestible enough, and the rare action scenes are fun, but the narrative never finds a real balance between the two. For all the bemoaning about how savage and violent the valley is, it still seems like a far more peaceful alternative than present-day America and its rising fascism. No Trump, No MAGA cultists, no tariffs, no ICE, no more student debt, which I’m sure these kids have a boatload of, no skyrocketing grocery costs and healthcare premiums and rent jumping through the roof, no more social media, and all they have to deal with are the occasional caveman and a population of ancient dinosaurs that would love to kill them at the drop of a hat? OK, so the last two certainly make decent analogues for our current state of affairs in the good, ol’ US of A, but lacking the rest? Kinda seems like a fair trade to me, if not an outright improvement.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is for an ARC copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.
Peter Clines has crafted a modern, updated homage to "Land of the Lost" and arguably his most sophisticated and immersive novel to date. Full of imaginative sci-fi and science of all sorts, if the story doesn't grab you from the beginning, you may be in the wrong universe. Though there's a lot here, from the massive world and characters from various eras, to the ever changing attempts at understanding the science and rationale behind the land the protagonists find themselves in; yet it never feels forced and keeps you engaged throughout it all. Full of surprises, from which characters end up being the main ones to what's really going on, this was an absolutely fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable read throughout.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

God's Junk Drawer by Peter Clines is Land of the Lost meets Star Trek. It is a science fiction fantasy adventure. The simple plot is that Billy and his family go on a rafting adventure and do not return; the family is missing. Then four years later, he is found in Thailand as he tells wondrous stories of living with dinosaurs, cavemen, and aliens. Billy has never diverted from his story and his need to go back and rescue his family. Billy, now an adult under a changed name, has found a way back. The plot of the story and the world building of the story are great. The first 50% feels more like a fantasy, and the back 50% is more Star Trek with adventure. The novel gets off to a rapid pace with Billy and his family's first adventure, told through newspaper articles. Billy, now Noah, as an adult, gets back to the land way faster than I thought, maybe 30 pages in. Then the novel slows down as the characters explore the land. The writing was good, there's a lot of setup, which took too much time in my opinion. Readers are rewarded in the back half with all the setup. The story is told in multiple perspectives, which don't always work. We got 9 perspectives in total, and I feel we only needed 5-6. With all the perspectives showing some importance, we do get some surprising deaths. The thing Peter Clines does very well is world building. All the questions I had going into the land were answered by the end of the book and made sense. The novel has so many great reveals, one made me gasp, and some great twists. The ending was very action packed it made me feel like I was reading a Michael Crichton novel for parts. I was able to read God's Junk Drawer early thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing. God's Junk Drawer was published on November 11, 2025.

Why did I read God's Junk Drawer by Peter Clines? I was knocked out by the description of the book. It had me at a land with dinosaurs, cavemen, and aliens. Peter Clines has been recommended to me with his Ex-Heroes series, which I'm told is superheroes similar to The Boys versus zombies.

Plot Summary: Billy Gather, His sister Beau, and their dad go on a rafting adventure in Maine, but get lost along the way. They get lost in a land with dinosaurs, cavemen, and aliens. Billy is the only one of his family who escaped the land. Billy was found in Thailand years later. He is questioned relentlessly and tells of the strange world that he and his sister were in. No one believes him. 7 books have been written on the subject, and Billy is nicknamed Dino Boy in the press. Billy changes his name and identity. But he does not give up on returning to the land and bringing his family back home. Billy has changed his name to Noah, and he has become an astronomy professor. He has set up a field trip in the mountains of New York. But really, he has researched his star maps and has determined the spot at which a black hole will open up and send him back to the land. Noah tries to get rid of his research assistant and other graduate students. But they are too close and get sucked into the land. Noah tells them who he really is and where they are, but they don't believe until they see a dinosaur. Noah has a mission to bring his Sister back home, but Noah finds the land has changed in the 30 years since he has been back. He finds new people, new dinosaurs, and new landscapes. Something is not right. Noah and his students might be stuck here.

