This is a quiet gem of a novel. Scott Alexander Howard takes a unique premise and executes it beautifully – never relying too heavily on his fantastical plot device to convey young Odile’s heartfelt story.

I loved the exploration of the moral and practical reasons a citizen should and should not be allowed to visit their neighboring valley to the east (20 years into their future) and to the west (20 years into their past). A more scrupulous reader might uncover some time travel plot holes here that I tried not to think too hard about – but if you suspend your disbelief and take the story at face value, you’ll find a thought-provoking and wistful tale that I, for one, greatly enjoyed.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf and follow @specshelf on Twitter.59 s1 comment Blair1,846 5,242

The premise of The Other Valley is high-concept, yet so simple it seems amazing no-one’s written this book before now. There’s a community in a valley. Some distance either side lie duplicate valleys – exactly the same, except one is twenty years in the past, the other twenty years into the future. Movement between valleys is both physically taxing and strictly controlled: requests must be approved or denied by a special council, the Conseil (and they are almost always denied).

Our protagonist and narrator, Odile Ozanne, is a 16-year-old schoolgirl who hopes to join the Conseil. At the same time as she enters the competitive ‘vetting’ process to win an apprenticeship, she accidentally witnesses a visit from residents of the future valley. She recognises them as the parents of her classmate Edme, and realises what this must mean: in the near future, Edme will die. Odile is drawn to him; they become friends; she begins to fall in love. In the second half of the story, we meet Odile as an adult and see how the events of her youth have affected her life.

This is a beautifully written book. One of the most impressive things about it is the clear distinction between its two parts. In the first half of the book, the valley is wistful, nostalgic and magical. The elegant prose, the evocative settings, the sense of potential surrounding both Odile’s future career and her putative relationship with Edme – all combine to create an impression of a place that feels at once familiar and entirely otherworldly. In the second half, however, that pretty facade is ripped away. We’re clearly in the same place, just seeing behind the curtain, being shown the details of the dirty work that makes this idyll possible for the lucky few. It’s such an effective way to illustrate different facets of a fictional world.

I was worried, early on, that this would be one of those books in which the course of someone’s entire life is dominated by a brief, youthful infatuation – a common plot point and one I dis. But Howard is clearly aware this is a cliche. There’s a good balance between the obvious fact that the story’s world is un ours (time travel is possible here; regrets can be fixed, at a cost) and Odile’s own acknowledgement that she barely knew Edme. It’s a refreshingly unsentimental take on the trope, one that still allows for pathos and emotional heft.

The Other Valley is my favourite kind of speculative fiction, mastering the formula of compelling genre hook + stunning writing. So interesting, accomplished and such a smart idea, it’s not the type of book that immediately strikes you as a debut. I’d go out and get all the author’s other books if I could.

I received an advance review copy of The Other Valley from the publisher through Edelweiss.2024-release edelweiss first-novels ...more54 s ? Sandi ? 1,403 40

1 star

Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon and Schuster for the free copy for review. This is my own unbiased opinion. Publishes February 27, 2024.

I refuse to read this book due to no indications when speech is present. No quotation marks, no italics, no dashes no double indents - nothing. It is frustrating and not worth my time to have to reread passages that just lulled on background material when it was actually conversation.

If an author is not going to use proper symbols, syntax and language-related disciplines I do not have the time to read their work.

Sad that this is a debut book (bad habit to start out with!!) with what looked to be a good premise.2024-3500-books 300-350-pages-minus-plus apocalyptic-dystopac ...more48 s32 comments Debra2,631 35.7k

What an interesting concept. I must give the author props for originality. Imagine a town in a valley. On the other side is the same town in the same valley but they are separated by twenty years. One town twenty years in the past, the other twenty years in the future. Got it?

Sixteen-year-old Odile wants a place on the council. If she gets the spot, she gets to decide who can visit/cross the borders into her town. One day she witnesses two elderly individuals and recognizes them as the elderly parents of the boy she loves. When she sees them, she realizes that the one she loves is going to die.

The premise of this book is intriguing, and I feel that this book would play out well in movie form. It took some time for me to wrap my mind around this. I am not the biggest fantasy and speculative fiction reader and I feel that others will enjoy this book more than I did.

This is a thought-provoking, original book, I will give it back. Can you change the past? Will knowing the future change your present?

