A BOY MEETS A GIRL.
THE PAST MEETS THE FUTURE.
A FINGER MEETS A TRIGGER.
THE BEGINNING MEETS THE END.
ENGLAND IS FOREVER.
ENGLAND MUST FALL.
There are several ways to tell a story.
A civil servant starts working as a ‘bridge’ – a liaison, helpmeet and housemate – in an experimental project that brings expatriates from the past into the twenty-first century. This is a science-fiction story.
In a London safehouse in the 2020s, a disorientated Victorian polar explorer chain smokes while listening to Spotify and learning about political correctness. This is a comedy.
During a long, sultry summer – as the shadows around them grow long and dangerous – two people fall in love, against all odds. This is a romance.
First published 2024 | 353 pages | Adult Sci-Fi | Storygraph | Buy from Bookshop UK
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Review
Feel free to scroll to the bottom for the TLDR version – this is a long one.
This is an adapted version of my review from the Storygraph. If you don’t mind spoilers you can also have a look at my review on Storygraph where you can click to reveal spoilers!
I really expected to like this book. I bought it shortly after release (even if it did take me a year to finally get around to reading – to be fair, that’s actually pretty good for me) and the bookseller was raving to me about it, saying that everyone at the bookshop was really enjoying it. Luckily, I never go in with too high hopes, so I don’t think I was necessarily more disappointed because of these expectations, but maybe a little. And I was indeed disappointed.
Although I read the last 30% in about the same amount of time as the first 70%, it wasn’t even a case of a slow start and a good ending. The pace definitely picked up, but I would say my least favourite part is actually the very very end. That being said, it does have its positives, and some very strong positives at that – strong enough I was wavering between anything from 2 to 3.5 stars (3.5 for me is actually a very solid rating, 3 is also positive) for this book and I would be willing to try something else by Bradley in the future – after reading some reviews first.
The Main Character
The first issue is the main character. Okay – the first couple of issues are the main character. Note that I say main character and not protagonist because she’s not a protagonist. Or at least, not a very good one. Usually, a good protagonist is the protagonist because their actions directly impact the plot and their actions move the story forward. Very occasionally a deliberately passive POV character (who I would argue is then not the protagonist, but the narrator or narrative perspective) can be effective, but this character felt like the author wanted her to be the protagonist but failed.
By this I mean there are moments where she has protagonist-like “exceptionalism” or “importance” but we fail to actually see any active decision-making that leads to changes in the plot – except the lack thereof. This could be very interesting as a study of the impact of inaction if it weren’t for the fact that the author later makes it out to be like this version of the protagonist has done something incredibly important and world-changing. That would be fine if the entire book didn’t make you feel like screaming at her to f***king do something.
This brings me to my next issue with the main character- she is incredibly unlikeable. Don’t get me wrong, main characters don’t have to be likeable to be good (or even great) characters. But if you’re going to make your main character unlikeable, please make them a) interesting, b) compelling or c) detestable. Anything but annoying and frustrating (please). Okay, I will give Bradley some leeway here – I think a large part of what makes her so annoying and frustrating is intentional and makes for extremely important commentary on humanity and human psychology. Her internalised racism, her willingness to work with (or for) the system to try and get the best life she can out of it even when that means working against her (and/or the greater good) own best interests or morals, her willingness to turn a blind eye to blatant immorality, abuse/manipulation/mistreatment of people she claims to be her friends and side with the powerful against her own friends, family and loved ones is both extremely frustrating and unlikeable and unfortunately, all too realistic.
This alone could actually make her an interesting character (if in a cerebral, social studies kind of way). But it does make her extremely unlikeable, and for me personally, it is not interesting enough to compensate. Or perhaps I should say, it is not thought-provoking enough – we see plenty of these types of people in real life and the news, and for me, it didn’t really offer me a new perspective on this that I hadn’t thought of before, so it kind of just made me more depressed about the state of the world. I like my literature to either be enjoyable or to stretch my thoughts, but this felt more like it was reinforcing what I already understood of the state of the world without expanding or challenging my knowledge or offering better alternatives. (This, of course, is very person-specific and there are many people for whom this book might be much more eye-opening. I just spend too much time in certain areas of the internet lol.)
I will admit that I think this kind of character is not common in literature (perhaps because they’re generally frustrating and make for bad “active” protagonists as their whole thing is stick-to-the-status-quo) but I think they do exist, and have been done better. One example that comes to mind is actually the book that I read after this – The Remains of the Day. The main character in that book is actually very similar if we switch internalised racism to internalised classism, and although it frustrated me, it didn’t negatively affect my experience of the book as much – even though Bradley’s main character is far more self-reflective (and thank goodness she is self-reflective because otherwise, I would actually have screamed at my book). I thought carefully about why this was (didn’t want to accidentally be indulging some kind of internalised misogyny given that the character was a man) and I think it’s because of how the author intends for us to react to the character – which brings me to my next point: this should never have been a romance.
