Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Book Review: Erasing Time



Title: Erasing Time
Author: C.J. Hill
Teen Reviewer: Kinsey Manchester
Rating: 5/5 Stars

18 year old Sheridan and Taylor are twins who are completely different. Although they look the same, Taylor is a genius and has a social life, while Sheridan is just average. One day, they get pulled into a time machine. They travel 400 years in the future to an America that is distinctly different from their own. They don’t understand the dialect of English, the people dress quite strangely, and the city is all domed in. The worst part is that they cannot go back to their own 21st century. Taylor and Sheridan meet their translator, Echo, and his father. Echo is a mysterious boy with deep secrets of his own, but Sheridan is drawn to him. Taylor and Sheridan know that they must escape the futuristic and controlling city of Traverton, where they are being held as prisoners. The officials of Traverton are trying to get information from the twins that could allow them to extract more people from the past and bring them into the future. A dangerous and mob-like group, the Dakine, also want to use Taylor and Sheridan’s knowledge for their own purposes. The twins must escape the city, but doing so means putting their faith into Echo, who doesn’t seem to be very honest with either of them. As the plot unravels, many secrets come out and shock all of the characters in the book. Sheridan and Taylor don’t know who to trust anymore. Will the two twins make it out of the city before time runs out?

Erasing Time is a dystopian and science fiction novel. As an avid fan of dystopian novels, I have read my fair share of them, but Erasing Time is unlike any other. The book brings up many questions about the future that I have never considered, especially the evolution of language. Echo tells the twins that they still speak English, but that it has evolved from their 21st century English, which is why they do not understand it. This makes perfect sense to me and the little details like this set the book apart from the rest of the books in its genre. The relationship between the two girls is very well-developed. Although they clearly have very dissimilar personalities, they share a strong bond. I find it compelling that Echo also used to be a twin, so it is easy for Taylor and Sheridan to understand the pain that Echo has gone through with the loss of his twin. I did not expect the plot twists and revelations which were present towards the end of the book, and I found myself surprised and excited by the ending. 

C. J. Hill keeps the book fast paced and I read it fairly quickly. The author was very talented at depicting the futuristic society and making it seem like a plausible outcome of our own civilization now. Often in novels set in the future, it is hard to imagine such a place, but the setting in this book was not like that at all. I cannot wait for the upcoming sequel to this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It has many elements to it including action, science fiction, mystery, and of course, a little love story on the side. I would recommend this book to all readers, as it has something for everyone.

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