After Eden

October 7, 2013
Douglas’s debut, published earlier this year in the U.K., is a low-key teen love triangle spiked by the complication of time travel. Eden and Connor have been friends since preschool; Ryan is the new kid who shows up for 11th grade in their English seaside town. They’re handsome, intelligent kids with death and loss in their histories, but no serious hangups. Ryan whispers to Eden that Connor loves her, even as Ryan is putting the moves on her. Eden dismisses Connor for the lure of the new, but Ryan’s patchy grasp of common knowledge—what is pizza? who’s Nelson Mandela?—raises suspicion. It takes a hundred pages to discover why: Ryan is from the future, and he’s arrived to change his history. Douglas’s world-building can be strange. In 100 years, students will apparently recite Shakespeare from memory but not recognize Hitler’s name; indeed, though the locus of disaster lies with a boy born in the 20th century, that century is barely discussed in future classrooms. Otherwise, the plot is competently constructed and the prose enjoyable—a respectable debut. Ages 12–up. Agent: Julia Churchill, A.M. Heath.