What do you think?
Rate this book
Homebound
Six hundred years. Five interlocking lives. One computer game.
And the many paths that can lead us home.
It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. In the meantime, she has work to do: her uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete.
What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew and bring them home.
Homebound is a coming out and coming-of-age story, a wild and precarious sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, loss, creativity, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love.
And the many paths that can lead us home.
It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. In the meantime, she has work to do: her uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete.
What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew and bring them home.
Homebound is a coming out and coming-of-age story, a wild and precarious sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, loss, creativity, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 5, 2026
About the author
Portia Elan
7 books155 followersPortia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria before returning to California, where she has worked as a waitress, bookseller, teacher, and public librarian. She was a 2016 Lambda Literary Fellow and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 614 reviews
May 25, 2026
A convoluted mess of multiple timelines and POVs, Homebound most definitely missed the mark for me. Between the six-hundred-year time jumps and the complex worlds that I had to build in my head, the plot felt strained as I worked through the novel. You see, despite the fact that this queer, genre-bending tale of literary science fiction was an ambitious epic that asked some truly profound questions about loneliness, grief, friendship, and belonging, it was also rather slow going and dragged for me quite a bit. On top of that, while the mixed media format added another element to this thought-provoking read, it also sadly flattened the characters out instead of adding depth to each of their personas. Maybe it just comes down to the fact that I’m not the right kind of reader for this book. After all, despite the few things I loved such as the found family vibe and the 1980s nostalgia, it was incredibly hard to get lost in the words as the threads tying the multiple plot lines together felt tenuous at best. Ultimately, even though I found the themes both strong and poignant, this book sadly didn’t win me over by the end. If, however, you love inventive novels that are somewhat reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro or Emily St. John Mandel, maybe give it a try. After all, it seems that I’m a serious outlier for this debut novel. Rating of 2.5 stars (upgraded).
SYNOPSIS:
It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She’s nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.
Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection—and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space.
Thank you Portia Elan and Scribner Books for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
PUB DATE: May 5, 2026
Content warning: addiction, death, homophobia, violence, terminal illness, mention of: death of a parent
SYNOPSIS:
It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She’s nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.
Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection—and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space.
Thank you Portia Elan and Scribner Books for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
PUB DATE: May 5, 2026
Content warning: addiction, death, homophobia, violence, terminal illness, mention of: death of a parent
arc-netgelley
February 23, 2026eeeeee got the ARC approved for Homebound, so interested in this one !!
October 2, 2025
full review tk closer to pub day but a fantastic debut novel featuring a video game that connects the lives of people across multiple generations…this will completely blow readers away.
December 8, 2025
DNF at 110 pages. Maybe I am becoming a book grinch but this was another colossal disappointment (the third in a row for me). Tomorrow x3 this is not.
Too many characters, too many timelines and convoluted storylines and I didn't care about any of it. I know you should always take publishers' comparisons with a pinch of salt but to compare this to Tomorrow x3 is an insult. The characters here are paper thin and strangely unlikeable, leaving you rooting for no one - particularly as you've no clue what you're even meant to be rooting for (at least for the first 100 pages anyway).
This will undoubtedly sell well to the exact market they're aiming for, but I can't in good conscience recommend it.
Too many characters, too many timelines and convoluted storylines and I didn't care about any of it. I know you should always take publishers' comparisons with a pinch of salt but to compare this to Tomorrow x3 is an insult. The characters here are paper thin and strangely unlikeable, leaving you rooting for no one - particularly as you've no clue what you're even meant to be rooting for (at least for the first 100 pages anyway).
This will undoubtedly sell well to the exact market they're aiming for, but I can't in good conscience recommend it.
August 22, 2025
A masterpiece that left me feeling at the same time like I'm about to cry and like someone saw I'm about to cry and covered me in a blanket and handed me a cup of warm tea. Homebound is the sort of book that I didn't only read - it became a part of me, and I'm so incredibly grateful for that.
November 16, 2025
This is a wonderful book. Technically a literary sci-fi, but really more of a genre-bending story. It’s set across nostalgic 1980s scenes, the not-too-distant 2080s, the centuries that follow, and finally a far distant future nearly 600 years later which strangely feels nostalgic and reads almost like a medieval fantasy.
It’s an ambitious epic, written incredibly well, and clearly well thought out and executed. There are four main characters, but it never feels like too many. I grew very attached to all of them that is a sign of how strong the character writing is. These different POVs and multiple timelines gradually weave together to make sense of the whole, all while asking profound questions about where human civilisation is headed and what it means to exist. When the planet is destroyed, your home gone, and the future uncertain, what do we live for?
Some of the technical elements went over my head (coding, AI and other technological references ) but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story. It’s not a five-star read for me, only because I didn’t feel the deep emotional impact I expected from such an epic. Still, the ending left a gentle warmth in my heart. That was lovely.
I’d recommend this to people who enjoy:
- Kazuo Ishiguro’s books or other literary sci-fi focused on human connection and love
- Adventure stories
- Books set in the 1980s
- Found family themes
It’s an ambitious epic, written incredibly well, and clearly well thought out and executed. There are four main characters, but it never feels like too many. I grew very attached to all of them that is a sign of how strong the character writing is. These different POVs and multiple timelines gradually weave together to make sense of the whole, all while asking profound questions about where human civilisation is headed and what it means to exist. When the planet is destroyed, your home gone, and the future uncertain, what do we live for?
Some of the technical elements went over my head (coding, AI and other technological references ) but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story. It’s not a five-star read for me, only because I didn’t feel the deep emotional impact I expected from such an epic. Still, the ending left a gentle warmth in my heart. That was lovely.
I’d recommend this to people who enjoy:
- Kazuo Ishiguro’s books or other literary sci-fi focused on human connection and love
- Adventure stories
- Books set in the 1980s
- Found family themes
May 19, 2026
(2.5 stars, rounded down)
Thank you to Scribner Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of Homebound, the debut novel by Portia Elan. I know this will resonate with a lot of readers, but unfortunately, I was not the right reader for this one.
