The In-Between Place

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

I have mixed feelings about Clockwise.

The formatting was easily my biggest problem with the book. I read the ebook version and found it difficult to read: there were no paragraphs, and it was difficult at times to discern which character was speaking.

The book started off fairly slow and lacked a lot in terms of drama. There also wasn't much in the way of character development - aside from Nate and Casey, all of the other characters seemed very one-dimensional, which made me feel as though the other characters were only there to make the high school portion of the plot seem realistic.

Around the halfway point of the book, Clockwise slowly started to redeem itself in my mind. Not because of the relationship between Nate and Casey, which I felt neutral about, but because of the time travel aspects of the story.

Strauss provided a fresh take on time travel - it wasn't caused by superpowers or devices, and you couldn't choose where/when you ended up. The Civil War era that Casey travels to was easily my favourite part of the book: the characters were interesting, it was historically accurate (and made me want to read some American history books), and it touched on a lot of important issues, including slavery and the Civil Rights movement.

Though at times cliched, Clockwise was a nice, light read. If the next book in the series is written at the same pace as the last half of this book, I'll probably give it a try.

This review can also be found at The In-Between Place.