What I Liked: How the characters evolve and change in his new world. Josh ended up being one of my favorite characters, but I could not stand him at the beginning. The world building is top-notch, with everything making sense in the end. The ending was awesome. I was not expecting the action scenes. It was both intense and heartfelt. The alien, The Castaway, was so interesting and unique that the alien and the situation reminded me of a couple of Star Trek episodes. Scarnose was a terrifying villain. I loved some of the reveals and plot twists. I reacted with a gasp once and a loud shouted "yes" after the reveal of where the group really is. I loved the diverse background of people, LGBTQ, different races, and different time periods. I loved that most of the questions I had in the first half were answered in the second half. The dinosaur riding action scenes were a lot of fun and easy to picture.

What I Disliked: Too many perspectives. I feel there should have been 5 to 6 perspectives. Billy in the past, Noah in the present day, Parker, Sam, and Josh were all I felt it needed. I would have liked to have read excerpts from some of the books blending fact and fiction. I felt the book was also too long and could have dropped 60 pages. The first part reminded me of playing an RPG where you have to do side quests. I know this will entice some readers, but for me, it did not work. The back half does pay off on most of the scenes I considered extra and slowed down the narrative in the first half.

Recommendation: God's Junk Drawer is a unique science fiction fantasy with great world building. I enjoyed my time in the world. The book is for readers who like a blend of genres. The only book I can compare it to is The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart (that book also has dinosaurs). God's Junk Drawer is a book that I will recommend to my followers. I will say to readers out there, if you get to the midpoint and consider DNF, just read a little bit more. Peter Clines mentioned on Bluesky that the audiobook version was delayed and will come out on January 20th.

Rating: God's Junk Drawer by Peter Clines. I rated 3.7 out of 5 stars. I think if the first half was tighter, and we did not get so many extra perspectives. This book could have been one of my favorites because the world building is so good.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure fun! I didn't realize how much I was craving an old-fashioned adventure novel until I found one. This book feels like a throwback to when writers wanted to channel Stephen Spielberg instead of George RR Martin. Read for a good time!

Also, what was with all the LOST references? Is it 2005 again?

Please, can it be 2005 again?

[The Roguish Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines turned out to be far more complex than I initially expected. While I anticipated a light assortment of oddities, the sheer number of elements woven into the narrative made it a densely layered read.

The pacing felt slow for the first 60%, and at times it seemed to drag. However, the final portion of the book completely pulled me in. I found myself flying through the last chapters, surprised by several unexpected twists.

Although the story itself was intriguing, I didn’t feel a strong connection to the characters, who came across a bit flat to me. Even so, I’m not disappointed that I read it. It was a distinctive and memorable experience, and it’s left me interested in exploring more of Clines’ work in the future.

Trigger Warnings: Death, Murder, Suicide, Depression, Anxiety

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for sending me an eArc.

[Thomas Sluciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

I was pretty unsure about this book in the first 100 pages, the setup and world had me interested, but the characters felt thin and, frankly, annoying.

But damn, the further the story went the more it got it's hooks in me and the more the characters grew on me.

The story itself has a ton of momentum and just picks up more steam as revelations come. Highly recommended if you're looking for a fun read. Also, dinosaurs.

[Karen’s Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, interesting premise. Held my interest, although I admit to skimming a bit because it felt a bit stretched at some points.

[Elizabeth Bunston · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this, it sounded just like my kind of weird book, however I really struggled to get into this book. There was a lot going on, almost too much to be honest, there were so many layers to the story that it felt difficult to keep up. I didn't like the multiple points of view, I really didn't like Noah, and that made this book more difficult to read. Overall it felt like this author was throwing darts at ideas to choose one, and then ended up choosing all of them anyway, it made the book feel like it had no direction or that it didn't know what it wanted to be so it had to be everything. The ending was disappointing and wrapped up too neatly for me.