Very interesting concept and original. Others are enjoying this book more than I did, please read their as well. This is not a long book, but it felt longer to me, mainly because it wasn't my cup of tea and at times the pacing felt off at times.

I received a copy of this book from Atria Books and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read more of my at www.openbookposts.com
edelweiss41 s4 comments Alexandra 921 322

Ich mag gut konstruierte Science-Fiction sehr, insbesondere wenn bei Zeitreisen die logische Konsistenz gewährleistet wird, was gar nicht so einfach ist, wenn Personen sowohl in die Vergangenheit als auch in die Zukunft eingreifen können. Der Autor vermeidet in seinem Gedankenexperiment sogar letztendlich das Zeitparadoxon inklusive die Bildung von Paralleluniversen, indem er das Ende offenlässt. So eine schlüssige Konstruktion ist zwar manchmal ein bisschen detailverliebt und etwas technokratisch, hat mich aber ob der Qualität ordentlich begeistert, zumal ja auch sehr viele philosophische Themen angesprochen werden, ob man die Zukunft verändern kann, und wenn man es kann, ob man dann so etwas tun sollte. Ob die Macht des Schicksals überhaupt existiert oder ob freier Wille möglich ist, weil ohnehin alles so kommt, wie es kommen musste, ergo der Mensch wenig Eingriffsmöglichkeiten hat. Eine sehr spannende Auseinandersetzung ist dem Autor hier mit diesem Debut gelungen.

Der sehr interessante Roman beginnt vordergründig ganz traditionell mit der Geschichte von ein paar Jugendlichen in einem hermetisch abgeschotteten Tal. Protagonistin Odile Ozanne lebt bei ihrer alleinerziehenden Mutter, der Vater ist nicht mehr da, irgendwo in einem anderen Tal. Erstmalig knüpft die Einzelgängerin Odile Kontakt zu ihren männlichen Klassenkameraden Alain und Edme und freundet sich ebenso mit den Mädchen Jo und Justine an.

Relativ bald wird klar, was in dieser beschriebenen Enklave nicht stimmt. An den Grenzen des Landes im Westen kann man anhand einer Zeitleiste in 20-Jahr-Schritten in die Vergangenheit reisen und im Osten dieselbe Zeitspanne in die Zukunft. Es handelt sich immer um dasselbe Tal in unterschiedlichen Zeitzonen. Plötzlich ist auch klar, dass Odiles Vater nicht ausgewandert, sondern gestorben ist.

Die Schüler der Klasse bewerben sich für unterschiedliche Berufe, die sie nachträglich sehr schwer wechseln können. Eine verfestigte Rolle in der Gesellschaft kann kaum mehr geändert werden. Odile und Jo bewerben sich für das sehr angesehene Conseil, das ist ein Richtergremium, das in Trauerfällen nach Prüfung des Falls ein Überschreiten der Grenzen des Tals in sehr engen Rahmenbedingungen und unter der Aufsicht von Wachleuten genehmigt, um Menschen zum Beispiel das Abschiednehmen von Verwandten zu ermöglichen. Die Wachmannschaften passen auf, dass Familienmitglieder und Freunde aus der Zukunft nicht aktiv werden, um den Tod der geliebten Menschen zu verhindern oder irgendwie anders in die Abläufe der Vergangenheit einzugreifen. Hier wird also sehr rigoros das Zeitparadoxon verhindert.

Odile weiß auch, dass ihr Freund Edme wahrscheinlich sterben wird, sie hat seine Eltern aus der Zukunft gesehen, die sich von ihrem Sohn verabschieden. Eine sanfte Liebesbeziehung keimt zwischen Odile und Edme auf, in der Zeit während sich die Protagonistin in einem Auswahlverfahren als Mitglied des Conseils bewirbt und auf Herz und Nieren ihre Loyalität und ihr Urteilsvermögen geprüft wird. Das junge Mädchen gerät in eine moralische Zwickmühle, den Freund zu warnen und seinen Tod zu verhindern wäre möglich, aber Odile entscheidet sich für das System und lässt das Unglück geschehen. Bedauerlicherweise kommt sie nach dem tragischen Todesfall mit ihrer Entscheidung nicht zurecht und bricht die Ausbildung ab.

