1995. Jenny Waters is about to start her senior year in high school. (So, close to my senior year in West County, St. Louis.) She's returning from visiting her grandparents in New York City, with a plan to persuade her parents to okay studying journalism at Columbia University. She's eager to see her best friend, Angie, and finally kissing her boyfriend, Steve. Things don't quite work out that way. After a slight light flicker, Flight 236 lands in 2020.
All of the passengers and crew have a hard time adjusting to 2020. Not just because of the changes in technology, but also because everyone they know is 25 years older. Three out of four of Jenny's grandparents have died. Her boyfriend and her best friend ended up married. And it gets worse: best friend, Angie, wrote a memoir about her -- "Jenny and Me" -- cue the embarrassing anecdotes and references to bird sex. The memoir was a best seller, read by all her family, and the paper's mean girl is nice enough to share its existence with the entire school. Jenny's relationship with Angie is further complicated when Jenny starts liking Angie's son, Dylan, and Angie's daughter, Jo Jo just might be Oscar the Grouch. The Springs, an elderly couple, have outlived all their friends and their children are not their age. Another passenger's husband had her declared dead and is happily remarried with kids. A flight attendant left behind a fiance. The pilot, Captain Reynolds, lost pretty much everything because his sister had to fund her meth habit.
This could have been really maudlin, but, luckily, not everything is terrible. Jenny's annoying little brother grew up to be pretty cool. Her favorite journalism teacher is still teaching at her high school. The support group of fellow passengers become a second family. New technology is pretty awesome, when it isn't being obnoxious. And Dylan is a pretty cool boyfriend.
I finally read this and I'm glad I was able to cross it off my TBR list. It was quite fun. I lived where the novel took place (West County, St. Louis) and reading references to familiar places was a hoot, particularly because our main character, Jenny Waters, starts the novel being a high schooler around the same time I was in high school. My family moved after my graduation, so it's been over 20 years since I've been back. Chesterfield Mall used to be one of the most popular malls in St. Louis and was *the* place to hang out on the weekend. Now it's a dead mall that's been partially demolished as part of a $1B renovation/revitalization for Downtown Chesterfield.
This is a believable take on time travel and what happens after.
3.5/5 stars.
And for those of you who are curious, check out the YouTube video of Dead Mall Tours: Chesterfield Mall.
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