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am such a fan of Peter Clines and his clever, smart, original storytelling. I've been waiting for a new title for a while now, so was delighted when I saw this one pop up. I immediately requested it and dove right in once I was approved. Imagine my surprise, then, to find that it felt exceedingly familiar - which is not something one says about his work very often! - and like a rehash of a show I'd watched religiously in my youth...

I have seen a number of reviews slam him for this. I was not sure how I felt about it - or how he'd gotten away with it - until reading his afterword, in which he openly acknowledges The Land of the Lost and cites it as his inspiration. He couldn't have mentioned that in a foreword, as it would have been a spoiler, but it did definitely change how I felt about the story knowing he intended it to be an homage, albeit one that spins out in his uniquely Clines-ian way.

On the whole, this wasn't my favorite of his stories - and not just for that reason. I was, I admit, somewhat disappointed that so much of what he wrote tracked with my memories of the show (and similar TV, books, and movies) because it felt like it lacked that utterly-from-left-field feeling that his work usually generates for me. It was still an enjoyable read, don't misunderstand, just not quite as much so as previous books. It still read quickly and there were twists and turns I didn't see coming. A few were eye-roll inducing, I won't lie, but on the whole it was still fun!

I did REALLY love the cover and title - the concept of God's Junk Drawer, and it's explanation, were fabulous!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I applaud what Peter Clines achieved here. The valley is a fascinating world. It is multi-layered with people and creatures from many time periods. He manages to achieve plot twists I didn’t see coming. He had me trying to guess the puzzle of the valley over and over again.

However, the execution could be better. There is no reason this book needs to be over 500 pages especially while still having fairly flat characters. They are pretty one note and can be insufferable at times. I still enjoyed the book but wished it had more editing.

Team Sam. I get it, I too would be wowed by getting to pet a dinosaur.

You should give this book a look if you have been craving a dinosaur action novel and you think adding aliens, robots, and Neanderthals to that would make for a wild journey.

Thank you to NetgGalley and the publisher for this advance reader copy, all opinions are my own.

[Martin Maenza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blackstone Publishing provided an early galley for review.

I watched Land of the Lost every Saturday morning from 1974 to 1976 and often would play pretend scenarios based on it with neighborhood friends during that time. That's what pulled me in to this one.

Clearly, Clines was very much inspired by the TV show as as well. His latest novel draws from that source. I enjoyed the reactions of the various students when faced with their arrival in a land so strange and fantastic as well as seeing how everyone adapted to the setting they found themselves in. That went a long way in selling the story. There were also several unexpected twists that kept the narrative moving and evolving. A definite page-turner that will captivate sci-fi fans.

[Goshak · Rating 4 out of 5]

On one hand, the idea feels fresh and intriguing; on the other, it’s also a remix of a dozen familiar tropes. Dinosaurs, time travel, aliens, wormholes… there’s a lot going on. And honestly, that’s fine - not every book needs to reinvent the wheel, especially when the ride is fun. This one definitely is. I enjoy Peter Clines’ work, and I’m already looking forward to whatever adventure he takes me on next.

[Sean Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. I have read The Broken room many times over because it's so good, and this is up there too, I'd say.
Some people just put together the right ingredients to make fantastic stories just work, and Peter's got that down to an art. Very much anticipated and totally worth waiting for.

[Genevieve Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a Land of the Lost adventure in which some academics get sucked into a mysterious, impossible place where dinosaurs roam alongside futuristic robots and aliens.

Noah, a now-respected professor, went there on purpose. He spent years in the Land of the Lost as a child, when he and his family ended up there on accident. Now he's trying to return to rescue his sister, who never made it out. The six people he brought with him were by mistake. Now, they all have to learn to survive, trust each other, and uncover the mystery behind the impossible land before it's too late.

For the majority of the time I was reading this, I couldn't even guess at what my eventual rating might be. The characters were a little flat and annoying, but in a way that might lead to growth. The mystery had my attention, despite the fact that the characters seemed to be pursuing answers only ineptly and without focus.

I probably should have predicted that I would end up with a solid 3 stars.

