Time Will Tell

by Barry Lyga

A young-adult thriller ricocheting between the bigotry of the past and present as teens unravel their parents’ secrets.

Four teens have dug up the time capsule that their parents buried in 1986 and never bothered to recover. But in addition to the expected ephemera of mixtapes, Walkmans, photographs, letters, toys, and assorted junk, Elayah, Liam, Marcie, and Jorja discover something sinister: a hunting knife stained with blood and wrapped with a note. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill anyone."

As the action alternates between the present day and 1986, the mystery unfolds and the sins of the past echo into today. The teens haven't just unearthed a time capsule: they've also dug up pain and secrets that someone--maybe one of their own parents--is willing to kill for.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Thriller, Contemporary, Romance, LGBT, Mystery Thriller

432 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2021

About the author

Barry Lyga is a recovering comic book geek. According to Kirkus, he's also a "YA rebel-author." Somehow, the two just don't seem to go together to him.

When he was a kid, everyone told him that comic books were garbage and would rot his brain, but he had the last laugh. Raised on a steady diet of comics, he worked in the comic book industry for ten years, but now writes full-time because, well, wouldn't you?

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl is his first novel. Unsoul'd is his latest. There are a whole bunch in between, featuring everything from the aftermath of child abuse to pre-teens with superpowers to serial killers. He clearly does not know how to stick to one subject.

Reviews

[Wendopolis · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed this book, it frustrated me as
well. There were so many characters in the book, and some i only knew as “Mom” or “Dad”, which made it hard to figure out who their kids were and it took too long to know. Also, the author clearly inserted his own political views and bias into the story, which were particularly jarring and obvious, not to mention how they will date the book.

[Aly · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I have to say, I thought this would be better. The blurb sounded good, with a mystery spanning thirty five years and involving the teens now and their parents who were teens in the eighties. I found the pacing very slow and thought there weren't many exciting scenes or twists to keep me interested. I also had a difficult time keeping track of who's parent was who because the teens just called their parents 'mom' and 'dad' so I wasn't sure until three quarters through which guy Kim got with and who Jay was since he changed the name he went by.

I will say that I didn't guess the twist so that's a plus. I also didn't think it was a great reveal and was hoping for a bit more. I'm left with some questions about why certain things played out the way they did and thought the story skipped some parts. I felt for the gay teens in the past, it was definitely harder to come out and have people accept you. I can understand why they wanted to keep it a secret and how that led to further problems.

Hopefully others like this more than I did and can keep track of everything better. Maybe this would make a better tv show than a book because the visual would help?

[kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was shocked to see the 3.4 average on this book since I enjoyed Lyga’s other books. And, yeah, this book wasn't the best but damn...

I will say that the dual timeline probably wasn’t necessary. It was cool to see both ends of the story but it was hard to follow at times with the many characters and changing timeline with alternating POVs between I want to say 4 people, especially since the main concept was a time capsule. Either or story on its own would’ve worked and would’ve been cool — this was potential duology potential. Despite that, the plot from the two interconnecting timelines was interesting to see play out. Overall, this story was a good book to read although I found it to be long for what it was. Duology potential aside.

Misc Things I Liked:
* Multiple narrators for multiple POVs
* Sound effects - scared the shit out of me but it added more to the (audio)book
* Georgia. Just Georgia.
* The scene where the boys were following the pizza guy.
* Captain America Reference Count: 2

Kind of unrelated but I didn’t see a point in all the Covid mentions since it didn’t have anything to do with the book. Like, please don’t remind me.

[Crystal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a big fan of the I Hunt Killers trilogy and I loved the blurb about “I didn’t mean to kill anyone…”, but that was almost the only thing good about this book.

The premise of 4 teens unearthing a time capsule their parents buried and finding the mysterious note and knife was great. However, it felt like Lyga was trying to throw all the literary genres/sub genres possible into one novel: suicide, LGBTQ, racism, romance (teen hormones running amuck), murder, COVID-19, and mental illness - just to name a few. It was too much, too distracting, to try and sort through who was who (as names were held back), deal with all the drama from all the genres/sub genres, and keep the story lines from blurring as you switch back and forth between past and present, as well as being in the minds of multiple characters. Finally, the ending is a bit of a let down, and the epilogue makes more loose ends unravel instead of wrapping them up.