To begin with, I felt it was too disjointed and confusing. There are at least three main timelines and the author constantly bounces between them, making it hard to connect with any of them. The 1983 portion focuses on a 19-year-old, Becks, who is mourning the recent death of her beloved uncle, with whom she connected over computer technology. He has left her an unfinished computer game, with the goal of having Becks finish coding it. I’ve seen comparisons to Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, but that does a great disservice to Tomorrow x3, which I loved. Another large section takes place in the 26th century, after some climate disaster that has made the Earth mostly water, with very little land remaining. (We never found out what caused this.) Yesiko is the captain of a ship called Babylon. She is in debt to someone who has provided some life-saving technology to her crew and mentor, Root, but the debt means she takes on a lot of risk, including picking up two passengers, teen brother and sister, and a super-advanced sentient robot, who pay her to take them very far north. And between all of this are sections of emails from a scientist in the late 21st century. Plus what I eventually figured out was the game that Becks wound up writing: Homebound.
It took me 10 days to plow through this mess, which is way longer than I usually take, and it was only around 300 pages. I seriously considered DNF’ing it, but I wanted to see what all the buzz was about so kept going. (This book has been chosen by the Good Morning American book club.)
There are things I enjoyed - the themes of loneliness, of stories, of connection and found family. I also really enjoyed the references here and there to Jewish practices - Yesiko drops anchor on her ship to keep the Sabbath, for example, and says the ���shehechiyanu” prayer upon seeing whales. But overall, I just didn’t “get” this book at all.
As I said, others will like this one. In fact, I gifted my gifted hardcover to one of my adult sons, thinking it may be more his speed than mine.
Thank you to Scribner Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of Homebound, the debut novel by Portia Elan. I know this will resonate with a lot of readers, but unfortunately, I was not the right reader for this one.
To begin with, I felt it was too disjointed and confusing. There are at least three main timelines and the author constantly bounces between them, making it hard to connect with any of them. The 1983 portion focuses on a 19-year-old, Becks, who is mourning the recent death of her beloved uncle, with whom she connected over computer technology. He has left her an unfinished computer game, with the goal of having Becks finish coding it. I’ve seen comparisons to Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, but that does a great disservice to Tomorrow x3, which I loved. Another large section takes place in the 26th century, after some climate disaster that has made the Earth mostly water, with very little land remaining. (We never found out what caused this.) Yesiko is the captain of a ship called Babylon. She is in debt to someone who has provided some life-saving technology to her crew and mentor, Root, but the debt means she takes on a lot of risk, including picking up two passengers, teen brother and sister, and a super-advanced sentient robot, who pay her to take them very far north. And between all of this are sections of emails from a scientist in the late 21st century. Plus what I eventually figured out was the game that Becks wound up writing: Homebound.
It took me 10 days to plow through this mess, which is way longer than I usually take, and it was only around 300 pages. I seriously considered DNF’ing it, but I wanted to see what all the buzz was about so kept going. (This book has been chosen by the Good Morning American book club.)
There are things I enjoyed - the themes of loneliness, of stories, of connection and found family. I also really enjoyed the references here and there to Jewish practices - Yesiko drops anchor on her ship to keep the Sabbath, for example, and says the ���shehechiyanu” prayer upon seeing whales. But overall, I just didn’t “get” this book at all.
As I said, others will like this one. In fact, I gifted my gifted hardcover to one of my adult sons, thinking it may be more his speed than mine.
May 19, 2026
this book sunk its claws into me and would not let go because tell me why i read the entire thing in the span of eight hours? i abandoned my plan to watch the last two episodes of off campus for this (and i’m not mad about it)
i don’t think this book will work for everyone, because you need to be patient and really read it to make connections throughout the timelines and get the most out of the story. it definitely took me a bit to get into because at first i was just like why should i care about any of this? but i stuck with it and the pay off was so worth it for me.
brings up some thought-provoking concepts and themes that really shine in the story. there’s the human experience - the good, the bad, the ugly - and the use of automatons and space travel and these other futuristic ideas. what stood out the most to me was how these timelines, spaced hundreds of years apart, all had things interwoven throughout and between them. crazy to think that despite the amount of time and space between these people and events, the past still impacts the present and the future.
a great fast-paced, unique science fiction story overall!! this was the author’s debut novel and i can’t wait to see what she does next <3
𐙚⋆.˚pre-read
this was, in fact, my botm pick purely for the cover .. so let’s see how it goes 𖹭
i don’t think this book will work for everyone, because you need to be patient and really read it to make connections throughout the timelines and get the most out of the story. it definitely took me a bit to get into because at first i was just like why should i care about any of this? but i stuck with it and the pay off was so worth it for me.
brings up some thought-provoking concepts and themes that really shine in the story. there’s the human experience - the good, the bad, the ugly - and the use of automatons and space travel and these other futuristic ideas. what stood out the most to me was how these timelines, spaced hundreds of years apart, all had things interwoven throughout and between them. crazy to think that despite the amount of time and space between these people and events, the past still impacts the present and the future.
a great fast-paced, unique science fiction story overall!! this was the author’s debut novel and i can’t wait to see what she does next <3
𐙚⋆.˚pre-read
this was, in fact, my botm pick purely for the cover .. so let’s see how it goes 𖹭
Did Not Finish
May 10, 2026Supporting Israel in 2026? Whack.
May 7, 2026
This one wasn't for me. I listened on audio and I found the dystopian storyline incredibly difficult to follow. I enjoyed Becks 1983 story of grief and in getting into the gaming industry. I really appreciated her story and found her to be a compelling character. I do have a hard time sometime with dystopian or sci fi books so this one is perhaps on me and my attention span. I think I just had a hard time with the lack of dialogue.