The Romance
One of the most common complaints I saw whilst reading the reviews for this book (sometimes I need to argue with other reviews to clarify my thoughts on a book) was that Bradley is trying to do too much and ends up not doing any of it full justice, and I think my issue is this. Especially, the romance. In a romance, you need to really root for the characters to really be drawn into the relationship and that just didn’t work here.
That is not to say that the romantic subplot was bad – it was obviously incredibly important to the overarching plot and character development (or lack thereof) – but it should have been romantic (in the “it’s about romantic love” sense) rather than a romance. Slight spoilers ahead so be warned – no specifics – (I couldn’t find a way that was completely unspoilery to talk about this. If you want to skip the spoilers skip to the next bolded text.
The key thing of a romance is that a) the people end up together and live happily ever after (for now) in some way and b) the reader wants that to be the outcome. If Bradley had stopped before the last couple of scenes it would have been fine, but she instead decides to suddenly (without any action from the protagonist or indication as to why – again) give our main couple a chance to get back together. Maybe it seems like a hopeful ending, but for me personally, it cheapened the message of the overall novel and undermined a lot of work Bradley had put in (in my opinion) to show the toxicity of the relationship. It gives our main character an easy out to continue to do the little-to-no character development she did for the rest of the novel and be rewarded for it.
Spoilers over!
The book is commonly described as “time-travel romance” and “spy thriller/mystery” as well as an exploration of power and postcolonial issues. Bradley should have stuck to either the first two (with a more dynamic main character) or the latter (with the frustrating and flat but cerebrally interesting character we’ve got here). I’m sure doing both things is possible, but not with this main character or at least not in this way.
Other Characters
That being said – I love Graham. He’s an excellent example of a character that we don’t necessarily always agree with (on, you know, moral levels) or like but is still compelling, evokes reader compassion and is, in his own way, extremely charming. I also really liked the bits about his life and expedition (as well as the comments on how we treat figures from history and how they might react if we knew we were reading their private letters)! I do not like Graham and our main character together – power imbalance, manipulation, general toxicity etc. My friend who I read this with said she couldn’t really get into the sex scenes or romance that much and blamed it on it being a heterosexual romance (lol), but I don’t have that problem and I didn’t “feel” it either – I think it’s just because their romance should, as I said before, have been a romantic plot line, not a romance. It was a great exploration of an unhealthy relationship where neither said is necessarily abusive but they’re still not good together, but it should have been left at that.
I also like quite a few of the side characters, even if they are routinely objectified by our main character. (I actually did like how this was called out if only it weren’t for how it was basically dismissed right at the very end and the character not made to really properly face the consequences of her actions.)
Worldbuilding
I also enjoyed the small amount of worldbuilding we got, it was interesting to see insights into different points of the future and especially the impact of climate change etc. on people’s lives in a city I’m very familiar with (London). I would have loved to see a greater exploration of how people from the past react to being put suddenly in a different time period – this was one of the most interesting aspects, and unfortunately, because our focus was on the main character, we didn’t see that much of it (and only through the lens of our very biased main character). I don’t think this story would have improved by adding more of this, I think that would make it a completely different story (but maybe a story I would enjoy more, lol).
Writing Style
Some people say the writing style was too difficult and I will admit there were far more unfamiliar words than I normally encounter, but I didn’t think this was necessarily bad and despite some uneven pacing, generally found the writing very accomplished and polished. Bradley definitely has a lot of literary talent, I just don’t think it has found its best outlet yet. Kind of like a show with excellent lighting, set design and costumes but bad actors and directing: pretty, but ultimately disappointing.
Emotion – I Cried for the Antagonist
My favourite part of this book is actually a very specific, very small scene near the end featuring the “antagonist” characters. One of the antagonists is killed, and another antagonist’s shock and pain are done so excellently – brief, concise, but so raw – and it actually made me cry (a little bit)… nothing else did, but that did. The ability to show how the “other side” is just as human, with just as many emotions and real, genuine concerns and relationships, that blurring of “good” and “bad” that actually happens throughout the text to a greater or lesser extent is what makes this book worth reading and worth keeping an eye out for what Bradley does in the future. This was probably what made me consider giving this 3 instead of 2/2.5 starts.
Verdict
TLDR: The marketing was wrong (do NOT read for a romance!) and Bradley tried to do too much and ended up doing both things worse than if she had just picked one, but I loved Graham and many important topics were raised. Also, I cried when one of the bad guys died. That’s pretty impressive.
I changed my mind about my rating of this a lot and it took me about a month to get to writing to the review back when I read this book. Which is maybe why this is such a long review. At first I was between 2.5 and 3 stars. Then as I writing it, things made me more annoyed so I ended up giving it 2 stars xD. But yes – somewhere in that region xD
If you’re interested in how I summarised this in my reading journal (very, very minor spoilers), keep reading. I personally find it funny (hehe).
Ministry of Time employee gets assigned to be the “Bridge” for an “expat” from the past. She proceeds to fall in love, turns a blind eye to the atrocities being committed by her employers, objectifies her loved ones and friends and undergoes absolutely zero character development, whilst shedding a lot of light on issues facing us in a postcolonial environmental-crisis world.
Keira x.
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