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5 stars]

Not my favorite by Lyga but entertaining nonetheless. It could've been shorter though. It's told in dual timeline, one following a group of teens unearthing their parents' time capsule and another following said parents in their teens. It was fun to clue together which character would turn out to be which parent and the final reveal was satisfying. But I could've done without the overly optimistic epilogue.

I especially liked Liam and his role as the only guy in a friend group of girls and as the self classified "dumb one" who doesn't always get all the references and who consciously tries to compensate his insecurities with humor. It's just not your standard character trope which was refreshing.

[Starr ❇✌❇ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC from Edelweiss
TW: historic prejudice, racist microaggressions, knife violence, home invasion, ableist microaggressions, cheating, off page inappropriate relationship between a student & teacher, mentioned fatal car accident, off page suicide, attempted suicide
3

When a group of friends decide to dig up their parents' time capsule from high school they're really just expecting a good grade for their project and maybe some 80s memorabilia. What they don't expect is a bloody knife, and a confession of murder. Their parents, and the police, don't seem to take it seriously, but a prank wouldn't have caused someone to break in to get their evidence back. They know the murder must have been real, but that means it must have been one of the people who put together the time capsule- one of their parents.

As a concept I think this is really cool. The idea of a time capsule leading to a covered up murder is a really interesting idea, and as unlikely as the premise is it still sort of reminded me of a Hitchcock type of thriller.

And the addition of the parents makes things messy in an interesting way. There's a lot of possessiveness and defensiveness when it comes to one's parents, and a whole lot of fear and betrayal as well. The way the tension leads to infighting in the group and in the family dynamics complicates things in a way that makes it compelling to watch.

All in all, when it comes to tension and mystery it has something going for it because of the complicated knot it creates. Giving portions of the past without full context and without allowing us to know for sure which teen was which character's parent made it into a jumble that made you want to solve it.

However, I had a lot of trouble with this one. From the beginning I disliked both the writing and the characters. Every character felt like a caricature and so did much of the plot & setting in the 1980s portions. I never believed any of them, I found it hard to care about them or take them seriously, and from the very start the plot relies on you caring about over the top teen drama that has nothing to do with the thriller aspect at all. I plowed through waiting for the thriller to start in earnest, but it took long enough that I was already incredibly sick of all of them.
Throughout the dialogue feels unrealistically fake and the writing clunky, but I could have gotten partially over that had the tension started earlier.

I also really didn't like the ending. There are a lot of problems with it, but mostly it just felt cheesy. By the end I did care enough to want to know for sure who the killer was, but the ending itself felt like a let down.

I'm sure some people will enjoy this book- it does have a cool premise and the mystery element keeps you wanting to find out the answer- but I didn't have an enjoyable reading experience with this one.

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: murder, blood, home invasion, homophobia, adult/minor relationship (in the past), teacher/student relationship (in the past), cheating, car accident

3.5 stars.

I was sold IMMEDIATELY on the concept of this, and I liked the jumps between the past and the present, and getting to see the adult characters in the present when they were teenagers. The mystery was pretty compelling, and I liked the diversity in the story.

But.

At the risk of sounding like Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn't help wondering why the author decided to set the two stories 35 years apart. Like...the kids are 16. Their parents were born in 1968-1969. And some of the couples were together in high school. Why the FUCK would they *ALL* wait nineteen years to have kids?! Like, I understand that one couple has a reason to wait. But ALL of them?! It just felt weird and inauthentic. Just have the "past" be 1996 or the present be 2011 and call it good. You know?