March 23, 2026
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was so confusing and convoluted in my opinion I was definitely not a huge fan. For starters this book had way too many povs and only one of them was interesting in my opinion. Of the entire book revolved around the 1983 plot line I would have devoured this. The other povs were super boring in my opinion and the switch back and forth made it near impossible to care about what was going on. Second off the video game aspect didn’t play as huge a role in this as I would have assumed? I’m really confused as to where the tomorrow x3 comparison is coming from because this was nothing like that. I really wouldn’t recommend this but it seems other people are really enjoying this so it could 100% be a me problem.
May 17, 2026
4⭐️ I really liked this time bending multi timeline sci fi novel! Told from multi POV’s in 1983, 2090’s and 2586. I loved the themes of found family, the human connection, and the importance of storytelling and oral traditions through history.
In 1983 Becks is struggling after the death of her uncle from AIDS. He was developing an expansive sci fi video game and left the discs for her to continue. We see Becks dealing with her own sexuality and grief. This was my favorite timeline! Lots of nostalgia in the setting and story!
In between we get excerpts of the video game Homebound with astronaut Captain Sol and Elijah. I really loved this part!
The 2090’s is told as outgoing email messages from Dr Tamron discussing her work on the AI bots. This wasn’t as gripping to me but essential to bringing the other timelines together.
In the 2586 we see a dystopian setting in a water world. Yesiko is captaining her failing boat, The Babylon, with her uncle Root and cat Panem. They sail the world making do where they can while Root’s broken body is kept alive by Nanites. They take on paying passengers, Sula, her brother Tov and their AI companion Chaya. Yesiko learns they are on a quest north to prepare for the return of the voyaging astronaut Captain Sol. This timeline was intriguing, and chilling.
I loved the settings and found myself looking forward to the chapter switches to continue each characters stories. The use of storytelling and video games that reverberate through the centuries was central, heartwarming and a beautiful connection.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
In 1983 Becks is struggling after the death of her uncle from AIDS. He was developing an expansive sci fi video game and left the discs for her to continue. We see Becks dealing with her own sexuality and grief. This was my favorite timeline! Lots of nostalgia in the setting and story!
In between we get excerpts of the video game Homebound with astronaut Captain Sol and Elijah. I really loved this part!
The 2090’s is told as outgoing email messages from Dr Tamron discussing her work on the AI bots. This wasn’t as gripping to me but essential to bringing the other timelines together.
In the 2586 we see a dystopian setting in a water world. Yesiko is captaining her failing boat, The Babylon, with her uncle Root and cat Panem. They sail the world making do where they can while Root’s broken body is kept alive by Nanites. They take on paying passengers, Sula, her brother Tov and their AI companion Chaya. Yesiko learns they are on a quest north to prepare for the return of the voyaging astronaut Captain Sol. This timeline was intriguing, and chilling.
I loved the settings and found myself looking forward to the chapter switches to continue each characters stories. The use of storytelling and video games that reverberate through the centuries was central, heartwarming and a beautiful connection.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
May 5, 2026
Finished in time for this to officially release. This one may be the biggest disappointment of 2026.
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow this is not. Bring me back to a week ago when I hadn’t purchased it from BOTM.
There are so many things that don’t work for this one — multiple and scattered timelines, confusing plotting, and lagging entertainment. Who knew all of whatever the author is getting at could be so … boring.
Across these timelines — one in the past (my “favorite”), near distant future, and far future — we as readers are meant to understand and care for whatever is happening. It can’t be farther from the truth. It’s hard to do when you’re constantly thrown about the timelines and when there is so little that connects them outside of a game called Homebound. This game is so one dimensional (literally and figuratively) that it’s hard to believe it could have survived for centuries. It could not in our own reality — a choose your own adventure like the Oregon Trail will never be as popular the Mario series, but the author wants you to pretend!
Speaking of pretend, be prepared to do that as the book ends and most of these storylines are left incomplete. Kind of crazy to do when you’ve got so many balls in the air (and you just leave them there.) It could have been avoided had we just focused on one timeline, like the past, which led to the creation of the titular game, than giving us these mediocre stories. There’s other problems here — Bezos/Musk like character, dead gay uncle as a catalyst to change your life, coming out in the last handful of pages — that add insult to injury.
If this description sparked any interest, either reread Tomorrow (x3) or pick up Richard Powers’s Playground or Overstory. You won’t regret it.
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow this is not. Bring me back to a week ago when I hadn’t purchased it from BOTM.
There are so many things that don’t work for this one — multiple and scattered timelines, confusing plotting, and lagging entertainment. Who knew all of whatever the author is getting at could be so … boring.
Across these timelines — one in the past (my “favorite”), near distant future, and far future — we as readers are meant to understand and care for whatever is happening. It can’t be farther from the truth. It’s hard to do when you’re constantly thrown about the timelines and when there is so little that connects them outside of a game called Homebound. This game is so one dimensional (literally and figuratively) that it’s hard to believe it could have survived for centuries. It could not in our own reality — a choose your own adventure like the Oregon Trail will never be as popular the Mario series, but the author wants you to pretend!
Speaking of pretend, be prepared to do that as the book ends and most of these storylines are left incomplete. Kind of crazy to do when you’ve got so many balls in the air (and you just leave them there.) It could have been avoided had we just focused on one timeline, like the past, which led to the creation of the titular game, than giving us these mediocre stories. There’s other problems here — Bezos/Musk like character, dead gay uncle as a catalyst to change your life, coming out in the last handful of pages — that add insult to injury.
If this description sparked any interest, either reread Tomorrow (x3) or pick up Richard Powers’s Playground or Overstory. You won’t regret it.
June 18, 2026
⭐ A Big Idea Buried in a Confusing Mess
Homebound by Portia Elan was a book I wanted to admire more than I actually did. The premise immediately appealed to me because it suggested an ambitious, multi-layered novel in the style of Cloud Atlas, with separate timelines, speculative elements, and a computer game structure that would eventually reveal a larger purpose. On paper, that sounded exactly like the kind of strange and literary science fiction I could appreciate. In practice, however, the novel never gave me a clear enough reason to believe that its many pieces belonged together.
