The Other Year - Rea Frey - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Rea Frey

NARRATOR: Brittany Pressley

GENRE: Contemporary Romance, Magical Realism.

RATING: 2.5 stars

In a Nutshell: A sliding-door style story. Mine is an outlier review, partly because I expected something else altogether from this book. Some of the content is excellent, but the annoying main character (and her equally annoying daughter) ensured my disconnect and the dual love triangles guaranteed my dissatisfaction.

Story Synopsis:

Forty-year-old single mom Kate Baker is on a two-week beach vacation with her nine-year-old daughter Olivia. However, on the very first day of the trip, Olivia is caught in a riptide and she goes under the waves – a moment that sets Kate’s heart thudding.

Now the story splits in two timelines.

In Timeline I, Olivia resurfaces almost immediately and the vacation continues as a typical vacation would. However, with Olivia’s increasing tantrums, Kate’s ex-husband’s intentions to return in their lives for a second start, and Kate’s best friend Jason suddenly discovering feelings for her, Kate’s life is full of tough choices.

In Timeline II, Olivia drowns, and Kate grapples with the loss of her only child. In the days following the funeral, Kate struggles to come to terms with her new reality. In a bid to get away from everything that reminds her of Olivia, she takes up an apprenticeship at a farm in idyllic Serenbe. Can grief be left behind easily with new distractions?

The story comes to us in Kate’s first person perspective, alternating between the two parallel timelines.

Bookish Yays:

😍 The book begins with the author’s note, and this is among the most genuine notes I have ever read. It sounds heartfelt, and seeks to carve a realistic idea of the author’s intentions than a picture-perfect one. I loved her candour! As she rightly says, ‘Life isn’t always about the good stuff.’

😍 The main characters aren’t perfect, and through the mistakes they make and the choices they mess up, we get many life lessons. I guess the most important of these was: Don’t wait until it is too late. One thing that really struck me was the contrast in Kate’s feelings about Olivia between the two timelines; it was a very realistic portrayal of human nature. This book also shows how we constantly ponder the ‘What-ifs’ after losing a loved one.

😍 I loved how the two timelines were settled at the end. Rather than being forced into resolution, the plot elements get sorted out neatly within the natural flow of the story.

😍 The initial section of Timeline II where Kate grapples with her grief after Olivia’s death is excellently written. I could actually feel Kate’s helplessness and sorrow as she grieved over the death of her little one. This was, by far, my favourite part of the book.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

😐 While there are quite a few Sliding-Doors style novels, this is unique in terms of its approach. Timelines I & II have common numbered chapters, with the formatting being different to help us identify them. Thus we get chapters numbered 1, One, 2, Two, 3, Three, and so on. That said, though the two timelines are somewhat distinct in content, it is a little tough to adjust to their contrary emotional situations. The constant switch of sentiments isn't easy, especially at the start of Timeline II when Kate’s grief was quite intense.

😐 Kate is a fairly realistic character. She isn’t portrayed as the perfect mother, nor does she get the work-life balance right. However, the only time I really felt connected to her was when she was in the initial stages of her grief. As I got to know her better, I was just frustrated with her. She was quite judgemental, stubborn and bossy. Because she was so annoying in the first timeline, it was hard for me to sympathise with her in the second. Moreover, she hardly ever acted forty, behaving instead as a lovesick teen caught between two hot dates. She did grow emotionally towards the end of the book, but it was ‘too little; too late’ for me.

😐 I initially loved the fact that Kate was an agricultural engineer. Great female STEM rep is a rarity in genre fiction, so such an unusual career choice made Kate a potential inspiration. At the same time, I was fed up by just how many times she mentioned her qualification in the course of the story, even in her inner monologues. It was almost as if she didn’t trust us readers to remember her profession.

(On an aside, it is sad to see that even an agricultural engineer didn't feel any guilt sawing off a live tree for Christmas. There was such a great chance to advocate a sustainable Christmas, but it went ignored.)

😐 I appreciate the diversity of some of the characters. The story had an Ethiopian woman (deceased), an adopted Ethiopian child, and a Mexican man and his family. As Olivia was biracial, I loved how she peppered her talk with both English and Spanish, and how Kate tried to speak with her using Spanish words. That said, other reviewers have pointed out that the Spanish used by Kate is more like a ‘Google Translate’ version and has usage errors, so the editing team should have proofread this aspect better. I found the portrayal of the Mexican family somewhat clichéd. Except for Michael’s being an archaeologist, there was nothing in their portrayal that went beyond the typical stereotypes. The Ethiopian representation is almost nominal, as we barely get to see anything about that culture. The active players of the story, except for Kate’s ex-husband, are white.

Bookish Nays:

😒 My biggest problem with the content was that I expected a greater focus on Kate’s grief in one timeline, and in the other, maybe a greater exploration of her parenting struggles. I didn’t realise that love triangle trope would be the dominant one in both timelines. (I am not a fan of this concept even in romances, so seeing it in a non-romance book irritated me much.) We get not one but two distinct romantic triangles in each timeline. It also didn’t help me that Kate’s verbalisation of her feelings for the two men were too physical, with every scene of her interaction with them containing at least some reference to their anatomical virtues. There’s only so much of lusty thoughts I can stand reading when the genre isn’t even romance.

😒 Along with the love triangles, we also get an OTT dose of the done-to-death miscommunication trope and a minor cheating trope as well. Liked neither of these!

😒 Sorry, but not a single man in the book had common sense. Each seemed absorbed in their own needs, and as such, I didn’t even care what happened to them and which of them finally ended up with Kate.

😒 I feel quite bad saying this, but I actually preferred the timeline where Olivia was dead. Not just because it explored more complex feelings, but because I could avoid the nine-year-old entitled brat. The bigger problem for me was that she never sounded nine. Her attitude and her conversation made her sound either much older (a young teen, perhaps) or much younger (around 5-6 years old). The inconsistency of her sketching and her behavioural issues meant that I simply couldn’t feel a bond with the child, which is never the case for me.

😒 I’m no expert at judging telling vs. showing, especially on audio. But it sure sounded like there was a whole lot of telling happening in this novel. The first person narration worsened this feel as we get to hear literally every single thing Kate thinks and does. There is also a fair bit of repetition in her thoughts.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 9 hrs 44 min, is narrated by Brittany Pressley. She was quite good overall, but where she truly shone was in the scenes where Kate was battling grief. Pressley narrated those scenes with such poignancy that it sounded as if she herself was grieving. She depicted Kate’s emotional turmoil perfectly.

Of course, keeping track of the two storylines is slightly trickier on audio, but as the narrator is great, I can safely recommend this version to avid audio listeners wanting to try this book. Audio newbies, maybe stick to reading.

All in all, most of my disappointment stems from the strong role that romance had to play in this plot. I had expected this novel to depict a parent’s grief, and their rebuilding their life after a tragedy. But as this fresh attempt at life involved love triangles, my interest turned into eye-rolling. Though the premise sounds like it will work for women’s fiction readers, it would certainly help if those readers are fond of the romance genre as well.

Must add that I am very much the outlier in my feelings about this. Most of my friends found this read an emotional experience. So do check out their reviews before taking a call on this book.

My thanks to Harper Muse and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Other Year”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.