Anyway, that's a fairly minor gripe in the grand scheme of things, but it annoyed me so consistently throughout the story that I couldn't stop focusing on it and I bumped it down half a star as a result.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow - just realized this took me threeish weeks to read. I am having a tough time rating it because there are times it really pulled me in and times that it felt difficult to get through. Overall it felt long and while the concept was interesting, I can see where there are going to be several things in the book that readers could find polarizing. The author also played with several different formats (even including some podcast transcripts) and I don’t know if that worked for the story. My most accurate rating is probably a 2.5 - for me it was okay but it isn’t in the have to read category.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this mystery set in multiple time periods and told from multiple perspectives. Lyga's plot chart must have been insane to keep all the plotlines and perspectives straight! The tale follows one group of kids in the present day as they unearth a time capsule their parents buried during their senior year while jumping back to tell the story of the friends who buried the time capsule. While there is plenty of suspense and I certainly wanted to find out "who done it," I didn't have the connection with the characters that I have had with characters in other Lyga novels (thus the 3 stars vs higher). Overall, a solid suspense story.

[Gigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was feeling pretty so-so about this book for the most part: there felt like a lot of filler, some characters seemed inconsequential to the plot while others probably should've gotten POVs but didn't. The TWISTS though! I usually don't like being jerked around but considering the amount of character development and political/societal nuances, some of the red herrings made a little more sense. Man, those last handful of chapters hit like a gd truck. Super glad that Lyga had some sensitivity readers because I don't think the ending would've hit quite so well.

[Mya Matteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love when you can tell a white, straight author hired sensitivity readers and put in the time to make their Black and queer characters authentic and respectful. Besides that, it's a solid thriller too, with a hopeful ending.

[Clare Snow]

DNF 37%

I'm so bored. I don't have the time to waste on this

[Christina Getrost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic thriller! I may be biased because I am the same age as the parents in this book (!) and so I thoroughly enjoyed all of the 1986 callbacks and references, but I do think this was a great mystery that will hook teens from the opening chapter (who wouldn't want to keep reading after they dig up a time capsule WITH A BLOODY KNIFE in it?!). The flashback chapters were equally as exciting as the present day story, and both kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved the author's deviousness in delaying the identification of all of the parent characters for a while, so that you weren't really sure who was who back in '86 compared to now; that really added to the suspense and surprise. I liked the humor and the realistic portrayals of all of the teens, but especially Elayah and Liam and Dean. Lots of great surprises; I kind of guessed whodunnit early on but didn't really trust my guess. It was also amusing to see the NPR true crime podcast/podcaster character. There were great comparisons between the two generations (like a funny line about a parent who has "a Gen X reflex to always answer a ringing phone" even when it's probably a spam call), and other little details that firmly set this in a post-2020 world (it's the first teen novel I've read that mentions the coronavirus; I've been avoiding reading the ones that use it as a major plot point, but this was a very small reference that I thought was appropriate). Great murder-mystery for teens. I'd recommend for 9th grade and up due to a fairly explicit sex scene; YMMV (your mileage may vary). I read this at the same time that I was listening to an audiobook (well, not the exact same time, you know what I mean) of The Cousins and it was weird to be reading two books with the same general premise of modern teens digging up the crimes of their parents. But I much preferred this one; I like McManus books but The Cousins wasn't my favorite of hers and Time Will Tell just entertained me far more. I'd recommend The Cousins for middle schoolers though, it's tamer in terms of content.

[Dcbk · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Grad ‘86er this was fun to read. The author did not overly indulge in 80s trivia as some books like this are bound to do so that made it quite enjoyable. It is always interesting to e reminded that we did not always walk around with an Apple 2E X1 billion in our pockets. We had to find payphones, quarters, incommunicado was a real thing, we made mix tapes and all sorts of other fun things we did back then. (FTR i am not a person who idealizes the past and hates all techno advance - i see it as that was what we worked with then and these are the tools we have now - and quite frankly as a blind person i am way better off now than back then :). It was also fun to see how the kids of the present reacted to the parents and kids in the past.

The street in this book also really kept me guessing. I thought to was great that what kid belonged to what parents from the past unfolded as the book progressed. That made the mystery more challenging to figure out. For me the past and present timeline stories really worked in this novel. And i did not figure out who done it right until the very end and lately that is unusual for me.