I will give the book credit for ambition. Portia Elan is clearly trying to create something expansive and unconventional, and I did enjoy parts of Becks’s 1980s storyline. The details of working in a music store, buying concert tickets in person, and living in a world before everything moved online felt grounded and nostalgic. Becks was probably the only character who felt fully real to me. The issue is that the other timelines never came together in a way that felt convincing. I understood the individual storylines, but I did not understand why they were connected beyond the fact that the author seemed to insist they were.
The computer game sections were especially difficult because they were not enjoyable to read and only added to my confusion. Rather than making the novel feel clever or interconnected, they made the structure feel even more scattered. I kept reading because I thought the book might eventually reward my patience and pull everything together in a meaningful way, but that moment never came. By the end, I felt more frustrated than moved, impressed, or satisfied. This was a definite 1-star read for me, and I would not recommend it.
Homebound by Portia Elan was a book I wanted to admire more than I actually did. The premise immediately appealed to me because it suggested an ambitious, multi-layered novel in the style of Cloud Atlas, with separate timelines, speculative elements, and a computer game structure that would eventually reveal a larger purpose. On paper, that sounded exactly like the kind of strange and literary science fiction I could appreciate. In practice, however, the novel never gave me a clear enough reason to believe that its many pieces belonged together.
I will give the book credit for ambition. Portia Elan is clearly trying to create something expansive and unconventional, and I did enjoy parts of Becks’s 1980s storyline. The details of working in a music store, buying concert tickets in person, and living in a world before everything moved online felt grounded and nostalgic. Becks was probably the only character who felt fully real to me. The issue is that the other timelines never came together in a way that felt convincing. I understood the individual storylines, but I did not understand why they were connected beyond the fact that the author seemed to insist they were.
The computer game sections were especially difficult because they were not enjoyable to read and only added to my confusion. Rather than making the novel feel clever or interconnected, they made the structure feel even more scattered. I kept reading because I thought the book might eventually reward my patience and pull everything together in a meaningful way, but that moment never came. By the end, I felt more frustrated than moved, impressed, or satisfied. This was a definite 1-star read for me, and I would not recommend it.
May 9, 2026
Gifted 💌: Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for the free ARC 💙
3.75 ⭐️ !!
This was such a heartwarming, quietly powerful read 🫶🏼 💌
It follows three strong women in different timelines, and slowly we start to see how their stories weave together…..✨
In the 1980s, we meet Bex, who is grieving the loss of her late uncle. Their relationship was so special ..full of memories, and moments where he teaches her coding as she grows up. That emotional core really grounded the story for me.
Then we jump to the 2580s with Jesiko, a sea captain in a world where people travel by boat. She takes on passengers who bring along a robot, and they’re on a mission to find a lost astronaut… which immediately had me intrigued.
And in another timeline, we follow Doctor Portman, who is working to solve the crisis of global warming 🌍
At first, you know these stories are connected somehow, but the “how” isn’t revealed right away and honestly, that was one of my favorite parts. I loved piecing everything together and slowly realizing how these lives intertwine. It felt so satisfying when it all clicked into place.
The way these stories come together was honestly beautiful 🤍 it made the whole journey feel meaningful and intentional.
Overall, such a solid and impressive debut! Definitely one I’d recommend if you like character driven stories with layered timelines and a touch of sci-fi ✨
3.75 ⭐️ !!
This was such a heartwarming, quietly powerful read 🫶🏼 💌
It follows three strong women in different timelines, and slowly we start to see how their stories weave together…..✨
In the 1980s, we meet Bex, who is grieving the loss of her late uncle. Their relationship was so special ..full of memories, and moments where he teaches her coding as she grows up. That emotional core really grounded the story for me.
Then we jump to the 2580s with Jesiko, a sea captain in a world where people travel by boat. She takes on passengers who bring along a robot, and they’re on a mission to find a lost astronaut… which immediately had me intrigued.
And in another timeline, we follow Doctor Portman, who is working to solve the crisis of global warming 🌍
At first, you know these stories are connected somehow, but the “how” isn’t revealed right away and honestly, that was one of my favorite parts. I loved piecing everything together and slowly realizing how these lives intertwine. It felt so satisfying when it all clicked into place.
The way these stories come together was honestly beautiful 🤍 it made the whole journey feel meaningful and intentional.
Overall, such a solid and impressive debut! Definitely one I’d recommend if you like character driven stories with layered timelines and a touch of sci-fi ✨
March 5, 2026
this book tries to do far too much and spends far too little time actually developing each of its three storylines for me to actually care about any of them. sure they're interconnected but it's so loosely that it feels like you're reading three entirely different, mid stories. the teenage grief of a newly realized gay girl in the 80s just really has nothing to do with a ship voyage carrying a robot with delusions of space travel.
![Profile Image for laurel [the suspected bibliophile].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1645808644i/7494844._UX200_CR0,6,200,200_.jpg)
June 2, 2026
We must be willing to move from curiosity to certainty and then back again.
Oh I really enjoyed this one. Multiple storylines, multiple timelines, community and connection and queerness driving the story itself. And it is so gloriously Jewish. So many analogies, so many stories, and it really, really works. It's very literary sci-fi.
Anywho, go into it knowing as little as possible. Just trust me on this.
If you enjoyed Down in the Sea of Angels, you'll enjoy Homebound.
Mild caveat: I know Portia from one of our writing groups. 1) she is a fantastic human being and 2) I am so, so glad she's found success in this book! Her writing is gorgeous.
I received an ARC from the publisher
Oh I really enjoyed this one. Multiple storylines, multiple timelines, community and connection and queerness driving the story itself. And it is so gloriously Jewish. So many analogies, so many stories, and it really, really works. It's very literary sci-fi.
Anywho, go into it knowing as little as possible. Just trust me on this.
