[Review] Your Life Has Been Delayed - Michelle I. Mason

Summary: When Jenny boards her flight back from New York, the biggest things on her mind are applying to Columbia and reuniting with her brand-new boyfriend. But when she and the other passengers disembark in St. Louis, they're told that their plane disappeared-twenty-five years ago. Everyone thought they were dead.

The world has fast-forwarded. Three of her grandparents are gone, her parents are old, and her “little” brother is now an adult. There's so much she's missed out on, not the least iPhones, social media, and pop culture. When some surprising information comes to light, Jenny feels betrayed by her family and once-best friend. She's also fighting her attraction to Dylan, a cute and kind classmate who has an unusual connection to her past. And then there's the growing contingent of conspiracy theorists determined to prove that Flight 237 hides a sinister truth. Will Jenny figure out how to move
forward, or will she always be stuck in the past?

Debut author Michelle I. Mason offers a smart and funny high-concept debut about the most unbelievable of life changes-and the parts of yourself that can always stay the same. (Pub Date: Sep 07 2021)

 

Just as the official synopsis says, our main character Jenny boarded a plane in 1995 and now she's in our present. Just like the other passengers of the flight, she'd been considered dead and her family grieved for all these years. Which means she's back to a world that has moved on despite her and with people not so willingly to accept the miraculous time jump—are the passengers clones? E.T.'s? To make things worse, not only everyone is more than twenty years older while she's still the same girl who boarded in 1995, but her then boyfriend has married her best friend and even had twins. Will she adapt or will she find a way to recover the lost time?

I have no idea what I had been expecting when I got the book, but I'm sure it's above my expectations. I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with the TV series Manifest, because the initial idea is similar—board a plane, time skip, people consider you're back from the dead. I think the similarities stop there, though I dropped the series in the first season and can't be sure. Considering I finished the book and enjoyed it, I'd say the different twist was an improvement, and to be honest, this was more the line Manifest should have gone, in my opinion.

It's not a perfect book, though. The romance made me cringe a little, and Jenny could get on my nerves at times. Then again, when I was the actual audience for this I wasn't as sensitive to overbearing main characters, so I'm not sure if I can deduct points for that. It was curious too that we get a subplot on the mysterious organization trying to undermine the passengers, there's some kind of investigation on Jenny's part even, but it was so underdeveloped I'm not sure if it was worth exploring. How much did it really add to the main plot? I think whatever bonuses it brought, they could come from elsewhere. 

Although the interactions between a teenager and a woman in the 40's, or worse, the main character and her former boyfriend, who is now a man in his 40's, were awkward, I think the author dealt very well with it and drew the line way before awkward became wrong. 

I feel I have so much to talk about this book, I can't pick the topics that would most interest a potential reader. But feeling-wise, this gave me nostalgia. It was like I had become a teenager again living in today's world. I can't speak for the target audience, but I think it's an interesting read for older fans of YA like myself. It was a sweet read, I love the magic realism going on, and it made me curious for the author's other books.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 4 out of 5.