In the City of Time starts by introducing us to Riley and Jaideep, two friends who live in the post-apocalyptic, artificial world of 2033, after a horrible accident in 1891 started to slowly destroy the real one. These two friends are on the verge of creating a time travel machine that will be able to stop the events that destroyed the world, but their plan goes wrong and they end up accidentally kidnapping a teenager from 1891 named Willa. To make their situation even worse, they are being pursued by an android named Petrichor from the future who is hellbent to destroy them. Together, the three of them work to save humanity, while escaping the “time cops” trying to stop them.
The narration was interesting,I liked how some chapters are told from Willa’s perspective and the others were told from Riley’s point of view. I also really liked all the androids named Saudade, Petrichor, and Deasil. I’m grateful that the author decided to put the time and location of the characters before each chapter which really helped me understand the book a lot better despite all the time traveling. The plot of the story took many surprising twists and turns, which made the book interesting but also a bit confusing if you are really not paying attention to the details. The villains of the book are also a bit lackluster and since they were introduced two-thirds of the way into the story, I didn’t really get to understand them. Despite this, I thought the book was pretty good and definitely felt intrigued by the plot.
My favorite is the part of the story around Saudade and Petrichor. Petrichor spends decades traveling through time to avenge his lost friend, and when they were finally reunited it was very heartwarming.
Reviewed by Tristan M., Twin Hickory Area Library
HCPL TeenScene's Read + Review 