Review: This Strange and Familiar Place by Rachel Carter

[Alexandra Bayer]

Lydia is back in 2012, but it's not the same time she knows. She may still live in the same house with her parents and have the same friends, but all of her relationships with them are different. The Lydia whose life she is now living was different. So when Wes, the boy she fell in love with when they were in 1944, comes to check up on her, Lydia knows that she has to do something to try and make her time right again. Posing as one of the Montauk Project's recruits, she manages to sneak through the time machine on a mission with Wes, back to the 1980s. There she finds her grandfather, who is missing in the 2012 she'd returned to, as well as her great-grandfather, whom she hadn't seen since her visit to 1944. Except neither seem to remember her, which makes helping them return to their proper times difficult. Lydia must be careful, because the Montauk Project always has people watching - and these people will do anything to keep their timelines safe from tampering.

I was very eagerly anticipating this novel after finishing So Close to You. Although this book was very good and did meet my standards set after its prequel, I can't say that I enjoyed it entirely as much as the first book. I think that part of this has to do with the setting, and resulting characters. So Close to You was based in 1944 in a more rural setting, and most of the characters were Lydia's family. This Strange and Familiar Place was set in the '80s, in dirty New York, and the characters were children who lived on the streets. Even though there was danger to Lydia in the first book, the setting was comfortable. This story took away all comfort, and since the time was closer to modern, there wasn't as much excitement in the time travel aspect. The setting contributes a lot to my enjoyment of a book, so I definitely think that this novel's setting is part of the reason I didn't like it quite as much as the first.

This novel definitely amped up the intensity though. Not even just the danger, but the characters, and the seriousness of their situations. There was a lot more depth to the main characters (and it's not like they weren't already well-written in the first book). In my review of the previous book, I mentioned that Lydia and Wes's relationship seemed very real. That stayed true for this novel, although there wasn't as much romance. There were, however, more problems between them, and more secret-sharing. I found that as this novel grew more serious, my reactions grew more pronounced. I wouldn't say it's uncommon for me to gasp out loud while reading, but it certainly takes a big surprise. This book had everything necessary to keep me hooked and on high alert.

I really enjoyed how the ending was written, in both books. In the first book, it seemed as though everything would be okay, until there was a plot twist. That was enough to make me read this novel, but it wasn't so much that I lay obsessing over it at night. The same sort of ending was written in this sequel. There was a HUGE plot twist, but then there was a small section at the end that laid the readers' minds to ease, just slightly. I still want to read the next book, perhaps even more than I wanted to read this one after finishing the first. Although there are plot twists, which I normally dislike, they aren't so big as to make me temporarily hate the author for making me wait to read the next book. Rather, I can appreciate the timing of Rachel Carter's major moments.

Although I didn't love this book quite as much as I did the previous one, I still did very much like it. I'm definitely going to read the third and final book, and I hope that Carter can sufficiently wrap everything up, because right now there are still many things left hanging. I would give this book a rating of four stars. I tore through it, finishing it very quickly (although it wasn't a particularly long book). I'd recommend this story to readers who are seeking realistic characters, time travel, and government conspiracies.