Book Review - In Five Years
24.03.2020 | Book Review: In Five Years - Rebecca Serle
One thing I stockpiled long before we ever thought we’d end up in this situation were books. Still though I’m not immune to the lure of the shiny new title and spend an embarrassingly vast number of hours scrolling through bookstagram gazing at all the new releases. A couple of days ago, with lockdown imminent, I joined an online readathon because they had chosen a book I’ve already seen lauded online and wanted an excuse to read it. In Five Years by Rebecca Serle is something I flew through. The rest of the readers must have too as what was supposed to be the halfway through check-in has been upgraded to the end of the book review session.
Set in New York the book’s protagonist is Dannie, a corporate lawyer who’s always had her life mapped out. She’s got a plan for what should happen and when: work, marriage, children. The book opens on the day that everything is beginning to fall into place. She has an interview for her dream job and her boyfriend David is going to propose. Post-proposal Dannie falls asleep and wakes up five years in the future, where she lives somewhere else entirely with another man. The foray into this strange future is brief and soon she’s back home with David in the life she planned out. However the experience wasn’t a dream. She has no idea what it is and despite going to therapy to talk through it she really has no choice but to push it aside and get on with her life.
At this point I thought this was going to be a light, airy chick lit and I’d breeze through the second half as joyfully as I had through the first. In fact the book takes a couple of twists and becomes a quietly sad meditation on friendship, love, romance and life. It’s beautifully done with a cast of intriguing characters, particularly Bella, and I read compulsively to the end as quickly as I could. This book is for you if you like literature in the vein of Me Before You, it’s romantic, it’s easy to read but it still has the power to tie you up in knots and keep you engaged until the very end.
(Illustrations by Sofi Rose)