Overall, the combination of 2 plot circumstances held my attention. First, the immediate Jurassic Park issue of surviving in a land of dinosaurs. The only times this story provoked strong emotions in me were during moments of dramatic, violent dinosaur death. Second, the background puzzle of what exactly this Land of the Lost place IS, and how to escape it. This remained an impetus to keep reading, even when other things were derailing my interest.

Unfortunately, you need more than that to rate higher than 3 stars, and there wasn't anything else.

The main characters remain pretty flat. Noah starts out VERY off-putting, and does become less so over time, but I still never really was able to invest in him as someone to care about. The grad students each have a cardboard-cutout characteristic that defines them, and a "secret" they're trying to hide from everyone else in the group. None of these secrets are actually juicy enough to be worth keeping. Like oh man, you were gonna break up with your boyfriend? Oh man, your boyfriend broke up with YOU? Gasp. They also tend to be a strange combination of super-smart and weirdly dumb.

I was glad to learn the answers to our mysteries and pretty satisfied with the ending, but honestly just as satisfied to be done with the book. If I had been able to care about the characters as people, and not just see them as distant puppets with no real depth, this would have been rated a lot higher.

[The Blog Without a Face · Rating 2 out of 5]

BWAF Score: 5/10

Peter Clines is the crowd-pleasing pop-horror sci-fi guy behind the Threshold books and the Ex-Heroes series, a writer who loves puzzle boxes, genre mashups, and lovable weirdos stuck in cosmic nonsense. This one sits squarely in that lane, just with more dinosaurs and a little less spark.

We bounce between a tabloid-chewed childhood tragedy (Billy “Dino Boy” Gather) and a present-day field trip led by a cash-strapped prof, Noah Barnes. The grad crew and a sketchy guide hike up a mountain for sky-imaging, the ground screams a countdown, and the world drops out. POVs want answers and survival; what blocks them is a broken-rules valley full of primeval teeth, anachronisms, and a past that won’t stay buried.

The cold open rips with faux clippings and media ephemera that make the Dino Boy scandal feel grossly real, and the “beep-beep-beep” scene where the team free-falls is a legit oh-shit moment. Barnes barking “Planetary motion waits for no one!” sets a nerd-dad tone the book keeps swerving around, sometimes to funny effect, sometimes to make you mutter damn.

Clines writes clean, TV-episode prose with quick cuts, quippy dialogue, and a propulsive chapter engine. It’s snackable. Also repetitive. The voice aims for banter under pressure, but the jokes land about half the time, and the momentum stalls whenever exposition has to carry the weight. The creature beats bang, the connective tissue wobbles.

Themes here include grief packaged as adventure, identity rebuilt through myth, and the cost of being the punchline of your own trauma. Memory lies to let you live, which is bleak as hell and kind of beautiful.

It’s Land-of-the-Lost-core for Clines fans, a mid-tier entry in his cosmic-puzzle catalog that’ll scratch the itch without blowing your mind. A fast, dino-spiked romp that’s fun in the moment but fades fast; a couple of killer scenes, a lot of okay, and not enough wow to remember next week.

Read if you crave cryptids and Cretaceous chaos, can handle time-weird logic, love found-family bickering.

Skip if you need airtight rules, hate quip-heavy dialogue, require themes that cut deeper than a cool premise.

[Grigory Lukin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fun treat for any sci-fi fan, or for those who grew up watching old-timey TV shows about an all-American family stranded on an alien planet. :)

The premise is simple: a boy, his teen sister, and their dad go missing. Five years later, the boy is found - alone. He tells of a strange land with dinosaurs, a robot butler, a shapeshifting alien, and more. He is mocked by the entire world...

At its heart, this novel is a mystery, a who-done-it, a twisted tale full of surprises, told from several points of view. I saw some of those twists coming, but a few took me by surprise, which doesn't happen often.

