Harare Review of Books

384 pages.

First published in 2020.

Finished reading on May 27, 2021.

Genre: Science Fiction

With ten years passing for every three minutes on a remote stretch of Texas coast, planes fall out of the sky, evolved species are on the hunt, and people die inside one of the most vicious ecosystems ever grown—all a result of the government’s efforts to slow down time.

A lot can happen in ten years. That’s the point. Governments are always racing for supremacy, for scientific breakthroughs, for technological advantages—and these things take time.

Until something goes wrong.

With the grounded yet massive world building of READY PLAYER ONE, thrilling scientific questions of JURASSIC PARK, and the time-bending teen drama of BEFORE I FALL, Wachter’s THE TWIN PARADOX is a brilliantly plotted tale that is both intimate and massive, relentless yet deliberate, and explores the themes of self-acceptance, self- confidence, and natural selection in a richly hued and unforgettable world. Ultimately the eternal question of Nature versus Nurture is boiled down into this fast-paced thriller told over the course of five days and culminates in one single question:

Do we get to choose who we are?

Thank you to NetGalley and to Trevaney Bay for this DRC.

A great premise that got lost in a lot of telling, and not very tight writing. The last part of the book also, unfortunately, felt very rushed. I skimmed over large sections of the book because I just wanted to get back to the story. I think this could make a fun movie (and possibly the author was thinking of it as a screenplay), but it didn’t make for a great read.

Rated: 3/10.