In der Zukunft ergreift sie den wenig angesehenen Beruf einer Wachfrau, die genau diese Grenzgänger, die vom Conseil eine Zeitreisegenehmigung erhalten haben, begleitet und ist natürlich aufgrund ihres Dienstes im Osten versucht, erstens in ihre Zukunft zu schauen, diese in der Gegenwart zu ändern und zweitens an der Westgrenze die Fehler aus ihrer Kindheit zu korrigieren. Das ist wirklich ganz großes Kino, wie sie ihre eigene, vorab gesehene furchtbare Zukunft genau trotz der Handlungen zur Vermeidung derselben herbeiführt. ‚Ebenso meisterhaft konzipiert ist, wie der Autor in Miniszenen, die momentan sehr wenig mit dem gegenwärtigen Geschehen zu tun haben scheinen, mit den Figuren aus der Zukunft und Vergangenheit spielt. Das ist sehr komplex und trotzdem logisch, wie die Puzzleteile von Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft in dem Setting ineinanderpassen und grandios durchdacht letztendlich einrasten. Großartig! Im Finale stellt sich die Frage, ob die Protagonistin ihrem Schicksal entrinnen kann oder nicht. Das Ende ist übrigens sensationell, subtil, zum Nachdenken und lässt Platz für Fantasie!

Die Figuren sind in allen Zeitzonen ausnehmend gut gezeichnet, konsistent entwickelt, was ja durch die Sprünge auch gar nicht so einfach zu bewerkstelligen ist. Im Setting erinnert mich das Werk ein bisschen an Die Frau des Zeitreisenden von Audrey Niffenegger, mir hat aber dieser Roman besser gefallen.

Fazit: Ich bin total hingerissen von der Geschichte, dem grandiosen Plot, den Figuren und der philosophischen Aussage und fand auch kein Wort zu viel geschrieben, obwohl ich normalerweise zu starke epische Breite und Ausführlichkeit immer kritisiere. In dem Fall muss ich aber sagen, dass ich solche detailverliebten Rätsel, in Form von Literatur schon immer sehr gerne mochte. Also wärmste Leseempfehlung von mir. Plottechnisch könnte und sollte man den Roman sogar mehrmals lesen, denn oft ergeben winzige Szenen erst in der Nachschau Sinn, wenn im Finale Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft inklusive der Zeitschleifen gemeinsam auf dem Tisch liegen.belletristik rezensionsexemplare29 s6 comments Lorelei129 14

Odile is a 16 year old girl living in a valley surrounded on either side by identical valleys - except the valley to the west is 20 years in the past, and the one to the east is 20 years in the future. She competes for a seat on the Conseil, a privileged position that controls the strictly regulated travel between valleys.

One day Odile recognizes two Visitors as the future parents of her friend Edme. Approval for visitors from the future town is rare unless to visit a dead loved one, signaling trouble for Edme, with whom Odile has been growing closer. Keeping this secret is crucial for her future and the timeline itself. But as her feelings for Edme grow stronger, can she watch and do nothing?

This debut novel seamlessly blends speculative fiction and philosophical exploration. Part science fiction, part coming-of-age story, it asks you: how far you would go to save someone you love? Initially young and impressionable, Odile grapples with identity, belonging, and the nuances of relationships, transforming into a woman burdened by her past, confronting the repercussions of her actions.

The prose is gorgeous and lyrical and a pure joy to read. My only criticism is that the author doesn't use quotation marks when characters speak, which initially made it challenging to read.

As I've gotten older, stories about memory, consequences, time and regret resonate more deeply. Anyone who has experienced loss will relate to Odile's story. I lost my mother to cancer 13 years ago, and what wouldn't I do to see her one more time? What if I could change her fate at the expense of someone else? This novel raises profound questions about morality, right vs wrong, and the essence of existence.

I think this book is a beautiful and poignant read, establishing Howard as an author to watch. I promise I'll be thinking about this book for a long time to come.netgalley science-fiction speculative-fiction ...more25 s Britany1,032 464

Trigger warning: No quotation marks used in this book.

If you made it beyond that initial statement, then prepare for this quiet novel to stay in your head, lingering in the natural beauty that the valley creates.

This is a dystopian novel where every section of the valley is the same, just twenty years difference between the segments, If you go East, you go into the future and West is the past. Of course, in all dystopian lore, there is a conseil that determines if people that apply to go to another valley get to go. There are rules, and strict processes around these visits so as not to disturb the future outcome. This was a quiet novel and the writing really captured me, I found myself thinking of these characters even when I wasn't reading. Certainly one to sit with and ponder.

Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.2024 arc bookriot ...more23 s8 comments Sasha89 52 Read

Scott Alexander Howard, your debut made me cry over my dinner plate. I hope you’re proud. Making a reader cry is every author’s dream. Now please stop reading my review because you don’t want to know the reason for my tears.

*waits for the author to leave*

Those of you who are still reading will notice that I’m not giving The Other Valley a star rating. This is because my feelings on the book are a quantum superposition of two ratings that lie on the opposite sides of 3 stars.

First there’s the rating I want to give it for the beautiful interactions between the main character and Edme, the boy who plans to audition for the conservatory against his parents’ wishes.
This teenager loves his violin more than anything. He can hear three ugly notes and improvise around them until he has composed a violin concerto for the ages. This is also the teenager that gets drunk on his friend’s wine and describes it as “piss. Many discordant notes.” Some of the Edme scenes made me feel wonderful things.

Then there’s the rating I want to give the book’s pace. It was so slow that at certain points I was tearing my hair out as I waited to see what the narration was leading to.

Part of my problem is my very low tolerance for superfluous descriptions. I know many readers enjoy seeing a clever description of a person stirring porridge with a wooden spoon. I, unfortunately, just get annoyed because I come to fiction for the stories. If I wanted to visualize reality, I would just use my eyes instead of reading about it. The Other Valley will be more enjoyable for those readers who enjoy poetry and beautiful writing and other literary things that.

A much bigger part of my problem was that I really, really, really wanted to this book. Speculative coming of age novels that aren’t written for a YA audience don’t exactly come out every other hour. And hopes and expectations are never good baggage to bring into a new book.

How dare you do this to me, Scott Alexander Howard.coming-of-age debut help-im-having-kittens ...more18 s9 comments Ellery AdamsAuthor 59 books4,520

Imagine living in a world where you could travel to the future or the past simply by walking across a border. This book poses some fascinating questions about balance, messing around with time, and how far a person would go to save someone they love. I really enjoyed it.

For fans of:

Speculative fiction
Coming-of-age stories
Dystopian themes
Philosophical quandaries
Strong but flawed female main character
First love
16 s Marjorie556 60

This is an excellent work of speculative fiction. It’s very original and intelligent. The fact that it’s the author’s debut is astonishing. I hope the book gathers the recognition it deserves. I feel it has the potential to become a classic. The plot flowed in such a coherent way from the first word to the last. I thoroughly enjoyed this romantic (but not sappy), fantastical journey.

I won a copy of this book on Goodreads and am so glad I did. Thank you to the publisher and author. first-reads giveaways11 s4 comments Jessica Woodbury1,715 2,472

I do recommend going into this entirely cold. I did, and I truly enjoyed the experience of discovering the world Howard has built. It is both a genre novel and "literary," meaning, I guess, that it is a little slow and reads more a traditional novel than the speedy prose of genre that tends to draw attention in particular ways with particular rhythms and tropes. But I know that most people will probably read the jacket copy so if you do want to know how well it does at what it does, read on.

I love time travel stories but only the very good ones. I do not anything boring, anything I have seen before a hundred times. This book certainly met those criteria, its unusual premise is very simple but quite novel. The world it builds is similar, very simple, as is the prose. But the good time travel stories the novelty is the pleasure, the way it makes you consider time and regret and possibility.

I thought, as I neared the end of this book, that I knew what it was doing. And I was okay with it but I was disappointed. All this interesting stuff, I thought, just to have a very by the book ending. But! I was wrong. I was surprised. And I was very, very pleased.

It is not that this book reinvents an entire subgenre. But Howard has clearly thought deeply about how to construct his plot and what it all means for his characters. It creates a really fantastic experience for the reader.

It does, as these stories do, have a tendency to make you question flaws or loopholes in its rules. I found one in particular quite obvious but I was willing to let it go and not worry about it. The thing that actually bothered me was a piece of Howard's world, making the gendarmes a low status position, which doesn't make much sense at all in the society he's built. But, again, I let it pass because he made good use of it in the story and I would rather have that then everything line up perfectly.arc-provided-by-publisher sci-fi-fantasy speculative10 s1 comment Julie155 44

3.5 stars

The story follows 16 year old Odile being vetted for a seat on the conseil, if she gets the position she will decide who can cross the towns borders, on either side is the same valley and the same town. Except to the east the town is 20 years ahead in time and to the west its 20 years behind. The towns repeat endlessly. One Day Odile recognizes 2 visitors she wasn't meant to see, she realizes they are her friend Edmes parents from the future visiting on a mourning tour to view their son while he's still alive. This means Edme is about to die and Odile is faced with difficult decisions. preserve the timeline because she is sworn to secrecy as a conseil candidate or save her friend.