If you're a fellow long-time fan of Peter Clines, you'll appreciate the tiny Easter eggs and references here and there throughout the text. :)

I want to call out the dialogue, because it was truly exceptional. We've all encountered terrible dialogue in books, and average dialogue is, well, average and thus unremarkable. But great dialogue... You don't see that often, and imho, that's where Clines truly shines. I literally laughed out loud quite a few times when I read his characters' interactions.

The sole flaw (and a small one at that) is the not-quite-consistent worldbuilding. A character from the 26th century perfectly speaks (and understands) colloquial English, save for some military jargon. And young grad students make (and understand) some rather retro pop-culture references that I (a 39-year-old Millennial) had to google. Keep in mind that most college students today have never even watched The Matrix. (Tragic, I know!) But that's literally the only downside to the entire novel, and the rest is absolutely top-notch and more than makes up for it. :) (Hell, most readers probably wouldn't even notice.)

I give this novel 5 stars - it was one helluva ride. :)

(I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing me the ARC in exchange for an honest review.)

[Dr. T Loves Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think there's a Clines story so far that I've picked up but not enjoyed. This is another one to add to the "win" pile.

Clines has re-imagined the 1970s kid's TV show Land of the Lost into a coherent science fiction story full of twists. At the same time, it pokes fun at its origins, pointing out how ridiculous some elements of the show were.

In the 1980s, a father and his two children disappear. A few years later, the son turns up, claiming he's been gone for two years when in actuality five years have passed. The kid tells a story about being whisked millions of years into the past to a land with dinosaurs and Neanderthals and an alien being. He spends the next half dozen years in and out of therapy programs that explain to him his brain has created these fantastical stories to cover the trauma of what really happened - his family was grabbed by human slavers and died, while he managed to escape.

Jump to the 2020s. The story follows a group of astrophysics grad students, along with their professor and a guide. Turns out the professor used to be Dino Boy, and he's spent the past 30 years figuring out how to get back to the portal that whisked his family away so he can return and rescue the sister he left behind.

Unfortunately, the grade students and the guide accidentally fall through the portal, too. And what they find on the other side is NOT what Dino Boy remembers.

As they try to figure out what has happened, and unsuccessfully avoid deadly perils, they are forced to confront who they are and try to learn to grow past their limits.

It's an engaging, enjoyable story - Clines does not disappoint.

Within the story are details that clearly plant this book in the same universe as his Fold series, and in the afterword, Clines states that this book will have further connections to future books.

I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes with this!

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Any of you have a junk drawer in your homes growing up?...My dad called this place God’s junk drawer. Things from all across time end up here. Things that don’t fit anywhere else in the cosmos, for one reason or another. This is where they all accumulate.”

If God had a junk drawer – a place where He put all the world’s bits and bobs that didn’t really fit anywhere else – what would it contain? Although that isn’t literally the plot of Peter Clines’ new novel, it does feature a mysterious place out of space and time that contains a little bit of everything: dinosaurs, aliens, obelisks, androids, Neanderthals, and a group of mystified graduate astronomy students and their professor.

God’s Junk Drawer is a book that takes you on a journey, from the first page to the last. I was so invested in this strange story, its fun setting, and its rich cast of characters. There’s lots of action (and, FYI, quite a bit of gore), and the pacing is spot-on for a book of this length: Just when things are starting to meander a bit too much, Clines changes points-of-view or serves up a killer twist to get the plot moving again. And things just get more and more bizarre as you go along, which I personally loved.

A lot of the science, math, and wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff went over my head, but underneath all of that is a resonant story about found family, bravery, and self-discovery, set in a weird, wild world beyond the boundaries of reality. God’s Junk Drawer was such a satisfying adventure. Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for the complimentary reading opportunity.

[Lisa Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

God’s Junk Drawer is a masterful blend of science fiction, adventure, and humor that keeps readers hooked from the very first page. Peter Clines has once again proven why he is a standout storyteller, creating a world that is imaginative, complex, and endlessly entertaining. This novel combines mystery, danger, and heart in a way that feels both thrilling and deeply satisfying.

