Krysten’s Review

I don’t think fate causes things to happen, but once they do happen, they have significance.

I’m not sure where to start. This novel is so many things I wasn’t expecting.

At its core, I’ll Stop the World is a young adult speculative fiction novel with multiple timelines, several POV characters, and gobs of teenage angst—but beneath the surface, there’s much more packed into this fast-paced novel. From social commentary (How long will it take for all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, pick your other, to be accepted? Why should anyone bother with the small stuff when the world is in chaos?) and philosophical speculation (Do we have free will, or is everything fated? Do our actions and choices ever really make a difference?) to sociological debates (Which is more powerful, nature or nurture? Can one person truly effect change?) and those impossible, unanswerable questions we all ask ourselves (Can we travel back in time?), this book is deep and thoughtful without being preachy, while also managing to be entertaining. It is a roller coaster of emotions, and I got all the feels—happiness and fear, hope and despair, love and hate, gratitude and anger.

But most of all, it is a poignant story that will stay with you for long after the end of the book. A story will make you look at your own life and the world around you, and think about how you can change it for the better. A story that will make you want to slow down, take notice, be grateful, exist in the present, because tomorrow is never a guarantee.

Isn’t it also about the importance of having someone with you when things feel impossible? That maybe sometimes, even if you can’t change anything, it’s good to be with someone who makes you believe that you can?