Book Review: Impossible
22.07.2022
Book Review | Impossible by Sarah Lotz
Good Friday afternoon! I initially wrote this review on the hottest day of the year and I imagined you were probably already furious/melting/refusing to work/swimming in a paddling pool in the garden – delete as appropriate. Since I was sure your main interest at that point was just lying infront of a fan whilst groaning, I’ve waited until I thought I might have your full attention to post this because I’m very keen you receive my message loud and clear: go and pick up a copy of Impossible by Sarah Lotz right now/after work and get reading this weekend!
Before we begin properly, I’m going to let you know that there will be some gentle spoilers in this review because I really want to share the main premise of the book. I’m just going to tell you exactly what I knew going in because, in my experience so far, doing so makes this book much more intriguing to people who might otherwise dismiss it. That said, if you prefer to go in totally blind I’ll let you know when to stop reading this okay?
Okay, so. Nick and Bee are two singletons. Nick is a struggling writer living in Leeds. Bee runs a successful sewing company upcycling wedding dresses in London. One day a scathing email Nick meant for someone else arrives in Bee’s inbox and, seeing the funny side, she responds. The two then keep in contact and soon funny banter turns to romance. The emails make up the first part of the book and although I initially found them a bit of an impediment to getting into the story, I soon fell into their style and rhythm. Interspersed between the emails are first person led chapters, split between the two characters. The two techniques work really well in tandem, the emails allowing the reader to become immersed in the blossoming relationship while the first person chapters give us a greater insight into each character’s personal world – both inner and outer. This is only more necessary as the story progresses due to the complicated nature of the plot! When Nick and Bee finally decide to meet and neither shows up, despite both swearing they did, a shocking impediment to their relationship is revealed.
Spoiler-free fans this is where we leave you. Here’s a mini summary of my review for you guys: Cool book. Five stars. Super original love story. Compared to David Nicholl’s One Day which I agree with but with added sci-fi-ish elements. Come back when you’ve read Impossible and we can chat. Thank you.
Now, for the rest of you. It turns out that the reason Nick and Bee couldn’t find each other despite standing in exactly the same spot is because…they live in alternate universes. Yup, stick with me. For some reason it seems that Nick’s email found Bee due to some kind of celestial glitch which allowed it to cross a time/space/whatever you call it boundary. Other than emails they have no way of communicating: no phone or video calls, and obviously no chance of meeting in person. With the help of a rag-tag group of potential conspiracy theorists, the two hatch a plan to find a way to be together.
This is such a cool book. The premise itself is amazing of course but the execution is utterly fantastic. Lotz is so creative in the way she’s drawn both our world and another similar, but not quite, version of it. Though the romance is front and centre, the book explores so much more, imagining where we’d be now if our leaders had made different choices. In this way, Lotz has her characters consider everything from technology to environmentalism to war, in a consistently entertaining and interesting way. I often bore my husband with potted updates of what I’m reading and this is the first description in a long time that has properly hooked him.
In addition to exploring the political aspects, Lotz also deftly focuses on the personal. In discovering an alternate universe, the protagonists also learn what their own lives may have been like had they made different choices. There’s an element of Lionel Shriver’s The Birthday Party or Nick Payne’s Constellations in terms of the idea of the domino effect of a single choice leading to a different life. Lotz takes this one step further, allowing her characters to interact with this alternate life and forcing them to consider whether they (or their other selves) made the best decisions. It’s an ‘is the grass always greener’ type scenario, but more existential. Though the story toys with the concept of fate, it also explores the way in which different experiences and opportunities could alter the course of an individual’s life. Self-esteem, work success, coercive relationships and friendships are all put under the microscope in this way, with characters sometimes given a second chance to get it right.
It’s worth saying that what begins as a simple love story expands rapidly into a character-filled, plot-driven epic that challenges you to keep up! I loved this book and can certainly see it being one I re-read in the future – it’ll be the perfect combination of cosily familiar but complex enough to still spark surprise. I have one criticism, although it’s minor, which is that I would have liked to see the relationship between Bee and Nick develop a little further before they were thrown into this life-changing, rollicking, multi-dimensional adventure. It’s difficult to depict chemistry through emailed banter alone, there’s no opportunity for the physical moments you’d get in most romance novels but this was the single element of the novel that didn’t quite ring true to me. That aside I’m still, obviously, a major fan of this book that I’d like everyone to read right away!
Buy your own copy right here at my affiliate link on bookshop.org