This was such a unique premise, I'm coming to realize that I really enjoy books that play with time. I think this would make for an awesome movie.

I enjoyed part one of the book, in part two I got a little bit of whiplash with a time jump that and was a little bit confused but after a little bit of reading things fell into place. This is where things began to get more dystopian and where I really got invested in the story. it was though provoking and mysterious.

Overall I enjoyed it and think this is a great debut book. Although I wish it was a little more fast paced at times because a few parts just seemed to drag and felt unnecessarily long which made me pull back from the story. Also, there are no quotation marks within the book, it's not a total deal breaker for me but it did make for difficult reading at times so I wish it included them.

Read this if you enjoy: character driven stories, coming of age, speculative fiction, slow burns, play with timelines/time travel, Canadian authors.

Many thanks to Simon Schuster Canada and Atria Books for sending me a copy to read. As always opinions are my own.canadian-author coming-of-age friendship ...more9 s Erin Clemence1,200 361

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Expected publication date: Feb. 27, 2024

“The Other Valley” by Scott Alexander Howard is a thought-provoking novel about consequences, destiny and the lengths people will go to save someone they love.

Odile is sixteen years old in her town. Quiet and awkward, the only hope she has of getting respect, especially from her bitter mother, is to earn a coveted seat on the Conseil. The Conseil is responsible for granting the requests of townsfolk who want to travel over the borders and visit a time in their past or their future. When she sees a pair of travelers that she recognizes as her friend, Edme’s, parents, she is terrified in the understanding that something tragic will happen to Edme. But, if she warns him or interferes in any way, she risks far more than her spot on the Conseil.

“Valley” is reminiscent of “Divergent” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife”, but also is completely unique on its own. Young people at the age of sixteen choose a “career stream”, anything from policing the borders with the gendarmie, to being on the Conseil, or working in the butcher shop, where they apprentice and compete until they earn their place. As a strict rule follower and logical thinker, The Conseil seems the perfect fit for our protagonist, Odile.

Howard’s novel makes it possible for three version of yourself to exist in different towns; towns that are heavily guarded and travel to and from requires special permission, to avoid versions of yourself crossing paths. The creative plot of this novel was emotional and speculative and I was immediately pulled in. Sixteen-year-old Odile is naïve and brave, quiet yet intelligent, and I felt an instant kinship with her. The first part of the novel is narrated by teenage Odile, whereas the second part is Odile in the second stage of her life, at the age of thirty-six. Both Odile’s are likable, and Howard has crafted a character worth cheering for.

I am a bit of a stickler for grammar and punctuation and, although it seems to be a bit of a trend in literature these days, I struggled with Howard’s lack of quotation marks. With a novel “Valley” that has multiple time periods, not marking conversations made the novel unnecessarily difficult to sort through in parts. Had Howard included quotation marks, the flow would have been utterly seamless.

Overall, Howard has created a stellar debut, with powerful characters and an intriguing plot. If “The Other Valley” is his first creation, I cannot wait to see what he delivers next. first-reads kindle9 s2 comments Loan LeAuthor 3 books743

//

VOTE TO MAKE THIS A JIMMY FALLON BOOK CLUB PICK!
http://fallonbookclub.com (#FallonBookClub)

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I'm so happy to see readers picking up THE OTHER VALLEY! Another HUGE announcement: it's getting adapted by Universal Pictures's Working Title. Read about it here:

https://deadline.com/2024/03/working-...2024 2024-debuts13 s1 comment La La1,023 151 Shelved as 'arc-and-review-tbr'

This is the third book I've seen on Edelweiss listed by the publisher as Women's Fiction, written by a man. What's up with that?2024-november-scifi-month adult-fic review-arcs-edelweiss ...more9 s1 comment Karen’s Library1,141 174

The Other Valley is a debut speculative fiction that felt along the lines of The Giver or Never Let Me Go.