The story centers on Noah Barnes, formerly Billy Gather, whose family vanished decades ago during a rafting trip into a hidden valley filled with dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. Now a professor, Noah discovers a way to return to the valley, and unintentionally brings a group of graduate students along for the ride. What starts as a simple stargazing expedition quickly turns into a pulse-pounding journey where survival, clever problem-solving, and teamwork are critical.

Clines excels at balancing high-stakes adventure with humor and genuine emotion. The characters are vivid and engaging, each with their own quirks and strengths, making the ensemble cast feel real and relatable. The valley itself is a wondrous, dangerous, and unpredictable place that constantly surprises both the characters and the reader.

With its fast-paced narrative, imaginative world-building, and moments of heartfelt reflection, God’s Junk Drawer is a thrilling ride from start to finish. Fans of sci-fi and adventure will find themselves laughing, gasping, and completely immersed. This is a novel that delights, entertains, and keeps you thinking long after the last page.

A truly unforgettable and imaginative adventure, highly recommended.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this. The premise had me hooked: dinosaurs, androids, aliens, Neanderthals—all coexisting in some lost valley tucked outside time and space? Yes, please. I mean, who doesn’t want a brainy sci-fi mystery that kicks off with a rafting trip gone sideways?
But then... about a quarter of the way in, déjà vu hit hard. Like, hard. Suddenly, I wasn’t reading something fresh and mind-bending—I was watching Land of the Lost. Not metaphorically. Literally. This is Land of the Lost. Full stop.
Same basic setup, same mysterious valley, same “lost time pocket” populated by a random grab-bag of prehistoric and sci-fi leftovers. The characters are more fleshed out here, sure, and the writing has that Peter Clines blend of snappy dialogue and pulpy fun. But the whole time, I kept wondering: How is this not setting off every literary plagiarism alarm? At what point does “homage” become “ctrl+c and tweak a few lines”?

To be fair, Clines knows how to pace a story and keep the momentum rolling. The ensemble cast brings energy, and there are some genuinely clever twists in how the mystery of the Valley unfolds. If you’ve never seen Land of the Lost, you might not bat an eye. But for those of us who grew up on it (or, you know, didn’t block the movie version out of sheer trauma), the similarities are impossible to ignore.
In the end, God’s Junk Drawer is entertaining—no question. But it left me feeling like I’d taken a wild ride through someone else’s sandbox. Fun? Absolutely. Original? Not so much.

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mix Alice in Wonderland with Jurassic Park. Add a dash of every science fiction sub genre but especially time travel. Voila, you have God's Junk Drawer!

Twelve-year-old Billy is found in Thailand after being missing for five years from Maine. He has wild tales of the missing years including encounters with dinosaurs, human like robots, and sundials. Thirty-three years later he is now Noah Barnes and in charge of a group of university students on a school sky gazing camping trip. He has other plans and tries to ditch the students. But his lab assistant, four students, and a travel guide who isn’t who he claims to be accidentally make the trip with him.

This new novel has everything I look for in a genre mashup. It has action, adventure, science that I vaguely remember from college, a bit of romance, a mystery, and a compelling quest plot. I loved it and had to fight myself to put in down late each evening. At 560 pages, it can definitely not be read in one sitting. But the pages fly by as you join the ragtag gang trying to find answers in a world gone mad.

The author has stated that this book is a reimagine of an old television show called Land of the Lost. I haven’t seen that show so I can’t comment on that though fans of the show will enjoy Easter eggs throughout the novel.

Even without seeing the tv show, I loved God's Junk Drawer. It is the perfect escape from real life. 5 stars and a favorite!

Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an advanced review copy.

[Kat S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. 1. Every time things got exciting the pov changed. It was like Lucy and the football. 2. I did not like the mc Noah. He was completely useless as a guide for the valley. His lack of basic info giving literally got two people killed. 3. The whole being that knows everything but is powerless is annoying. The antagonist being saved by it made no sense. If they hadn't been saved, more lives would have been saved by the valley not being there. It was extremely convoluted. 4. I figured out where they were at long before the characters did. 5. How Noah got back to the beginning is never explained, apparently he can time travel I guess. It really made no sense. 6. And the ending... let me tell you, I find it infuriating that the story stops when the reunion happens!!! This is the second book I've read this year to pull that. Imagine your own payoff, I guess.

