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Warp
How am I this age? How is yesterday tomorrow? And tomorrow yesterday? Hailey suddenly finds herself hopping from one age of her life to another, with no clue how she is able to time travel and no clue how to keep what she loves the most when she lives without it in the future.
Kindle Edition
Published July 23, 2018
About the author
Natalie Lynn Harrison
1 book4 followersNatalie Lynn Harrison has a certificate in creative writing from UC Berkeley Extension. She was a finalist in American Writer's Review 2022 non-fiction contest and has work forthcoming in Miniskirt Mag. She lives on a shady street in a sweltering Sacramento with her husband and their three-year-old daughter. Follow her on Twitter @nattywritergirl
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 6, 2020
In Warp, main character Hailey is held captive by an unknown entity and forced to time-travel without rhyme or reason. The nature of this entity is unknown and unimportant. Further, there seems to be no method to the madness: one day it's the past, then it's the future, then it's the present, and then back to the past again.
Each time Hailey wakes up (whether in her bed, someone else's bed, or a dentist's office post-surgery), her first task is to determine where in time she is. Her second task is to figure out how not to screw things up. She feels compelled to repeat the past exactly as she remembers it for fear of ruining all the days that come after. And she's terrified in the future because she has to piece together what she's done with her life.
It's tragic to see her confusion play out. Take a book off your shelf, read only half of it, and then tear all the pages out. Now reattach them to the spine in a random order. One minute, you're on page 6, then you're on page 312. Then it's 17, followed by 5, then 49, 211, 192, 54, and so on. It's a concept album from a prog rock band played on shuffle.
And this is Hailey's life.
(Quick update, 03/06/20: And this is also the same premise as Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, a book I happened upon a month or so after reading Warp. If you liked that book, I reckon you'll like this one too.)
There are two really interesting things explored in this sci-fi-ish novella. The first is that Hailey's confusion is obvious to the people around her. She may find herself dropped into the middle of a weeks-long altercation without context. Or perhaps dropped into a passenger seat without any idea where the car is headed. She's seen as a space cadet, someone who doesn't listen, who needs to be told things several times for it to stick. Little do they know, she was there for Monday and Wednesday, but she hasn't yet experienced whatever it was she was told on Tuesday.
The second is her past romance with one guy, mixed in with her future marriage to another guy. The present, real-time Hailey is still in the throes of her failed romance and hasn't even met her future husband. So it's torture for her to be transported one day back to the happiest moments of her previous relationship, only to be whisked away the next to the unfamiliar bed of a man who says he's her husband.
If these sound like major spoilers, don't worry -- they're not. This is just the preamble, and the book takes a number of twists and turns from here.
I wasn't crazy about the ending. For one thing, there was some serious deus ex machina employed. But more importantly, it felt abrupt. Not the last few paragraphs specifically -- that was brilliant in my opinion. But after a graceful, quintessentially art-house pace through the first 47 chapters, the resolution at chapters 48 and 49 play out like someone hit fast-forward. Regardless, taken as a whole, I thought Warp was fantastic.
This is a self-published book, but one that is surprisingly well written. I'm not saying the copyediting is perfect, just that it was written with care. One of my favorite authors is Arthur C. Clarke, and my favorite thing about him is how much he manages to say in just a few words. Take, for example, his short story "The Star." The first sentence reads, "It is three thousand light-years to the Vatican." In just that handful of words, he's communicated to the reader that the narrator is traveling through space, is utilizing a propulsion technology that doesn't yet exist, and is Catholic.
Similarly, it's impressive how quickly and effortlessly the author establishes the premise. That Hailey is a time traveler, that at the particular age she's been dropped into, things haven't yet become complicated between her and her first love; that she has to adjust to the chaotic calendar she's working with.
Highly recommended. It’s chaotic, but the main character successfully communicates what’s going on so you’re unlikely to ever feel lost.
Each time Hailey wakes up (whether in her bed, someone else's bed, or a dentist's office post-surgery), her first task is to determine where in time she is. Her second task is to figure out how not to screw things up. She feels compelled to repeat the past exactly as she remembers it for fear of ruining all the days that come after. And she's terrified in the future because she has to piece together what she's done with her life.
It's tragic to see her confusion play out. Take a book off your shelf, read only half of it, and then tear all the pages out. Now reattach them to the spine in a random order. One minute, you're on page 6, then you're on page 312. Then it's 17, followed by 5, then 49, 211, 192, 54, and so on. It's a concept album from a prog rock band played on shuffle.
And this is Hailey's life.
(Quick update, 03/06/20: And this is also the same premise as Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, a book I happened upon a month or so after reading Warp. If you liked that book, I reckon you'll like this one too.)