If you enjoyed Down in the Sea of Angels, you'll enjoy Homebound.
Mild caveat: I know Portia from one of our writing groups. 1) she is a fantastic human being and 2) I am so, so glad she's found success in this book! Her writing is gorgeous.
I received an ARC from the publisher
May 11, 2026
Thank you @scribnerbooks + @simon.audio for gifted audio! ♡
Read if you love:
💾 computer programmer culture
🎮 text based video games of the 80s
🌌 storytelling as a way of remembering
⛵️ sailboat life, voyaging, + discovery
🌊 post apocalyptic underwater worlds
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYM75ARFheV/
With elements of wayfaring and exploring, this is a contemplative and ambitious debut spanning half a millennia, evoking nostalgia for times long gone and wonder at the vastness of space and time.
This reads like literary fiction with multiple timelines as well as mixed media formats: from a command line video game console, to epistolary, and third and second person POVs.
At times it could be hard to track, but for the amount of complexity I think it was well handled.
I loved the sailing timeline with Yesiko, Root and Panim 🐈⬛, and the 1980s timeline with Becks coming of age talking to her beloved dead uncle. The other timeline didn’t speak to me the same way.
I’ve seen this compared to Tomorrow x 3 and I don’t agree as the pacing is quite different and non-linear. Plus this has scifi and dystopian worlds. The only similarity is the nod to text based computer games..
I had to concentrate and reflect. I’m still thinking about that ending and how everything tied together with Elijah + California Solo. Beautiful writing, this will not be for everyone but I’m glad I read
▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||။|• 🎧 Lisa Flanagan, Helen Laser, Yu-Li Alice Shen, and Nancy Wu were a stellar cast. I personally enjoyed the audio, although if you have trouble following timeline jumps and perspective shifts, it would be best to pair with text.
3.5⭐️ rounded up
Read if you love:
💾 computer programmer culture
🎮 text based video games of the 80s
🌌 storytelling as a way of remembering
⛵️ sailboat life, voyaging, + discovery
🌊 post apocalyptic underwater worlds
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYM75ARFheV/
With elements of wayfaring and exploring, this is a contemplative and ambitious debut spanning half a millennia, evoking nostalgia for times long gone and wonder at the vastness of space and time.
This reads like literary fiction with multiple timelines as well as mixed media formats: from a command line video game console, to epistolary, and third and second person POVs.
At times it could be hard to track, but for the amount of complexity I think it was well handled.
I loved the sailing timeline with Yesiko, Root and Panim 🐈⬛, and the 1980s timeline with Becks coming of age talking to her beloved dead uncle. The other timeline didn’t speak to me the same way.
I’ve seen this compared to Tomorrow x 3 and I don’t agree as the pacing is quite different and non-linear. Plus this has scifi and dystopian worlds. The only similarity is the nod to text based computer games..
I had to concentrate and reflect. I’m still thinking about that ending and how everything tied together with Elijah + California Solo. Beautiful writing, this will not be for everyone but I’m glad I read
▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||။|• 🎧 Lisa Flanagan, Helen Laser, Yu-Li Alice Shen, and Nancy Wu were a stellar cast. I personally enjoyed the audio, although if you have trouble following timeline jumps and perspective shifts, it would be best to pair with text.
3.5⭐️ rounded up
May 30, 2026
I had high hopes for Homebound. The structure was immediately giving Sea of Tranquility: multiple timelines and the promise that these separate stories would eventually click together in a meaningful way.
I enjoyed each timeline on its own. The characters were intriguing, the settings were vivid, and several scenes really worked for me. The text-based video game section was probably my favorite part. It reminded me of playing games like Zork as a kid.
And I loved the concert scene with 20 year old Becks discovering something about herself that absolutely nailed the feeling of being young, overwhelmed, and alive at a concert. I could feel the noise, the chaos, the drinks, the crowd, the whole thing.
One of the strongest themes was the idea that humanity keeps looking for another planet to escape to instead of putting that same energy, money, and imagination into caring for the planet we already have. That part really landed.
Unfortunately, the ending did not. The timelines do connect, but only loosely, and I never got the emotional or thematic payoff I was hoping for. Each storyline had things I liked, but together they didn’t fully add up for me.
A frustrating 3 ⭐️
I enjoyed each timeline on its own. The characters were intriguing, the settings were vivid, and several scenes really worked for me. The text-based video game section was probably my favorite part. It reminded me of playing games like Zork as a kid.
And I loved the concert scene with 20 year old Becks discovering something about herself that absolutely nailed the feeling of being young, overwhelmed, and alive at a concert. I could feel the noise, the chaos, the drinks, the crowd, the whole thing.
One of the strongest themes was the idea that humanity keeps looking for another planet to escape to instead of putting that same energy, money, and imagination into caring for the planet we already have. That part really landed.
Unfortunately, the ending did not. The timelines do connect, but only loosely, and I never got the emotional or thematic payoff I was hoping for. Each storyline had things I liked, but together they didn’t fully add up for me.
A frustrating 3 ⭐️
November 1, 2025
In Homebound, we follow three main timelines in 1983, 2090-2093, and 2586 (+ a play log of a game in 2093 and a few moment’s from Chaya, the robot’s perspective over time). The 1983 and 2586 timelines are written in first and third person prose while the 2090-2093 timeline is written in a series of emails. I loved each of these narratives and the relatively short chapters kept the pace feeling high (yet gentle as this book as little “action” in) so that I was compelled to pick up and keep reading this book throughout. One of the many reasons that this book so fun to read is the fact that you are always trying to piece together how these narratives fit together. This mystery of sorts is well-balanced as it doesn’t remain very difficult to piece together for long, which prevents you becoming frustrated by any unnecessarily prolonged confusion.
The book is very character-focused, which I love, while still being able to weave in world building of the dystopian future. The world building is done subtly and never felt like it was on-the-nose. This is my favourite way to understand a sci-fi world: gradually being drip fed by the narrative.
One core theme of the book is how we remember those we loved and lost by telling stories. Although the last few pages did lay out this idea a bit more obviously than I felt it needed to, with the more subtle portrayal of this idea which shone throughout the rest of this book being more effective in my opinion, I liked how this theme was presented. Particularly in the story told through the game and Root and Yesiko’s relationship.
Queerness is also a big theme which runs through this book, and the way in which the experience of queer love and the struggles that came with being queer (particularly in the 1980s for both men and women) is beautifully done.
I love books which involve games and look at game making, or any sort of story telling medium for that matter (e.g. also film or books), and enjoyed reading the sections where the game was played. It was very interesting to think about how the game interweaved with the various narratives in the book, whether because the game was written by or played by the characters. The stories that were told directly through the game were also compelling and I felt invested in each of the characters the game character was helping, which is very impressive especially considering how few pages were spent in each scenario.
I often struggle with robot characters, but I really liked Chaya. I think robot characters can just feel like they are thrown into sci-fi books without a clear purpose and thus aren’t done well, but Chaya being a robot was deeply embedded in the plot and how their character worked. It also gave them interesting flaws that helped drive the plot as well as explore the theme of story-telling.
On that point, I loved all of the characters in this book and found them all to be incredibly vivid and compelling whether they were a main perspective character or not. It was also so refreshing to have an older female perspective (Yesiko in 2586) where her age is important for her character, as it would be with anyone, but is not in any way the focus of her character.
This book reminded me a lot of Emily St. John Mandel’s books, particularly ‘The Glass Hotel’ and ‘Sea of Tranquility’ in the structure of the narrative and character/theme-driven sci-fi. I am incredibly excited to see what Portia Elan writes next!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
The book is very character-focused, which I love, while still being able to weave in world building of the dystopian future. The world building is done subtly and never felt like it was on-the-nose. This is my favourite way to understand a sci-fi world: gradually being drip fed by the narrative.
One core theme of the book is how we remember those we loved and lost by telling stories. Although the last few pages did lay out this idea a bit more obviously than I felt it needed to, with the more subtle portrayal of this idea which shone throughout the rest of this book being more effective in my opinion, I liked how this theme was presented. Particularly in the story told through the game and Root and Yesiko’s relationship.
Queerness is also a big theme which runs through this book, and the way in which the experience of queer love and the struggles that came with being queer (particularly in the 1980s for both men and women) is beautifully done.
I love books which involve games and look at game making, or any sort of story telling medium for that matter (e.g. also film or books), and enjoyed reading the sections where the game was played. It was very interesting to think about how the game interweaved with the various narratives in the book, whether because the game was written by or played by the characters. The stories that were told directly through the game were also compelling and I felt invested in each of the characters the game character was helping, which is very impressive especially considering how few pages were spent in each scenario.
I often struggle with robot characters, but I really liked Chaya. I think robot characters can just feel like they are thrown into sci-fi books without a clear purpose and thus aren’t done well, but Chaya being a robot was deeply embedded in the plot and how their character worked. It also gave them interesting flaws that helped drive the plot as well as explore the theme of story-telling.
On that point, I loved all of the characters in this book and found them all to be incredibly vivid and compelling whether they were a main perspective character or not. It was also so refreshing to have an older female perspective (Yesiko in 2586) where her age is important for her character, as it would be with anyone, but is not in any way the focus of her character.
This book reminded me a lot of Emily St. John Mandel’s books, particularly ‘The Glass Hotel’ and ‘Sea of Tranquility’ in the structure of the narrative and character/theme-driven sci-fi. I am incredibly excited to see what Portia Elan writes next!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
May 14, 2026
This book could’ve been slightly better if it just told one story or it was significantly longer (however I’m not sure I liked the prose enough to read more than what was already included). It’s kinda sorta, for lack of a better description, an attempt at an encyclopedic novel. Except in those types of novels there tends to be a specific set of related topics expounded upon in some way across an absurd amount of pages. This book is the opposite. There were many instances where way too much unnecessary detail was added that made reading the book a bore. Detail can be good even if it’s not needed, but it needs to be written nicely. Like I said, I didn’t like the prose. I also found the three or four? maybe five? different story lines to be largely uninteresting. Non of the characters were very interesting except the teen girl, but her story wasn’t given enough attention because we had to focus on boats and robots. Overall just way too much going on in this 300 page book. Less is more. The lines that were supposed to come across as profound or deep just didn’t land for me and felt like 2010s tumblr posts. Idk in such a short book splitting the attention between so many different stories is a big risk, and it really did not pay off for this book. There was also a few queer elements that just felt so underdeveloped to the point that their inclusion seemed random, rushed, and silly. One final note, if you’re not writing a series, I don’t think it’s a good idea to make up new technology or drugs or whatever. Especially when these things are only apart of maybe 1/3 of the overall story. Just another example of doing too much in too little of a book.
May 6, 2026
it’s laughable to me that they tried to use tomorrowx3 as a comp title for this when it’s so much closer to cloud cuckoo land by anthony doerr. the only real connection it has to TTT is the video game element, otherwise it’s all weird structure and reaching through time and watching the earth change and die in human hands. this book does not have quite the same depth or complexity as CCL, but i cannot discard the similarities, and i think it’s why i did like parts of it so much. two sides of a similar coin.
that said, i struggled through this. it’s a short book, and at times it moves fairly quickly, but it took me a long time to sink into the story and truly care about the characters. the first half was slow going, and for a while there i didn’t think i’d actually finish this. it wasn’t until part two that i felt interested enough to really commit. somewhere along the way i decided to bump it to four stars because i do see the vision, and parts of this are so smart and cool and interesting — and the final puzzle piece with the actual game that portia coded (? made? created?) was fanTASTIC — but truthfully the book hovered at 3/3.5 for most of the beginning.
