Book Review: The Space Between Time by Charlie Laidlaw

I already had the pleasure of reading Charlie Laidlaw’s last book. It was great and I was glad to have found myself a new author. Recently, I was lucky enough to be asked to review his latest book. I was even more lucky after reading it because this book is amazing!

Blurb

The Space Between Time by Charlie Laidlaw is told from the viewpoint of Emma Maria Rossini. As the daughter of a beautiful and loving mother and a father who is one of the most famous film actors of his generation, it appears that Emma has it all. She’s also the granddaughter of a rather eccentric and obscure Italian astrophysicist.

However, Emma’s life begins to unravel and as she experiences love and tragedy, she ultimately finds solace in her once-derided grandfather’s Theorem on the universe.

Review

My initial thought was that this is a very humorous book. Emma has a snappy wit about her and I loved reading the story of this strange little family. There are great scenes with her father’s excitement of being in the top 20 most handsome men and her mother’s hatred of the Bentley. And her grandfather is an eccentric old man you just can’t help but love. Character description is wonderful through the eyes of Emma as it allows us to see the good points and flaws of each of the Rossini family members.

Slowly, the level of humor finds itself balanced by a deep sadness, one that drew an amazing sense of emotion from me. I’m not ashamed to say that I shed more than a tear or two while reading The Space Between Time because this book was totally worth it.

I’m not going to go into detail about what made me cry because that would be ruining an amazing story. But I will say these things. First, this is a story about how one thing can trigger a chain of events. This becomes more and more apparent as the book progresses. Secondly, through Emma we see the main characters unravel, from who we thought they were because of Emma’s opinion of them, to how the characters really are and the hidden meaning behind their actions. Finally, this was a surprising story of mental illness, although this was by no means the main theme of the story. However, I felt that it brought a lot of things together in the end and there was beautiful prose concerning mental illness included in the book that really touched my soul.

Also, I need to mention the inclusion of astrophysics in The Space Between Time. Don’t let that sentence put you off. Anything written that is connected to astrophysics is done so in an easily understandable way, and is included to show that we are all connected, even to those we have loved and not quite lost. It makes this book even more special.

Overall, I rate this book very highly. Most definitely it is a strong contender for my book of 2019. Why not have a read and see if you agree?

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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