The premise was so compelling because on each side of the valley, another valley exists that is either 20 years in the past or 20 years in the future.

16 year old Odile sees an older couple with masks on, an indicator that they are visiting from one of the neighboring valleys, and recognizes them to be the elder parents of one of her classmates. Whenever there are visitors from other valleys, it usually means that they are there to see a family member one last time from a distance, as that person is about to die. Although the older couple can watch their loved one, they cannot interfere in any way because this could be disastrous for the timeline.

What will young Odile do with this information? Should she stay silent, or should she try to prevent her friend’s death?

I couldn’t get enough of this concept of the people living in all these different timelines so close to each other but yet so far away. So intriguing!

For me, I found it fascinating that the MC’s name is ODILE. That name is a fourth generation name in my family and I’ve never seen it used anywhere else before.

*Thanks so much to Atria Books and to NetGalley for the gifted eGalley!*8 s1 comment Alix337 104

3.5 stars

The Other Valley is an interesting speculative fiction story. It makes you question what you would do if you were in the same position as our main character. I really loved the first half of the book where we learn more about the valley and the way things work. I also d the young version of Odile we met and seeing her burgeoning relationship with Edme.

The second half was when things started to drag for me. It was more depressing and the town lost some of its magical charm and became more grim. But, the ending was absolutely incredible. It was action-packed and gut-wrenching. It changed everything. Overall, despite the second half dragging for me, I enjoyed this unique book and its otherworldly setting.7 s3 comments Holly Reynolds311 16

I really enjoyed this one! I love a good dystopian/time travel story and Scott Alexander Howard delivered! Would have been a five star read had it not been for the lack of quotation marks, which made discerning who was speaking difficult. I also felt the ending was a bit rushed, would have d a few more details answered. Other than that I loved the setting, the premise and the characters.7 s Nancy1,582 394

This smart, imaginative novel asks some big questions through a propelling and heart-rending love story.

If you could go back in time and save someone and change the course of your future, what would you risk?

The Other Valley imagines a series of identical valleys. Going in one direction, you would find yourself in a Valley twenty years back in time, the most dangerous place to visit, while the other direction took you to a Valley twenty years into the future.

Life was regimented in the middle Valley, focused on preventing an alteration in the timeline by irresponsible visitors to the past. Conseilors judged who could travel across the borders based on reasons and impact to the timeline. Visits were tightly controlled, and the border of the Valley patrolled by guards.

Odile’s mother is determined her daughter will accomplish what she could not: passing the exams to become a conseilor, with all the privileges it brought. Odile was a star student when her best friend, Edme, disappears. When his body is found, she crashes and drops out of the program, deep in depression. She is drafted into the Guards, her life regimented and her work patrolling the perimeters of the Valley hard and lonely, especially as one of the few women in the service.

Now in her thirties, she runs into Edme’s best friend who had also spiralled after Edme’s death. He is determined to go back in time and save Edme’s life, altering their reality to a better life.

Odile was about to received a captaincy and a marriage of convenience to a man she does not love, but which would improve her quality of life. Does she risk all to return to the past?

What sets this novel apart is the psychological insight and the existential questions raised. With elements of a fantasy, a romance, and a character-based novel, it’s intelligence elevates it to a novel of ideas.

Thanks to the publisher for a free bookedelweiss7 s Liz Hein316 117

3.5 ??

Imagine you live in a town. Now look towards the West, that town right there is 20 years behind in time. Loved ones you lost are very much there. Now look towards the East, that town right there is 20 years in the future. If you go there, you can see what will be. And then there’s our main character, a teenage girl trying to get a job where she grants or denies visit requests to these towns. Whose anxieties most deserve addressing? Whose grief is most deserving of a visit?

The premise of this book floored me and I will be thinking about this for a long long time. The execution didn’t always work for me - there is a central teenage love steering most of this plot and that just isn’t for me. The lack of quotation marks with this writing style was also a challenge for me despite this usually not mattering. The Ishiguro comps make sense to me, but I wish I didn’t have that in my head going in; this is not that. Nonetheless, the questions this book poses made it hard to put down, and I recommend it.

It’s important you don’t try to understand how this traveling back and forth in time works; you won’t get the answers you’re looking for and part 2 isn’t as lovely as I make that set up sound. You will, however, get a fairly quiet look at the lengths one would go for someone they love, a reminder to cherish the present, and the need for a box of Kleenex.
6 s emma charlton185 411

This is exactly what I needed, some plot!!!books-i-own publisher6 s Alex Z (azeebooks)863 37

The Other Valley is a slow burn, literary speculative work of art!