[Yami · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book thinking mystery , thriller another " I hunt killers"
and I was totally mislead, this novel focuses on GBLT and the colorism and racisms.
oh, and a sprinkle of feminism.
all in all the trend all authors going for these days just to make books popular and have more sales.
sadly this book didnt have GBLT in the top genre on goodreads, otherwise I would have avoided it.
it might be the best bookever for the readers seeking these categories but it was not the case for me.

as for the plot. they mystery was ok, it was actually what made me read till the end, I wanted to know who did what, but the characters were NOT lovable , none of them either the parents nor the kids, the only ok chr. was Liam ,but making Liam very subdued and silly with not clever kind of wit. was not fair for him, just to put spotlight about the "smarter" girls which were not that smart btw, cos from the beginning of the book it was obvious what should have been the first step to be done, not going round and round trying to find useless clues. it obvious from the very few chapters check the tapes (-_-)

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good story, and it kept me entertained for the most part. I really was expecting the changing of time to be more of a hassle, but thankfully, it wasn't. I did get confused a few times in the past sections, but I was able to piece it together. I really felt like the Sheriff wasn't putting much effort into the investigation because it was Antoine that killed someone. He left so fast after the incident. I was definitely not expecting it to be Dean. I get why Elayah needed a break from Liam, but I really hoped they would work it out. I'm so glad it ended with Antoine calling them and letting them know he was okay.

[Kenisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! I didn’t want to put it down! I loved how the author didn’t tell you which parent had which kid and instead gave you clues and made you guess. I also really enjoyed the different styles of writing (prose, transcripts, the handwriting on the postcards). For me, this book has the perfect balance of romance, mystery, real life issues, and teenage issues.

[Lala Rochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really good. I liked all the characters. The story line moves along nicely. No dragging, boring parts at all thru this book. Just a good ol fashioned who dunnit involving teens playing the unlikely detectives. I will say I kind of figured out who it was. It was a guess but my guess was right. All in all it was still good and I'd recommend.

[Tee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story concept is actually quite entertaining, however, the writing, editing, complete over use of obscure vocabulary, incongruity, and unnecessary to the story line political jabs, all seem like the rantings of a writer that needs help in too many ways to be putting out books with jackets touting bestseller. Such a bummer.

[Deborah Zeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need a sequel…or a follow up. Kept me guessing until the end.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh

[Abigail Grayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was good but tell me why there was a sex scene in a young adult book

[Christie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bearing shovels and a pickax, they made their way up the hill that morning.

Four teens dig up a time capsule that their parents buried in 1986 and never returned to dig up. In the capsule, they find something unexpected, a bloody knife and a note that says "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill anyone." One of the teens is attacked by a masked man and nearly killed, pushing them to want to solve this mystery before it is too late. But can they trust their own parents? Or is one of them a killer, who will stop at nothing to keep their secret?

I always enjoy a good Barry Lyga book, but I didn't love this one as much as his others that I have read. I did love the switching between the main teens in 2021 and their parents as teens in 1986. It was great piecing together the mystery through reading both timelines. There were things I picked up on before the characters did, but Lyga did a great job building the suspense. I enjoyed most of the main characters. I also appreciated how the story incorporated various world events and crises including the Challenger explosion, AIDS epidemic, 9/11 attacks, and COVID pandemic.

There were a few things that I did not like about the book. First of all, it feels very bloated. I feel like it could have been about 100 pages shorter. There are multiple scenes that feel almost like a copy/paste job of previous scenes and don't do much to move the story along. There were also more characters than there needed to be (why was Brian even there?), which caused a lot of confusion. I also found the book to be very heavy-handed regarding politics and social issues in 2021 (maybe Lyga trying to appeal to a Gen Z audience?). It also seemed more repetitive than it needed to be.

This wasn't Lyga's best work, but could still be appealing to those who enjoy mysteries and stories that cover multiple timelines, especially older teens.