i wanted to like this more than i did, and i think my critiques of it will always hold me back from loving this as much as i loved CCL, but by the end i really did love the characters, and i think the way it all connected was quite beautiful…i just wanted a bit more from it.
overall, i applaud the author for this work because it does a wonderful job exploring our AI future while also sitting with our late-1900s past. there’s some really great exploration in here about humanity, about technology, about why we need to archive ourselves and our stories. i cared most about becks, which is a shame because for being such a central part of the story…we barely got to see her character explored firsthand. so much of the characters in this are secondhand - living their lives in the past or off the page, waiting to be remembered by the narrative. i think i would’ve liked for her story to be more front and center - because she IS the story in many ways - but i do think the author managed to say a lot with very few words.
the homebound excerpts were also some of my favorite parts. i loved the plot of the game but also it’s fantastically unique writing, to use (and i don’t know the proper term here so let’s just use—) code and the style of a video game to tell a story…it was wonderfully executed when it was on the page.
i think books like this are often the most frustrating for me as a reader because it has all the makings of a book that would drive me insane forever, and yet something is holding it back. characters? length? execution? all of these things. i think if it were about 100 pages longer and we spent less time focusing on babylon, i would’ve been more satisfied with it. i had the hardest time getting through yesiko’s chapters because they felt the most sci-fi to me, and it was winding in a way that did not compel me. part of why CCL is so wonderful is that even though you don’t know how everything connects, you’re settled in the present watching the characters live, whereas this one i felt like i was frantically trying to get back to the povs i was missing.
mixed feelings! i wanted a lot more from it! but also it was really good at times! and i loved the interactive video game elements online! the lighthouse game at the end in particular almost made me cry!!!!
that said, i struggled through this. it’s a short book, and at times it moves fairly quickly, but it took me a long time to sink into the story and truly care about the characters. the first half was slow going, and for a while there i didn’t think i’d actually finish this. it wasn’t until part two that i felt interested enough to really commit. somewhere along the way i decided to bump it to four stars because i do see the vision, and parts of this are so smart and cool and interesting — and the final puzzle piece with the actual game that portia coded (? made? created?) was fanTASTIC — but truthfully the book hovered at 3/3.5 for most of the beginning.
i wanted to like this more than i did, and i think my critiques of it will always hold me back from loving this as much as i loved CCL, but by the end i really did love the characters, and i think the way it all connected was quite beautiful…i just wanted a bit more from it.
overall, i applaud the author for this work because it does a wonderful job exploring our AI future while also sitting with our late-1900s past. there’s some really great exploration in here about humanity, about technology, about why we need to archive ourselves and our stories. i cared most about becks, which is a shame because for being such a central part of the story…we barely got to see her character explored firsthand. so much of the characters in this are secondhand - living their lives in the past or off the page, waiting to be remembered by the narrative. i think i would’ve liked for her story to be more front and center - because she IS the story in many ways - but i do think the author managed to say a lot with very few words.
the homebound excerpts were also some of my favorite parts. i loved the plot of the game but also it’s fantastically unique writing, to use (and i don’t know the proper term here so let’s just use—) code and the style of a video game to tell a story…it was wonderfully executed when it was on the page.
i think books like this are often the most frustrating for me as a reader because it has all the makings of a book that would drive me insane forever, and yet something is holding it back. characters? length? execution? all of these things. i think if it were about 100 pages longer and we spent less time focusing on babylon, i would’ve been more satisfied with it. i had the hardest time getting through yesiko’s chapters because they felt the most sci-fi to me, and it was winding in a way that did not compel me. part of why CCL is so wonderful is that even though you don’t know how everything connects, you’re settled in the present watching the characters live, whereas this one i felt like i was frantically trying to get back to the povs i was missing.
mixed feelings! i wanted a lot more from it! but also it was really good at times! and i loved the interactive video game elements online! the lighthouse game at the end in particular almost made me cry!!!!
March 31, 2026
Look, I’m not a people person. I’m a shy, socially anxious, awkward introvert. But this book about people finding connection across a sweeping timeline warmed my heart and had me in a tearful state pretty much the whole way through.
Homebound is an absolutely gorgeous debut novel. Words can’t describe how much I cared for all the characters, how real and alive they were, jumping right of the pages and into my heart. It was certainly ambitious, to write a bunch of timelines that are connected by a small thread, but it works out so well. Homebound is well-written, well-executed, and a total delight to read.
I think when a book leaves you emotional, that’s a good thing. Homebound delivered on that. I’m not just tearful, I’m also hopeful, and happy, and that’s hard to get in today’s world.
You don’t have to like sci-fi, or computer games, to enjoy Homebound. This story is about connection and love, something we can all relate to and appreciate. I can’t wait to see what else author Portia Elan comes up with.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing the ARC of this book. This review is my honest and voluntary opinion.
Homebound is an absolutely gorgeous debut novel. Words can’t describe how much I cared for all the characters, how real and alive they were, jumping right of the pages and into my heart. It was certainly ambitious, to write a bunch of timelines that are connected by a small thread, but it works out so well. Homebound is well-written, well-executed, and a total delight to read.
I think when a book leaves you emotional, that’s a good thing. Homebound delivered on that. I’m not just tearful, I’m also hopeful, and happy, and that’s hard to get in today’s world.
You don’t have to like sci-fi, or computer games, to enjoy Homebound. This story is about connection and love, something we can all relate to and appreciate. I can’t wait to see what else author Portia Elan comes up with.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing the ARC of this book. This review is my honest and voluntary opinion.
June 3, 2026
In 1983, Becks, a 19-year-old grieving her uncle, tries to complete the unfinished computer game he left behind, while a separate storyline follows Yesiko, a ship captain navigating a flooded future Earth alongside two siblings and a sentient robot. Interspersed emails from a late 21st century scientist eventually reveal connections between these narratives and the game Becks creates, Homebound.
This is one of those books where I love the idea more than the execution. I don’t know if my issue was the pacing, the tone, or the POVs themselves, but I struggled with both the beginning and the ending of the book. The pacing was slow and the tone a little dull (or at least it read that way to me), and the writing was more introspective than I typically like.
