03/21/2016
This story about young adults taking a second chance at a high school romance gone sour suffers from a myriad of problems, including a time-travel conceit not nearly charming enough to cover its lack of in-world explanation, a great many loose ends that make the conclusion unsatisfying, bad guys straight out of central casting, and premises that don’t always make sense. Miles Lawson is 17 in the year 2012, and in love with fellow high school student Adam. Whenever Miles experiences stress, he flips his mind into his 25-year-old body in 2020, when he’s married to a woman and seeing a therapist to figure everything out. Future Miles similarly deals with stress by sending his 25-year-old mind back to the past, in what looks like a temporal version of dissociative disorder. Future Miles leaves hints to his past self about his investigation into the cartoonishly evil researchers interested in his ability, while past Miles forces future Miles to reconnect with 2020 Adam, who’s engaged to another man. Pack (What It Takes) provides neither erotic tension nor character chemistry, leaving fans of both romance and SF feeling confused and disappointed. (May)