The author says at the end a lot was cut from the book because it was so long. I think it shows, as it feels like a lot of context is missing. The setting itself was interesting, but not really explored. I feel like the interesting characters were not fleshed at all. Instead you get povs only from the people who came with Noah. There's two lgbt characters, but they could have been straight for all the difference it made. Don't get me started on the whole Olivia vs Parker thing (who names their daughter Parker?!). I don't see myself ever rereading this. I really struggled finishing it from 80% onward

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced, gripping sci-fi adventure novel that had me hooked me right from the start. 

Presumed dead in a rafting accident along with his sister and father, William "Billy" Gather reappears halfway across the world five years later, telling fantastical tales where dinosaurs and Neanderthals live alongside robots and aliens. Now an adult and an astronomy professor, Billy has found a way to return to the Valley – but it's a world far from what he remembered. 

Chapters alternate between vignettes of Billy and his family's attempts at survival and his adult self uncovering the truth behind this strange, otherworldly place. Beneath dinosaur chase scenes and dodging unfriendly Neanderthals lies a poignant story of childhood nostalgia vs. reality, of the stories we tell to comfort ourselves, of the way memories solidify over time and crystalize into belief.

Unfortunately, the novel started to lose me in the final quarter as we discover what the Valley truly is. Peter Clines tries to stuff in a myriad of sci-fi concepts – time loops, wormholes, spacefaring – but it ends up feeling clunky and confusing. That being said, I still had a ton of fun reading it, especially if I tried not to think too hard about the precise mechanics of how it all works. 

Overall, this was a solidly entertaining read, a fast-paced romp through a perilous and ever-changing landscape. I'd recommend it for fans of John Scalzi or Matt Dinniman.

[Lay Tonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a time in the book where I was comparing it to LaBrea, you know the show where they fell through the Earth and landed with the dinosaurs and travelled through a portal in the Earth to get back home to their current time. That is where I was at in my head, then at some part towards the end because the build up was kinda slow here; it became a extraterrestrial thing going on. So, then, I was like this changes everything, it went from predictable to being something I really had to pay attention to understand the real reason behind them landing under the valley in the beginning. The way the secrets of the professor kept spilling out was juicy and the understanding behind how and why they got there to begin with was very thought-provoking. This one of those stories where if you are listening to it, you really have to pay attention to everything or you going to miss something and find yourself going back just to understand what is going on. I loved it, I just wished it did not take so long to get to the parts that needed to be told in the end to tie everything up. Its a slow-action going on. So I am giving it a 3.7 out of 5, which I feel that once it sits with me for a while it may just be a solid 4.

Than you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for letting me read this ARC before the time.

[Thomas Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: ★★★★☆

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

God’s Junk Drawer is an inventive blend of mystery, adventure, and science fiction that pulled me in with its unique premise and kept me guessing until the end. The setup a missing family, a mysterious valley, and a return decades later feels like a contemporary mystery at first, but quickly evolves into a high-stakes sci-fi journey filled with dinosaurs, aliens, and unexpected dangers.

I especially enjoyed the connections between Billy’s past and Noah’s present, which added depth to both timelines and grounded the more fantastical elements in character-driven storytelling. The ensemble cast brought variety and energy to the narrative, and the twists were both satisfying and surprising as the author led me astray in all the right ways.

The pacing did feel a little uneven at times, though I’ll admit part of that may be due to my own month-long reading pace. Still, once the story hits its stride, it moves with momentum and purpose.

This was my first Peter Clines novel, and it won’t be my last. God’s Junk Drawer is an imaginative and heartfelt ride that balances humor, danger, and wonder in a way that makes me eager to explore more of the author’s work.