When it comes to the POVs, I don’t know if this is a universal expectation, but I grew up watching LOST, so I’m used to following characters and then having the POV switch when something happened that had a WTF factor, a cliffhanger, or something directly connected to the other POV in the episode (usually with a dark or shocking aspect attached to it). Here, it wasn’t always like that. In fact, I’d say it usually wasn’t. Most POV sections sent me into a “Was this bit needed?” and “Did anything actually happen there?” spiral. They felt slow-paced and introspective, with very little happening, and many could have been fused with the previous or following chapter.
The connection between the main storylines was also pretty obvious. I kept expecting a twist. 🤷♀️
Anyway, I can absolutely see why people could love this book, but it didn’t quite work for me.
This is one of those books where I love the idea more than the execution. I don’t know if my issue was the pacing, the tone, or the POVs themselves, but I struggled with both the beginning and the ending of the book. The pacing was slow and the tone a little dull (or at least it read that way to me), and the writing was more introspective than I typically like.
When it comes to the POVs, I don’t know if this is a universal expectation, but I grew up watching LOST, so I’m used to following characters and then having the POV switch when something happened that had a WTF factor, a cliffhanger, or something directly connected to the other POV in the episode (usually with a dark or shocking aspect attached to it). Here, it wasn’t always like that. In fact, I’d say it usually wasn’t. Most POV sections sent me into a “Was this bit needed?” and “Did anything actually happen there?” spiral. They felt slow-paced and introspective, with very little happening, and many could have been fused with the previous or following chapter.
The connection between the main storylines was also pretty obvious. I kept expecting a twist. 🤷♀️
Anyway, I can absolutely see why people could love this book, but it didn’t quite work for me.
May 11, 2026
Good games let you do something meaningful inside the game world, change something, and in the changing, the player is also transformed somehow. Comes out different than they were when they pressed start.
To say that Homebound is ambitious is an understatement. It unfolds on multiple timelines spanning several centuries, follows a complex cast of characters with vastly different worldviews, and dabbles in and out of reality, on Earth and in the far reaches of space. And it tries to do all of this in just over 300 pages. In my opinion, it needed at least a hundred more to do justice to the stories being told.
It’s 1983 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and nineteen-year-old Becks is grieving the loss of her beloved uncle. They bonded over their love of computer games, and he left something behind for Becks: a half-finished game for her to complete. There’s no way for Becks to know how important that project will become, how it will echo far into the future, connecting and shaping the lives of so many beings - human and otherwise.
I really appreciated Homebound’s profound themes: interconnectedness, loneliness and belonging, self-discovery and self-love, friendship and found family. Portia Elan explores these ideas within a bold, complex vision of Earth’s future that’s incredibly compelling, both inventive and all too imaginable. But despite my appreciation for Elan’s ambition and meaningful themes, I struggled to connect with Homebound. I found reading it kind of exhausting, actually.
The multiple timelines and points-of-view were almost immediately too convoluted. It was a struggle to keep the characters straight, especially because, for the most part, they didn’t have a lot of depth. The most well-developed character was Becks, and it felt like her sections were the briefest. It seemed like Elan was trying to cram so much into a regular-length novel - complex worlds, a mixed media format, the vast interconnectedness of humanity - that it all just became too complicated. The book needed to be much longer to give the characters, concepts, and worlds the attention they truly deserved.
I went into this hoping to feel about it the way I did about Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Cloud Cuckoo Land. Although it does share minor similarities with both of those books, it just didn’t hit me the way those did. There are so many good ideas here; the execution just needed more finesse to make Homebound truly special. Thank you to Scribner for the complimentary reading opportunity.
May 9, 2026
Ugh you just know the writer thinks she so clever juggling all these POVs and storylines but it didn’t work at all, the only character that felt real was Becks and we don’t actually spend much time with her
I thought this was going to be like Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow… it is not!
I thought this was going to be like Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow… it is not!
May 14, 2026
What an incredibly immersive and heartfelt journey this was. “It’s how we know who we are. We keep the stories and the stories keep us.” ❤️ 4.75 ⭐
May 27, 2026
For me this novel didn’t quite work. From what I have read I suspect listening to it did the novel a disservice. I liked the idea very much and the themes were all ones I enjoy - what is life all about, choosing our family, identity, sci-fi, stories we tell ourselves. But I wasn’t particularly interested in some of the characters - Yesiko in particular - and I am not sure why. I liked Becks very much and wanted more of her story.
3.5 stars.
3.5 stars.
May 9, 2026
(rounded up from 4.5)
This was delightful. Hopeful dystopia might be the right phrase for it. It is also extremely queer (main and side characters are queer and dealing with it in their own lives and through relationships with others).
As with another dystopian book that highlights the importance of art even in times of trying to survive (Station Eleven, I loved the core message of storytelling via oral tradition and video games being essentially "human".
This is a bit Cloud Atlas-like (but much less pretentious) as we skip between miultiple timelines to see the story of a video game created by a loving uncle and his teenage niece and the impact it has across time decades later and then six hundred years later. This was heartwarming, hopeful, and about overcoming loneliness and cynicism with storytelling and connection.
This was delightful. Hopeful dystopia might be the right phrase for it. It is also extremely queer (main and side characters are queer and dealing with it in their own lives and through relationships with others).
As with another dystopian book that highlights the importance of art even in times of trying to survive (Station Eleven, I loved the core message of storytelling via oral tradition and video games being essentially "human".
This is a bit Cloud Atlas-like (but much less pretentious) as we skip between miultiple timelines to see the story of a video game created by a loving uncle and his teenage niece and the impact it has across time decades later and then six hundred years later. This was heartwarming, hopeful, and about overcoming loneliness and cynicism with storytelling and connection.
June 12, 2026
An interesting premise, with some storylines being more interesting than others.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 614 reviews