Book Review: Into the Dim

Into the Dim (Into The Dim #1)

by Janet B. Taylor.

This book caught my attention because it was billed as Outlander for teens. After reading it, I don’t think that’s an accurate comparison. Into the Dim does have time travel and some Scottish people, but that’s where the similarities end.

Hope has an eidetic memory, which is both a gift and a curse. She’s amazingly smart, but also very sensitive and easily overwhelmed. When her mother dies, her world implodes. She agrees, unwillingly, to spend the summer in Scotland with her mother’s family. There she learns the truth: that her mother is a part of a group of time travelers, and isn’t actually dead- just trapped in twelfth century England, by a group of rival time travelers. Thus begins Hope’s induction into the world of time travel, and the quest to rescue her mother.

What to say about this book? I whipped through it in an evening- a fun and quick read. I always enjoy seeing a new author’s take on time travel. This one took the idea of ley lines and places of power, and put a new spin on it with Tesla and machinery and a kind of lodestone-passkey angle. It hugs the line between myth/magic and science nicely. Hope as a main character and narrator was… ok. Having a photographic memory does not directly translate into common sense and the ability to pick up on really obvious things, let’s just leave it at that. I liked the peek into Eleanor of Aquitaine’s imagined life and court that we get when the rescue attempt is underway.

It was also a really easy read, in no small part because events in it were so predictable. Obvious romantic interest. Obvious complication. Obvious eventual outcome. Also, there was a big deal about trying to blend in when they were in the twelfth century, but the dialogue they were using really didn’t fit. The romantic storyline didn’t do it for me, either. It has all the trappings of insta-love, rather than something with depth. But I suppose we’ll see where it goes in book 2.

And I do intend to pick up book 2. Despite it’s shortcomings, I’m interested in the story and seeing where it goes.

If YA time travel adventure sounds like your kind of thing, give this a whirl. It’ll be out on March 1.

I give it 3.5/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.