log(book)
There are currently 160 reviews missing.
The last time I was up to date with reviews was 2022-01-31. Since then, 256/416 books (61.5%) have been reviewed. We'll get there … eventually.

Here & There

Cover of Here & There.

This book is an odd one – I liked the premise, and while there is one easily-guessable/telegraphed “twist”, it’s not the actual twist that you get slapped with on the last ten pages, so that part is all good.

However.

The main plot exists in two layers of framing plots: The investigator’s report on what happened, and her son reading the report after she disappeared. I generally like nested structures that play with multiple levels of footnotes and commentary, so it’s not a problem in itself, but: The son is such a whiny asshole it seriously detracted from my reading experience.

One or zero framing layers would’ve been so much more preferable. I guess you can’t make the twist work without frame, but just the investigative report would’ve worked so much better imo, because after a while, it’s hard to be sure if the whiny bullshit dudebro attitude the actual protagonist shows is author bias or characterisation (and to some degree it’s got to be on the author, tbh).


Plot summary

Beware: full spoilers! Also probably incomplete and possibly incomprehensible.

Three levels of plot: innermost plot is about a scientist inventing teleportation, and his final test going “catastrophically wrong”. Next is the psychonalyst-ish lady investigating this on behalf of The Department. Finally her son, reading her partially-finished report after she disappears.

Big plot twist is not that the second of the scientist’s twin sons is replicated, it’s that he kept teleporting him to work out the kinks.