In the vein of Emily St. John Mandel and Kazuo Ishiguro, The Other Valley follows Odile - a teenager who is trying to balance her prospects with the normal everyday concerns of love and a social life. Odile is hopeful and tragic; someone you can’t help but root for.

This was such a great concept for a book – I loved the idea of time travel within the valleys, being surrounded by your past and future. I love the idea of this valley being everywhere and nowhere all at once. It feels familiar but unsettling. The Other Valley is a little dystopian, a little sci-fi and you can’t put it down!

?????

Available February 27, 2024

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.2024-favourites arc-read-20246 s2 comments Buchdoktor1,978 148

In ihrem letzten Schuljahr ist Odile Ozanne 16 Jahre alt und wird nach den Sommerferien wie ihr Altersjahrgang eine Ausbildung beginnen. Die Icherzählerin wirkt am Beginn des letzten Sommers ihrer Kindheit planlos, ihre Mutter jedoch dringt darauf, dass Odile am Conseil, dem Auswahlverfahren für den Öffentlichen Dienst, teilnimmt. Die Handlung spielt in einem in den Bergen gelegenen französischsprachigen Dorf, das durch martialisch drohende Stacheldrahtzäune und engmaschige Kontrolle von den Nachbartälern abgetrennt ist. Nur wenn Odile die Spielplatzschaukel bis an den höchsten Punkt antreibt, erhält sie eine Ahnung davon, wie die Welt draußen sein könnte. Die Nachbartäler repräsentieren Vergangenheit und Zukunft ihrer Bewohner. Es ist leicht vorstellbar, dass Begegnungen zwischen den Zeitzonen die Emotionen hochkochen lassen könnten, mit unvorhersehbaren Folgen für die Menschen der Gegenwart, und darum verhindert werden müssen.

Obwohl Odiles Lehrer Pichegru nicht völlig überzeugt von ihrer Eignung ist, schlägt er sie für das Conseil vor. Die Prüflinge erhalten Modell-Anfragen vorgelegt von Bürgern, die ein letztes Mal als Besucher im Nachbartal ihre Angehörigen in der Vergangenheit sehen möchten z. B. wegen unheilbarer Krankheit. Die 16-Jährigen sollen für oder gegen die jeweilige Anfrage plädieren. Jede Woche scheiden mehrere Prüflinge aus, die anschließend noch die Chance auf andere Ausbildungsplätze in der Stadtverwaltung haben. Dass ausgerechnet Jugendliche ihre Eignung für ethisch brisante Fragen beweisen sollen, könnte verwundern. Woher sollten sie die Lebenserfahrung und die Reife haben, um die evtl. Folgen für Antragsteller, Angehörige und die verantwortlichen Wachleute vorauszusehen? Odile stand unter besonderem Druck, weil ihre Mutter von ihr erwartete, dass die mit dem Bestehen des Conseils ihrer beider Lebensstandard erhöht. Als Odile die Auswirkungen der Lehr-Fälle auf ihren eigenen Lebenslauf erkennt, scheint es für sie keinen Ausweg aus dem Bewerbungsmarathon mehr zu geben …

Fazit
Scott Alexander Howard legt einen philosophisch-dystopischen Coming-of-Age-Roman vor, der deutschen Leser:innen bedrückend vertraute Bilder von Stacheldrahtzäunen, bewaffneten Wachmannschaften und Bespitzelung der Bürger liefert. Das düstere Szenario und die von der Welt entfernt aufgewachsene Heldin haben mich sofort in Odiles Geschichte eintauchen lassen.
Auch wenn durch die Abwesenheit von Kleinkindern und Schwangeren Odiles Welt sehr reduziert wirkt, empfinde ich die Logik des totalitären Systems nachvollziehbar. Die Schülerin und spätere Berufstätige wirkt in ihrem Bericht sehr ernst und verantwortungsvoll. Natürlich habe ich mich gefragt, ob sie die Widersprüche des Systems erkennt und ob es für ihre Generation kleine oder große Fluchten geben könnte.

Im informativen Nachwort erfahren wir Howards Motiv für seine Spekulative Fiktion; es sollte erst nach dem Roman gelesen werden. Aufgrund von Odiles Alter zu Beginn das Romans auch für Jugendliche empfohlen.
coming-of-age sf-dystopia spekulative-fiction6 s thebookybird458 14

3.5

The Other Valley is a quiet and speculative debut about a girl who lives in a valley surrounded by two other valleys, one 20 years its future and one 20 years its past. Written with soft and sometimes meandering prose, the story opens with our female MC, Odile, witnessing something she should not see, sparking discourse in her life from her adolescence into adulthood.

Set over a twenty year period, Odile spends her early adulthood training for a role in the Conseil, the governing body that determines who can cross Valleys, but the events from the beginning of the book have Odile questioning everything, and when tragedy strikes her close friend group everything changes. Odile’s life moves in a new direction but the events of 20 years ago have her thinking about the Valley in the past.

This book felt if it was read out loud would be soft spoken, it had this melancholic feel to it and was written in such a thoughtful way that each paragraph took on an ethereal zeal. Sometimes I did crave a bit more directness, often I was caught up in descriptive text that I’d forget where the story was going.

The characters weren’t particularly fleshed out and could use a bit of depth, the motivating force behind Odile’s decision making suffered because of this and I was left a bit uninvested. Though the second half of the story did see Odile take stronger foothold in her own life and I was eager for this transformation and I felt satisfied with the conclusions.

Read for the original plot, this is a debut from an author I think we will be seeing more speculative wonders from in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced digital copy all opinions are my own, this book publishes February 27, 2024.

6 s2 comments Wendy Darling1,772 34.2k

Really intriguing concept, but nowhere near as poignant as I’d hoped.

The writing was also a mixed bag: sometimes descriptive, but never really sparking intellectually or evoking real feeling. It might’ve been better as third person omniscient narrative voice rather than first person as well. Towards the end of the book, for example, the main character says “I had a feeling of overwhelming loneliness,” which is just so utterly underwhelming—aside from its distance, there are so many ways to convey that by setting, circumstance, description, physical movement (or lack of it), dialogue, etc. that hearing that sentence really made me rethink the book as a whole. And I realized that the story is related as a recitation of events more than anything else, but even so, books Never Let Me Go evoke much more emotion. A book this feels practically written to be a mid-prestige miniseries.

The story outline had such potential, but personally, the ideas and ethical dilemmas weren’t enough to leave much of an impression on me.

Audio Notes: I wonder if I would’ve enjoyed this a little more with a different narrator or reading it on my own, though. Cindy Kay has a pleasant enough voice, but there’s so little nuance in her reading that sometimes I had to go back a few seconds to make sure I understood that something fairly important had just happened. I narrators who are more subtle and reign in their audio performances, but I’m not looking for a dispassionate reader, either.adult audio needs-a-red-pen ...more5 s Allison65 7

Initially I was hesitant to pick this book up. I was immediately intrigued by the premise of the book but worried about the lack of quotation marks. My curiosity won out though and I'm so glad that it did, I absolutely loved this book.

The book follows Odile, a quiet 16 year old girl. To the east of the town Odile lives in is the same exact town except 20 years ahead in time. To the west is the same town except it’s 20 years behind. And the towns repeat this in an endless sequence across the wilderness.

To ensure their way of life and avoid someone interfering from the past or present, there's a fence around each town and a Conseil that approves occasional visits. One reason for visitors to come from the future is to see a loved one who has passed away. When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that her friend Edme is about to die.


This book quietly crept under my skin. When I wasn't reading it I was thinking about it, I dreamt about it. It made me emotional. And it was beautifully written. I'm sure I'll be thinking about this one for a while.5 s Dianne1,658 130

I had a particularly difficult time reading this book. For one thing, the edition I read had no demarcation denoting when a conversation was taking place. For another thing, the philosophy was just too deep for me to really grasp. It is no wonder since the author has a PhD in philosophy! I also had some difficulty grasping in which direction we had to go to get to what timeline.

All in all, it was a semi-interesting book, but one that did not keep me captivated. I felt that there were too many descriptions of the surroundings, etc., and not enough straight information. There were some plot holes that were easy enough to ignore, too.

If you deep philosophical debates and what amounts to time travel, you may enjoy this book much more than I did.2024 attl edelweiss ...more5 s Kelsey (Kelseylovesbooks)375 76

The Other Valley is going to stick with me for a while
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