Storymusing Review: The Wormhole Cafe by G.H. Monroe

 

The Wormhole Cafe 

by G.H. Monroe

Our book group theme for April was "Travel." We allow our members to interpret the themes as broadly or loosely as they like. Time travel seemed like a good option to me.

The Wormhole Café. I've been looking forward to the release of this book since I read the first draft nearly ten years ago. I do know the author from my writer's group, but I will stand by my assertion that this is a very fine example of the genre. (I even know the closet in our local coffee shop where the wormhole is set.)

At one point, I accidentally left my copy at work and really wanted to continue reading at home. I thought to check our library Hoopla database and was very pleased to find it was there. Yay!

The characters are well rounded and engaging, drawing from a diverse group in a large town. Their voices are strong and distinctive. I could picture these characters easily.

Stacy, the first of our known time travelers, and is a teenager. She goes into the past where the vast majority of our characters reside. She’s had a hard time in her young life and is self-reliant, but she could use a friend. Enter Tess Yancey.

Tess is a part-time barista at a coffee shop and a part-time receptionist at a law office. Her  voice is pitch perfect for a good-hearted young woman with some self-assurance. Her chosen mission into the past is not for herself, and it’s not an emotionally easy one.

I LOVE the progression of the lawyer character that Tess works for, Gabe Denkenberger. He's a good guy though a bit pragmatic, in ways both slightly sleazy and noble.

There’s also Chief Corbett of the police, a little world weary, and has been fighting the good fight for decades. He’s a thoughtful person who wants to see justice done. But he also has something he wants for himself, and it’s not money.

There are a host of other characters that play small to moderate roles. Monroe did a wonderful job juggling and balancing then tying together all the varied story lines. 

Those story lines touch on some of the horrors of present day society. There is also suspense and even a mystery or two that are being solved.  There has to be a reason for these people to time travel and try to change the past, after all. But even the most horrific of the events only lasts two pages in the book. Then they become a motivation for the characters.

Nathan Jobe came home to find his family had been murdered. This broke his heart and mind. Tess Yancey is determined to stop it. But who killed Nathan’s family? Likewise, Chief Corbett could never forget the case of a child who disappeared. Who took her? His investigation will show him that he didn’t even have all the pieces.

And like life there is so much more to this novel than those story lines. There are relationships and friendships built between the characters that build through their interactions. It is a briskly paced story of many layers.

There are a small handful of typographical errors, but it really didn't impede my enjoyment of the story. I would have liked a little more spacing between the lines of text and a little more space in the gutter of the book, but I wouldn’t miss this book over that.

In the end, it is a very uplifting book. 

The Time Traveler's Wife ~ Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife
By Audrey Niffenegger

Henry first met Clare when he was 28 years old and Clare was 20, but Clare first met Henry fourteen years earlier when she was 6.  He was 36 years old at the time.  You see, Henry suffers with Chrono-Displacement Disorder.  He suddenly disappears out of his timeline and can be dropped down anywhere, at any time, without clothes or money to sustain him. 

Henry isn’t a saint.  Being dropped down anywhere and anywhen without anything to wear has led to some skills at theft to clothe and feed himself.  This, in turn, has led to multiple arrest warrants being issued.  His saving grace is that he has no identification so if he is caught, he simply waits until he is pulled into a new place and time.  Houdini had nothing on Henry.

Henry’s first experience being displaced is when he is 5.  He finds himself back in the Field Museum of Natural History, which he had not wanted to leave earlier in the day.  Luckily, he has a wonderful guide, himself!  Though he doesn’t know it. 

How would you act if this happened to you?  How would you explain things? To strangers?  To people you love?  How would it affect your relationships? 

This isn’t an easy book.  At one point Clare is abused by a male classmate and Henry helps her to teach him a lesson.  I picked up this book expecting somewhat of a fluffy romantic comedy but found much more.  I highly recommend it.