CW: bullying, depression, gore, homophobia (including slurs), incarceration, infidelity, institutionalization, kidnapping/abduction, medical procedures, murder, pedophilia, racist language, self-harm, sexual content (one detailed sex scene, otherwise just making out), stalking, swearing (brief strong language), violence (characters are stabbed and beaten up)

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always up for a dual-timeline mystery about secrets of the past coming to light. TIME WILL TELL gives the classic premise a fun spin by turning a group of teens into detectives investigating their parents' pasts. At 421 pages, the novel is longer than necessary but it moves along at a fair pace. Not a fast one, but not a super slow one either. True, there's not tons of action; still, I zipped through the book, eager to know what was going to happen next. Many reviewers have complained that the tale is confusing because there are lots of characters and it's difficult to keep them all straight, especially the parents because they're referred to as "Mom/Dad" or "So-and-so's mom/dad." I get this, although I also understand that the obscured identities are necessary to keep the mystery suspenseful. For the most part, Lyga's story people are sympathetic and likable. I wanted good things for most of them. Plotwise, TIME WILL TELL isn't the tightest. There are several holes and things that just didn't make much sense to me. Overall, then, I didn't love this book. I did like it well enough, though. It kept me reading.

If I could, I would give this book 3 1/2 stars; since I can't, I'm rounding up.

[Iqra Nadeem · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was eh
i’ve been procrastinating so hard on this one because it just didn’t have the sort of effect to keep reading it :((

• says a german accent sounds like a horny elf
• characters were bland and only two had a consistent pov
• also what was with the povs from the past??? we could have gone without them just fine
• it was hard telling whose parents were whose
• romance was rushed and came out of a wattpad fanfic
• literally the 2 mcs only personality trait was being obsessed with the other
• mystery wasn’t even a mystery
• there was no plot twist like the other reviews on the back of the book said 💔💔

[Emma Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time Will Tell by Barry Lyga was the story of four teenage friends who unearth the time capsule buried by their parents when they were teenage friends. And among the mixtapes and pictures and old junk, they find a knife with the note "I'm sorry... I never meant to kill anyone." This puts the four teens on a spiraling adventure into their parents' past, as well as their own dangerous future, in the mystery to find out who was a killer, and who died. The only thing keeping this book from being a five was the... lack of options. While I was still surprised by who the killer killed, a the precise "why," the killer itself was fairly easy to figure out... because there were only so many narrators, despite there being so many characters. Overall, I was very impressed with the mystery, and the way the author wove so many lives together, but would have just asked a for a liiiiittle less predictability.

[Wickedly Sweet & Synful Book Blog Synclare Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced electric thriller. Throughly enjoyed it.

~BREAKDOWN OF RATINGS~
Plot~ 5/5
Main Characters (hero/heroine)~ 5/5
Secondary Characters~ 5/5
The Feels~ 5/5
Pacing~ 5/5
Addictiveness~5/5
Angst~ 5/5
Steam/Hotness/Chemisty ~ 5/5
Theme or Tone~ 5/5
Flow (Writing Style)~ 5/5
Backdrop (World Building)~ 5/5
Originality~ 5/5
Ending~ 5/5
Series~ standalone
Source~ Kindle eBook
Would I read more from the author? Yes
Would I recommend this book? Yes

[Emily Leitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I'd give the book 3 1/2 stars. The plot was good, a lot of twists and turns.

There was some language S***, P**** etc, LGBTQ+ scenes and characters, there was a scene of possible self harm, and a death does take place.

Would I read it again? Probably not. However, if you want a book that just keeps you guessing, then this is a book for you!

[Ekamdeep Kaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the plot twists (Dean was murderer, and it was Gimble who was killed) and the way it was written (with Dean being a sheriff instead of Jay), but I really, REALLY don't like the ending (ELAYAHHHHH GRRR) also why did they keep mentioning the factory when it had nothing to do with anything?

[Haylee Blystone · Rating 2 out of 5]

couldn't get into it. too many characters