There are two really interesting things explored in this sci-fi-ish novella. The first is that Hailey's confusion is obvious to the people around her. She may find herself dropped into the middle of a weeks-long altercation without context. Or perhaps dropped into a passenger seat without any idea where the car is headed. She's seen as a space cadet, someone who doesn't listen, who needs to be told things several times for it to stick. Little do they know, she was there for Monday and Wednesday, but she hasn't yet experienced whatever it was she was told on Tuesday.
The second is her past romance with one guy, mixed in with her future marriage to another guy. The present, real-time Hailey is still in the throes of her failed romance and hasn't even met her future husband. So it's torture for her to be transported one day back to the happiest moments of her previous relationship, only to be whisked away the next to the unfamiliar bed of a man who says he's her husband.
If these sound like major spoilers, don't worry -- they're not. This is just the preamble, and the book takes a number of twists and turns from here.
I wasn't crazy about the ending. For one thing, there was some serious deus ex machina employed. But more importantly, it felt abrupt. Not the last few paragraphs specifically -- that was brilliant in my opinion. But after a graceful, quintessentially art-house pace through the first 47 chapters, the resolution at chapters 48 and 49 play out like someone hit fast-forward. Regardless, taken as a whole, I thought Warp was fantastic.
This is a self-published book, but one that is surprisingly well written. I'm not saying the copyediting is perfect, just that it was written with care. One of my favorite authors is Arthur C. Clarke, and my favorite thing about him is how much he manages to say in just a few words. Take, for example, his short story "The Star." The first sentence reads, "It is three thousand light-years to the Vatican." In just that handful of words, he's communicated to the reader that the narrator is traveling through space, is utilizing a propulsion technology that doesn't yet exist, and is Catholic.
Similarly, it's impressive how quickly and effortlessly the author establishes the premise. That Hailey is a time traveler, that at the particular age she's been dropped into, things haven't yet become complicated between her and her first love; that she has to adjust to the chaotic calendar she's working with.
Highly recommended. It’s chaotic, but the main character successfully communicates what’s going on so you’re unlikely to ever feel lost.
July 23, 2018
This was a beautiful and exciting piece of fiction that successfully creates a new and unique take on time travel. When working with this sort of subject I would assume it could be difficult to weave intricate and complicated concepts involving time travel but it was remarkable how fluidly she weaved the story together. It flowed very well and really sucked me into the narrative. I found empathy for the characters which had the perfect amount of depth for a novella as we all went on quite an intriguing ride. There is a good amount of mystery surrounding Warp and also some very exciting and unexpected twists. I would love to see this story turned into a movie! And now I can't wait for a full novel from Nat!
August 12, 2018
Very quick read.
This book was gifted to me by the author, who is from my home town. It is a short story (or novella, I don’t really know the difference) about a young woman that time travels. Every time she wakes up, she has traveled either forward or back, sometimes with Chase, sometimes with Micah. Nothing too deep, and no big science discussions, characters just sort of accept things without too much question or discussion. I am not sure I would have enjoyed it if it were a longer story, but it was short enough to hold my interest. I would definitely read another book by this author.
This book was gifted to me by the author, who is from my home town. It is a short story (or novella, I don’t really know the difference) about a young woman that time travels. Every time she wakes up, she has traveled either forward or back, sometimes with Chase, sometimes with Micah. Nothing too deep, and no big science discussions, characters just sort of accept things without too much question or discussion. I am not sure I would have enjoyed it if it were a longer story, but it was short enough to hold my interest. I would definitely read another book by this author.
October 13, 2018
Warp is a time-traveling novella featuring Hailey and her continuously changing life. We follow Hailey as she navigates her life with both Chase and Micah and her changing feelings toward them both.
It is rare that I will read a story involving complex space notions in an otherwise simple book. I enjoyed the layout of the book, where each page/day, wasn’t filled with too much information, just the things most important to Hailey, and, thus, to the story overall. The cover art was appropriate, and I loved how once I got more into the story I was able to understand the symbolism in the overall picture.
This storyline tugged at my emotions throughout the whole thing; I felt like I was in a previously popular book series and was having to choose whether I was for Team A or team B for the boy whom she should end up with. The author did a great job of having the audience feel her emotions and feel like they are witnessing the events first-hand. The ending made sense, but still left me wanting more; I look forward to more being written by Nat Fladager!
It is rare that I will read a story involving complex space notions in an otherwise simple book. I enjoyed the layout of the book, where each page/day, wasn’t filled with too much information, just the things most important to Hailey, and, thus, to the story overall. The cover art was appropriate, and I loved how once I got more into the story I was able to understand the symbolism in the overall picture.
This storyline tugged at my emotions throughout the whole thing; I felt like I was in a previously popular book series and was having to choose whether I was for Team A or team B for the boy whom she should end up with. The author did a great job of having the audience feel her emotions and feel like they are witnessing the events first-hand. The ending made sense, but still left me wanting more; I look forward to more being written by Nat Fladager!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews