Contemporary Authors

• All Our Wrong Todays ( novel) Dutton (New York, NY), 2017

1. All our wrong todays : a novel LCCN 2016013073 Type of material Book Personal name Mastai, Elan, author. Main title All our wrong todays : a novel / Elan Mastai. Published/Produced New York : Dutton, [2017] Description 373 pages ; 24 cm ISBN 9781101985137 (hardcover) 9781101985151 (softcover) CALL NUMBER PR9199.4.M3745 A78 2017 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE

• Elan Mastai - http://www.elanmastai.com/about/

  Elan Mastai is a novelist and screenwriter who enjoys casually leaning against walls with a friendly smile on his face as requested by his publisher.
  Photo credit: David Leyes
  Photo credit: David Leyes

  Elan Mastai

  “All Our Wrong Todays” is my first novel, but I’ve been writing professionally for the past fifteen years as a screenwriter. I’ve written movies for both independent production companies and the Hollywood studios, including scripts for Fox, Sony, Warner Brothers, and Paramount. My most recent film came out in 2014, after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. It’s called “What If”—also known as “The F Word”—a comedy starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis, Megan Park, and Rafe Spall, directed by Michael Dowse. I was fortunate to win the Canadian Academy Award and the Writers Guild of Canada Award for my screenplay, and the movie played in more than thirty countries around the world.

  I was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia and currently live in Toronto, Ontario with my wife and kids and an Australian Shepherd named Ruby Slippers.

• IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0997459/

  Writer (9 credits)
  2013/I What If (written by)
  2012/I The Samaritan (screenplay)
  2010 Love Letter from an Open Grave (Short) (writer)
  2006 Sk8 Life
  2005 How to Make a Canadian Film (Short)
  2005 Alone in the Dark (written by)
  2004 Chemistry (Short)
  2003 21st Century Scott (Short) (writer)
  2001 MVP: Most Vertical Primate (written by)
  Hide HideProducer (2 credits)
  2013/I What If (executive producer)
  2012/I The Samaritan (producer)
  Hide HideMiscellaneous Crew (1 credit)
  2015 Borealis (story editor)
  Hide HideThanks (2 credits)
  2008 Control Alt Delete (special thanks)
  2006 Everything's Gone Green (special thanks)
  Hide HideSelf (2 credits)
  2014 In Studio: Up Close and Personal (TV Movie)
  Himself
  2014 Katie Chats (TV Series)
  Himself
  - Canadian Screen Awards Chats (2014) ... Himself

• The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/30/elan-mastai-all-our-wrong-tomorrows-interview

  Books
  The first book interview
  Elan Mastai: 'I wrote about my mother’s death, but I used time machines to do it'
  Already a screenwriter, the author of All Our Wrong Todays explains his delight in avoiding Hollywood’s filters and using the special effects that only work in books
  Elan Mastai: ‘In screenwriting you’re stymied systemically.’
  Elan Mastai: ‘In screenwriting you’re stymied systemically.’ Photograph: David Leyes
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  Richard Lea
  @richardlea
  Thursday 30 March 2017 08.00 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 2 May 2017 13.22 EDT
  When Elan Mastai was 26, his mother died. “I think about where I am right now in my life, and it’s hard to imagine it the way it is had my mother not died,” says the Canadian screenwriter, now 43. “I started writing because of that. I started going from wanting to be a writer to actually writing. The last gift my mother gave me was the awareness that I don’t have unlimited time. When you’re young, it’s very easy to be your own worst enemy. It’s very easy to create a lot of obstacles that keep you from going after the things you want to do. It’s very easy to convince yourself that if you don’t try you won’t fail. Losing my mom changed that for me.”

  Over the next decade, Mastai built a successful Hollywood career, with writing credits including Alone in the Dark, The Samaritan (released as Fury in the UK) and the Daniel Radcliffe-Zoe Kazan romcom What If. But in 2013, when he started thinking about a story where a man strands himself in an alternate reality, Mastai realised that it wouldn’t be a screenplay, but a novel – a revelation he describes as “a little bit intimidating”.

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  Sitting in Penguin Random House’s imposing building on the Strand, Mastai has an air of confidence that suggests nothing would intimidate him for very long. After more than a decade in the film industry, he was ready for a new challenge. “I had never really written too much about that experience of losing my mom. I didn’t want to write some sort of grim and depressing memoir about it either … So on one level I was writing about my mother’s death, but I used time machines and flying cars to do it.”

  Landing Mastai an astronomical $1.25m (£1m) advance, All Our Wrong Todays is a mind-bending time-travel caper that follows Tom, a voyager from an alternate 21st century who is marooned in our contemporary world. As he casts a jaundiced eye over our drab reality, Tom tries to return to his own – but his journey has altered more than the advanced technology he’s grown used to. It has also changed the people he knew. Having fled a world in which his mother was recently killed and where he’s a perpetual disappointment to his domineering father, Tom arrives in our world to find a sister he never had, his father a changed man, and his mother still alive. The course of world history may have flipped – but the disorientation in his personal life feels just as acute.

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  As the press tour for What If loomed, Mastai tapped out an opening for All Our Wrong Todays on his phone and found he’d discovered the novel’s voice. He carried on writing it on the road, snatching 15 minutes here and there between events, writing a couple of hundred words at a time. When he returned to his day job, he decided to “just squirrel away a little time to get the first draft done. And when it was done I felt like: ‘OK, this is not totally embarrassing. There’s something here.’”

  Freed from the constraints of cinema, Mastai found himself experimenting with purely literary effects: in one chapter the text runs backwards, while another is constructed entirely out of the words “shit” and “fuck”.

  “If I was going to write a book, I wanted it to do all the things that books can do, but you can’t do in any other form,” he says. “I wanted to embrace the form.” Now he’s signed a contract to write a screenplay of his book, Mastai admits his experimentation is proving to be a challenge. “On the very first meeting with the studio, I said: ‘These are the five big changes we need to make, and if I don’t say them, we’re going to be dancing around it.’ And I could see that everybody was … relieved. Not because they want to change it, but they also recognise that there are certain things that we just can’t do. I think they were concerned that I didn’t know that.”

  Mastai, now working on his second novel, likens screenwriting to playing football or wrestling – with writing a novel more like going for a swim: “You feel like you’re effortlessly gliding, but then you can also drown.” He enjoys the freedom being a novelist allows him compared with screenwriting, where he says his work is “filtered through multiple layers – you’re not getting a chance to express yourself cleanly and purely”.

  “As a writer that’s what you fundamentally want,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a screenwriter, a novelist, a journalist – with any kind of writing you’re trying to use words to express yourself as clearly and compellingly as possible. In screenwriting you’re stymied systemically. So that’s what’s rewarding for me: for better or for worse, however somebody interprets the book, I got to express myself as clearly as I could.”

  All Our Wrong Todays is published by Michael Joseph at £14.99 and is available from the Guardian Bookshop for £12.74, including free UK p&p.

• GeekDad - https://geekdad.com/2017/03/all-our-wrong-todays-elan-mastai/

  ‘All Our Wrong Todays’: A GeekDad Q&A with Elan Mastai

  Posted on 30 March, 2017 by Jamie Greene • 0 Comments

  “Fortunately, this is a memoir. And the best thing about a memoir is it doesn’t even need to make sense.”

  I’m going to be honest here. I get pitched a lot of emails about new books and debut authors. I only have so many hours in the day, so there’s no way I can possibly read everything – even when they look halfway interesting.

  Then I got an email for Elan Mastai’s All Our Wrong Todays, and it looked way more than halfway interesting. I was fully intrigued from the outset. A quick chat with fellow GeekDad Jonathan Liu (who included the book in his weekly Stack Overflow column) confirmed my initial impressions. This was one to read.

  And from the first page, I was thoroughly invested in the narrator and hooked. I’m not often this pleasantly surprised by a new book, let alone one from a debut author, but All Our Wrong Todays is darn near perfect in all the right ways. (I mean, it helps that Mastai isn’t exactly a brand-new author; he’s an established and successful screenwriter. This is just his first novel.)

  I’m not going to go too deep into the book’s premise because, frankly, the less you know the more you’ll enjoy it. But the ten-cent description is: Tom Barren is the world’s worst time traveler. He comes from an alternative, Utopian 2016 but because he screwed up one little thing, he changed reality and is now forced to live in our 2016, which seems practically dystopian by comparison.

  “Not to be monstrously glib, but there isn’t even a name for my crime. Chronocide? Cooking up a fancy sci-fi term for it only obscures its immensity. There are some acts beyond label or measure.”

  I had the privilege of chatting with Mastai about the book, the mind-blowing scientific principles behind time travel, and how the story developed during the writing process. If you’d rather listen to the two of us ramble on in a much longer, unedited river of words (including an intense appearance by my cat on the piano), then by all means click the audio player here. And enjoy!

  00:00
  / 33:34

  GeekDad: You studied film and were a screenwriter before this, but why make the jump to novels?

  Elan Mastai: Well, I like to work my way backwards, so I started with film and then I wrote my novel. And I think next will be radio plays and then maybe I’ll start working on tablets….First of all, it was this particular story. I had this idea a few years ago, and anytime you really commit to writing a story, it’s a multiyear process. So I like to think about something for a while before I sit down and start committing the time to it. If I find my interest waning before I’ve even started, I know I’m not going to have the commitment and focus to make it through what will inevitably be several years.

  So I thought about it for a while, and as my ideas started to marinate, it was expanding and ideas were coming fast and furious. I realized that, as much as I thought it would make a tremendous movie, a book was really the best way to tell this story – in terms of my ability to worldbuild and to dig into the characters, themes, and philosophical questions that the premise raises. Once I realized I could tell it as a first-person narrative – as a fake memoir from the world’s most incompetent time traveler – I knew that would be a terrific way to tell this story.

  This story made me want to write my first novel.

  “It doesn’t matter if you’re smart or skilled if you can somehow be first.”

  GeekDad: So, as the story was coming together, did it ever strike you as being a film? Or was it always a novel and never anything else? The book definitely has a cinematic feel, which is obvious because of your background, but it feels like it would lend itself to a certain adaptation very well.

  Mastai: Initially, yeah, I thought this would make a really amazing movie. But as I thought about it, I realized the story was bigger than what I could fit into a movie. I didn’t have a book deal or a book agent when I started writing. I wrote it for myself, really. I just had this story I wanted to tell. Like a lot of first-time novelists, I wrote the book on the side, during nights and weekends. And as I wrote, the instinct that this would really work as a novel began to play out.

  So I wanted to write it as a book first. I didn’t have any expectations that I was going to sell the movie rights. I mean, as a screenwriter, I had the instinct that yeah, this would make a terrific movie, but I kind of put that out of my head while I was writing it. When I decided to write it as a book, I wanted to write the best book possible. If anyone wants to make it into a movie, we’ll figure that out later. And so I’m fortunate that Amy Pascal and her team at Paramount [who are developing the film] felt the same way.

  However, I didn’t make it easy on myself. Even though I wrote the book and am writing the screenplay, it’s definitely a tough nut to crack in terms of an adaptation. I was impressed with what Eric Heisserer did with Arrival, based on Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life.” That’s an incredibly complex short story, and they did an amazing job. It’s a good model for how you can make a smart, emotionally resonant sci-fi story that honors the source material but propels it into the world of film.

  “Is there a word for a thing you know you absolutely shouldn’t do, that would be wrong in every way that matters to you, but that you’re pretty sure you’re going to do anyway? Or is that just – human?”

  GeekDad: I have to admit, the idea of time travel being so difficult to accomplish simply because the Earth and everything else in the universe is constantly motion is something that I frankly never thought about before. But now, it makes total sense, and I’ll never think about time travel in the same way again. Did you reach out to any scientific consultants while writing?

  Mastai: No, that’s something I just thought of. I remember years ago, getting into a conversation about this with a friend at a party. It was just a pet peeve of mine. Here’s an example: my grandfather was a chemist. He is really the one who introduced me to a lot of the sci-fi I loved as a kid. Vintage sci-fi from the 50s and 60s. I loved the vividness of the stories, and I loved the painted covers depicting these imagined worlds. But because he was a chemist and a scientist, he would grumble, even though he loved this stuff, that they didn’t take the science seriously. In many cases, they didn’t even bother to figure out how things might work. But if they had, then the stories would’ve been more interesting because the science is fascinating.

  So when I sat down to write this book, and because my love of the genre is influenced by my grandfather, I thought, “If I’m going to write this, I’m going to try to get the science right.” And I’d never seen a time travel story that took orbital mechanics and astrodynamics into consideration.

  The idea that I’m sitting down in my office, talking to you, I feel like I’m not moving at all. But I’m actually hurtling through the cosmos at hundreds of thousands of miles an hour. I found that fascinating. And the idea that time is constantly moving. It’s constantly hurtling us forward, and there’s no way to ever turn it back. We’re always propelled one second in time into the future, relentlessly. But space doesn’t work that way. We can control how we move through space. But actually, because we’re stuck to the planet like barnacles, we are actually moving relentlessly through space, with no ability to change that. But we don’t perceive that.

  So I’ve just always found that fascinating. And connecting that observation with the fact that I’d never seen a time travel narrative that acknowledged that at all, I just thought it was right. Anytime you notice something that most people don’t seem to be talking about, I think, “Oh, this is curious. Let me dig into this and see what I can find as a storyteller.”

  And then I decided to put that observation early in the book because if you’re the kind of person who finds that interesting, you’re going to read the rest of the book.

  “The problem with knowing people too well is that their words stop meaning anything and their silences start meaning everything.”

  GeekDad: As the book goes on, it moves from a trippy sci-fi romp to one that explores the social effects of mental illness to an emotional story about love, loss, and abuse. You even have the main character comment on that change. But from your perspective, as the author, was that a natural evolution of the story as you were writing, or did you begin with that intention?

  Mastai: That’s a great question. Because of the way the book is structured – where the first 100 pages take place in this Utopian, alternate version of the present day – I wanted a present day that took all of the dazzling technology that past generations were sure was right around the corner. Flying cars, robot maids, teleportation, hotels on the moon. I wanted to have fun with that stuff and the idea that humanity’s big picture problems had been solved by technology. But at the same time, I didn’t feel like technology would solve human nature. There would still be personal issues.

  But I wanted it to be more upbeat. Bad things happen to the narrator, but he lives in a world where there’s a sense that technology will solve our problems for us. But when he gets stranded in what we think of as the real world – our version of the present – I wanted things to get more messy and complex. I wanted him to be in a world where technology has not solved our problems and humanity has gone off on a different course, and he was going to have to grapple with questions that he never had to ask before and face personal challenges that he never had to face.

  So it was my intention that it would get messier and a little darker. At the same time, you do discover things in the writing process. There were moments when I was surprised at how intense it got. There are things I scaled back. There are things I pushed further. But I also wanted a self-aware narrator, so when Tom remarks that “This is not what I was expecting,” I thought that’s what readers might be saying to themselves. Like the reader, Tom is taken aback by what’s happening and didn’t think it was going to be this hard.

  He thought it was going to be easier to save the world. And it turns out saving the world is not supposed to be easy. If it were easy, anyone would do it.

  GeekDad: Aside from your book tour, what’s next?

  Mastai: I’m currently working on the film adaptation for Paramount. I just delivered a draft of the script before the book tour started. And then I’m working on a new book. I’m about halfway through my second novel. It’s unrelated to All Our Wrong Todays. I mean, it’s a similar tone and a similar approach to the combination of genre elements with a more grounded personal story. If you like All Our Wrong Todays, I think you’ll like this new book, but it is totally different.

  “That’s all success feels like. It’s not triumphant. It’s not glorious. It’s just a relief. You finally stopped failing.”

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  Jamie Greene

  Jamie is a publishing/book nerd who makes a living by wrangling words together into some sense of coherence. When he's not knee deep in a convoluted grammatical mess of a sentence, he's likely on an adventure with his two adorable ragamuffins. You can check out more of his ramblings on The Roarbots, StarWars.com, and Babble.

• Vancouver Sun - http://vancouversun.com/entertainment/local-arts/top-vancouver-raised-screenwriter-elan-mastai-takes-a-novel-turn

  Top Vancouver-raised screenwriter Elan Mastai takes a novel turn

  Dana Gee DANA GEE
  More from Dana Gee
  Published on: March 15, 2017 | Last Updated: March 15, 2017 11:31 AM PDT
  Vancouver-born screenwriter Elan Mastai (The F Word with Daniel Radcliffe and Adam Driver) will talk about his first novel All Our Wrong Todays at a standalone event for the Vancouver Writers Fest on March 20.
  Vancouver-born screenwriter Elan Mastai (The F Word with Daniel Radcliffe and Adam Driver) will talk about his first novel All Our Wrong Todays at a standalone event for the Vancouver Writers Fest on March 20. HANDOUT
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  The Vancouver Writers Fest Presents: A Special Incite with Elan Mastai

  March 20, 7:30 p.m. | VPL Central Branch – Alice MacKay Room
  Free at writersfest.bc.ca

  Vancouver-born Elan Mastai has made the move from successful screenwriter to much buzzed-about author with his first novel All Our Wrong Todays.

  Paramount Pictures has already bought the rights and Mastai, who has lived in Toronto since 2004, is currently writing the screenplay.

  In a nutshell — this is a deeply layered, entertaining book — the story is set in 2016, but a very different 2016 where technology has managed to solve most of humanity’s problems. Everything is good until the main character — a grief-stricken, troubled time-traveller named Tom — appears and causes what Mastai calls “a terrible accident.”

  Mastai will be here in Vancouver on March 20 for a Writers Festival Incite event. We caught up with him recently and asked him a few questions.

  Travelling back in time is an interesting thought. I know the Hollywood conceit is if you do go back in time, aside from shooting Hitler, you should never mess with things. What time would you go back to and what would you change?

  My mother, Judith Mastai, died in 2001 after a too-short illness. I would go back to spend time with her, not just the funny, brilliant, warm and kind person that I loved but also the version of my family that inevitably changed when we lost her.

  In All Our Wrong Todays, my main character Tom is also dealing with the loss of a parent and, while the circumstances are different, I drew off my own experiences to tell his story and, I suppose, reflect on that very hard time in my life from the perspective of the husband and father I am now.

  What is the difference in feelings between having a novel come out and movie you have written come out?

  It’s more vulnerable having a novel come out. With a movie, even one I’m incredibly proud of like The F Word, the movie I wrote that stars Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan and Adam Driver, I made it in collaboration with the cast and crew and especially the director Michael Dowse. So you’re not bringing it into the world alone. You’re part of a filmmaking team and, frankly, as the screenwriter you’re not front and centre. People focus on the stars and the director.

  With a novel, there’s only me. Nobody to hide behind if it goes badly but also nobody to share it with if it goes well. So, yeah, I feel more exposed. But it’s also more direct, the connection between me as a writer and whoever decides to read the book. And that’s rewarding on a level that I’ve never quite experienced with a movie.

  All Our Wrong Todays is acclaimed screenwriter Elan Mastai’s first novel.
  All Our Wrong Todays is acclaimed screenwriter Elan Mastai’s first novel. HANDOUT
  What was it like to move from screenwriter to novelist? I think it usually goes the other way more often, right?

  It was a lot of fun. The thing about screenwriting is that no matter what the genre is, the writing style is always the same. And I’m very comfortable with that style. The third person. The present tense. The lean phrasing. The external perspective. The visual description.

  But as a writer, I was excited to challenge myself. To stretch new storytelling muscles and use literary techniques that just aren’t available to me as a screenwriter. I had a blast writing the novel and my goal was to pass that sense of fun onto the reader.

  At the same time, it was daunting, writing my first novel when my whole career had been spent making movies. I didn’t have a book agent or a publishing deal. I just had a story to tell and the feeling that a novel was the best way to tell it. So I took a risk and spent the time it took to write it, unsure when I started if those many, many months would result in a book I could be proud of.

  And, yes, typically it goes the other way, from novelist to screenwriter rather than the way I did it. But like most jobs in the world of art and entertainment, there’s no one path.

  Have you always had a movie version of the novel in your head?

  Well, yes and no. When I decided to write All Our Wrong Todays as a novel, I resolved to embrace the form as much as possible. I didn’t want it to read like a screenplay that had been crammed into novel form. I wanted it to work as a book, to embrace the literary techniques and storytelling style of a novel and not worry at all if it might ever be a movie.

  Of course, having written movies for so many years, it’s hard to turn off that part of my brain. So while I was writing the book there were definitely moments when I drew off the visual storytelling techniques of screenwriting, when it served the story. And those are probably the moments in the book where readers will see there’s a movie in there, too.

  What is a movie adapted from a novel that you think really got it right and why?

  Recently, I thought Arrival did a terrific job of adapting Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life into a film that works on its own merits. The source material is intensely cerebral and complex but still very moving, and I thought screenwriter Eric Heisserer and director Denis Villeneuve showed tremendous respect for Chiang’s work but understood that they needed to reimagine it as a movie.

  Likewise, I thought screenwriter Drew Goddard and director Ridley Scott did strong work with The Martian, finding playful ways to preserve the narrative voice of Andy Weir’s novel but embracing the visual dynamism of film to make a gripping movie.

  All-time favourite movie adaptations of novels include The Princess Bride, Fight Club, The Silence of the Lambs, The Shining and Trainspotting. In all these cases, the screenwriter and director respected the tone and feel of the source novel, but recognized that to make a truly excellent movie they needed to find visual storytelling equivalents of the literary techniques that defined the books.

  Who did you let read your novel first?

  A few trusted friends and my film agents. My friends because their opinions matter to me and they’d tell me honestly if it sucked. My film agents because I wanted them to know what I was doing instead of writing the next movie and they’d also be candid with me if they felt I’d wasted my time on a novel that didn’t work.

  Fortunately, the immediate feedback from everyone was positive and constructive. As a writer, you need to have people who will be honest with you, no matter what. Because readers don’t know you and only care if the book transports them.

  I saw All Our Wrong Todays on a staff pick list in a book store recently. How does that make you feel?

  Pretty good, obviously. When I wrote the novel, I didn’t have a book agent or a publishing deal, so I just hoped someone would see its merits and take the risk to publish a first-time novelist. I didn’t expect the kind of reaction it’s gotten from the publishing world or booksellers or readers for that matter. It’s what you fantasize about as a writer, but you don’t really expect it to actually happen. So I feel very, very grateful and also, honestly, a bit taken aback.

  When you typed the last words and you knew the book was complete, what was the first thing you did?

  Reread the whole book to check if I’d missed anything. And then I walked my dog because she’d been waiting so patiently.

  It says on your Wikipedia page that you got $1.25 million for your novel. Is that true?

  I’ve learned it’s best to just trust everything I read on the Internet.

  dgee@postmedia.com

  twitter.com/dana_gee

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Print Marked Items
Best science fiction, fantasy, horror 2016
Voice of Youth Advocates.
40.1 (Apr. 2017): p8.
COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
VOYA presents the annual compilation of science fiction, fantasy, and horror books for teens that our reviewers have
given top ratings.
All titles have been awarded a 5Q for quality or a 5P for popularity. This is an exciting list for updating your young
adult collections, reader's advisory, and booktalking. All titles were reviewed in VOYA Magazine between June 2016
and April 2017.
Banks, Anna. Nemesis. Feiwel & Friends/ Macmillan, 2016. 368p. $17.99. 978-1-25007017-3. VOYA October 2016.
5Q 4P J S
"It has well-developed characters, an intriguing premise, interesting ideas, and the kind of cliff-hangers that keep
readers flipping pages. ... If you have readers begging for fantasy or romance, toss this their way."
Barnhill, Kelly. The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Algonquin, 2016. 400p. $16.95. 978-1-61620-567-6. VOYA October
2016. 5Q4PMJ
"... [T]his richly imagined, many-layered tale is beautifully crafted with multiple significant characters, story lines, and
viewpoints. ... Subtly nuanced, the story swirls around issues of sacrifice and forgiveness without ever becoming
didactic. Barnhill has created an original fairy tale that will stand up to the multiple readings it will engender."
Buckley, Andrew. Hair in All the Wrong Places. Tantrum/ Month9Books, 2016. 238p. $15. Trade pb. 978-1-942664-
98-7. VOYA August 2016. 5Q 4P M JSR
"This novel has all the makings of a great superhero origin story--nerdy kid that is bad with girls gains powers and
saves the day. Buckley is a direct and to-the-point writer who does not add a bunch of fluff. This is a great read for
reluctant readers from all grade levels."
8/6/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Cameron, Sharon. The Forgetting. Scholastic, 2016. 416p. $18.99. 978-0-545-94521-9. VOYA October 2016. 5Q 5P M
J S
"This novel begins as just another dystopian novel, but transforms into an amazing science fiction adventure.... Are
humans just the sum total of their memories or are they more?"
Cast, P. C. Moon Chosen: Tales of a New World, Book 1. St. Martin's/Macmillan, 2016. 608p. $18.99. 978-1-250-
10072-6. VOYA December 2016. 4Q 5P J S NA
"Costello's precise line drawings begin each of the forty-eight chapters to show details in the environment. The massive
scale of world-building is seen in the book's length, and there is enough action and character development to fill two
books.... This is a must-have purchase for libraries serving young adults."
Demetrios, Heather. Blood Passage: Dark Caravan Cycle, Book 2. Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2016. 512p. $17.99.
978-0-06-231859-6. VOYA June 2016. 5Q 5P J S
"In this the sequel to Exquisite Captive (HarperCollins, 2014/VOYA December 2014), Demetrios creates a world of
passion and danger in a seldom written about paranormal area.... Brilliantly flawed characters lead the reader on an
emotional and dangerous journey through mystical, magical realms that hide secrets from all."
Giles, Jeff. The Edge of Everything. Bloomsbury, 2017. 368p. $18.99. 978-1-61963-753-5. VOYA December 2016. 5Q
5P J S R
"Giles's gripping tale pulls readers through a fast-paced thriller in ... this wholly engrossing page-turner. Giles
convinces readers to view X as a 'good guy' who hails from an isolated section of hell, only entering the surface world
to collect souls assigned to him. It is suitable for any readers who are aficionados of contemporary fiction, mystery,
adventure, suspense, romance, or tales wherein determining right from wrong is difficult. Shelve multiple copies and
gift this book; readers will thank you."
Gratz, Alan. The Monster War: A League of Seven Novel, Book 3. Starscape/Macmillan, 2016. 336p. $17.99. 978-0-
765-33824-2. VOYA October 2016. 5Q 4PM J
In "[t]he final novel in The League of Seven series ... Gratz is a masterful storyteller, and this story has elements that
will appeal to multiple genres of readers, from steampunk to fantasy to action and adventure.... This is a satisfying
ending to the trilogy that will fascinate boys and girls of all ages.... Suggest this to fans of the Matt Cruse series by
Kenneth Oppel or the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfield."
Graudin, Ryan. Blood for Blood: Wolf by Wolf, Book 2. Little, Brown, 2016. 496p. $17.99. 978-0-316-40515-7.
VOYA December 2016. 5Q4PJS
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"The conclusion of this duology is darker than the series' starter ... Readers of the first book will adore this title with its
bittersweet conclusion; ... It is recommended for libraries that have purchased the first title, and the purchase of both
books in the duology is strongly recommended for those that have not."
Grove, S.E. The Crimson Skew: The Mapmaker's Trilogy, Book 3. Viking/Penguin Random House, 2016. 448p.
$17.99. 978-0-670-78504-9. VOYAAugust 2016. 5Q5PMJ
In The Mapmaker's Trilogy, "Grove has created a wonderfully unique series with multiple layers for students and
teachers to explore. On the surface, this is an entertaining fantasy and adventure story for teens. Deeper, there are
themes of xenophobia and racism and how people's actions have an effect on the world on a fundamental level. The
Crimson Skew and the entire trilogy are great, fun books to read, as well as perfect choices for book groups and class
reading."
Hale, Nathan. One Trick Pony. Amulet/ Abrams, 2017. 128p. $14.95. 978-1-4197-2128-1. VOYA April 2017. 4Q 5P M
J S Graphic Format
"In a world devastated by technology-stealing aliens, humans struggle to survive. A group of teens scavenges the world
for tech, trying to avoid evil aliens called Pipers ... [who] blow bubbles to capture tech ... Hale shows amazing talent
and humor ... [in this] struggle to preserve human history in the face of disaster."
Hamilton, Alwyn. Traitor to the Throne: Rebel of the Sands, Book 2. Viking/Penguin Random House, 2017. 528p.
$18.99. 978-0-451-47785-9. VOYAApril 2017. 5Q 4P J S
"In a world with powerful and immortal Djinnis, political intrigue, and a civil war brewing, a tyrannical Sultan is using
it all for his own gain ... A robust and satisfying sequel, [this] ranks at the top with ... Morgan Rhodes, Rae Carson, and
Leigh Bardugo. Best described as a western threaded with magic and Arabian mythology, Hamilton's storytelling is
rich and the characters well developed."
Kurtagich, Dawn. And the Trees Crept In. Little, Brown, 2016. 352p. $17.99. 978-0-316-29870-4. VOYA October
2016. 4Q 5P J S
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"Kutragich evokes an all-pervading atmosphere of horror with dark imagery and language evoking rot, decay, and
death.... This unique novel is for teens who enjoy being immersed in a dark, complex horror story."
Lee, Fonda. Exo. Scholastic, 2017. 384p. $17.99. 978-0-545-93343-8. VOYA December 2016. 5Q 4P M J
"This is not the usual aliens-conquering-Earth plotline.... Lee thoroughly establishes the different worlds, painting vivid
pictures ... Donovan is a well-rounded character ... [with] real-life conflicts revolving around following in a parent's
footsteps and making sense of the world around him. Science fiction fans will love this title."
McGinnis, Mindy. The Female of the Species. Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, 2016. 352p. $17.99. 978-0-06-232089-
6. VOYA October 2016. 5Q 5P J S
"This book does not start quietly, softly, or humorously--its grasp holds the reader firmly and unflinchingly and does
not let go even after the book ends.... Each word has been specifically chosen, each character superbly and humanly
sculpted, the plot line masterfully completed. To say more would be to dilute the experience. McGinnis plays with the
readers and they are at her mercy."
McKay, Kirsty. The Assassin Game. Sourcebooks, 2016. 336p. $10.99 Trade pb. 978-1-4926-3275-7. VOYA August
2016. 4Q 5P J S NA
"Red-herrings abound in this page-turner ... The fast-moving plot will motivate readers to sort through the many
characters, guess at their motives, and spot the real criminal. Vaughn may make this a cross-gender read, but narrator
star Cate will draw enough female readers to require more than one library copy."
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Mannering, Rose. Feathers: The Tales Trilogy, Book 2. Sky Pony, 2016. 288p. $17.99. 978-1-63450-165-1. VOYA
August 2016. 4Q 5P M J S
"The good-versus-evil theme sets up Ode to be the hero, and as the book ends, he is about to step into that role.
Although the beautiful girl with whom he falls in love could easily double as a Disney princess, Odes courage in the
face of rejection encourages young readers to look past the superficial and see people as they really are."
Mastai, Elan. All Our Wrong Todays. Dutton/ Penguin Random House, 2017. 384p. $26. 978-1-101-98513-7. VOYA
February 2017. 5Q 4P S NA A/YA
"An intricate plot, cheeky humor, and rich, multi-faceted characters create a compelling and complex narrative. An
additional meta-layer explores the role of writing in a world obsessed with technology. Sophisticated readers will enjoy
revisiting arguments about the death of the novel; deciding whether Tom is right in asserting this is memoir and not
fiction; and whether there is a meaningful difference between the two."
Meyer, Marissa. Wires and Nerve, Vol. 1. Illus. by Douglas Holgate. Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 2017. 240p. $21.99.
978-1-250-07826-1. VOYA February 2017. 4Q 5P M J S (G)
"Meyer continues the world of The Lunar Chronicles into her first graphic novel. It takes place several months after the
conclusion of Winter (Macmillan, 2015) but before the happily-ever-after epilogue in Stars Above (Macmillan,
2016/VOYA April 2016). Fans of The Lunar Chronicles and new readers alike will be delighted with this graphic
novel."
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. Certain Dark Things. Thomas Dunne/Macmillan, 2016. 336p. $25.99. 978-1-250-09908-2.
VOYA October 2016. 5Q 5P S NA
"The story is full of complex, detailed, mashed-up vampire lore and uses multiple third-person points of view to
narrate.... The novel has many mature themes, much violence, and strong language, but it all helps create a wonderful
urban world filled with danger and suspense.... This excellent book is a must-have purchase for all libraries, especially
where horror and urban fantasy fiction are hot. This novel will provide crossover appeal to both older teens and new
adults."
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Murray, Kirsty, Payal Dhar, and Anita Roy, Eds. Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean: Stories of Imagination and Daring.
Simon & Schuster, 2017. 240p. $17.99. 978-1 4814-7057-5. VOYA April 2017. 5Q 4P M J S
"Each story [in this title] began as a sharing between two women authors, one from Australia and one from India ...
This eclectic collection offers seventeen fantasy and science fiction stories, from traditional format to graphic, and will
appeal to a wide audience [with its] diverse, magical ... [and] applause-worthy stories."
Nix, Garth. Frogkisser! Scholastic, 2017. 384p. $18.99. 978-1-338-05208-4. VOYA February 2017. 5Q 4P M J S
"Nix has stirred up an intoxicating brew in Frogkisser! ... The colorful adventures, full of fairytale familiarities
seasoned with humor and twists, employ weasel warriors, wizards, witches with add-on warts, druids, librarians going
owl,' and flying carpet rides. When the Bill of Rights and Wrongs is reestablished in the kingdom, all ends happily--
exactly as a fairy tale should. Readers will want a sequel."
Oliver, Lauren. Replica. HarperCollins, 2016. 544p. $19.99. 978-0-06-239416-3. VOYA December 2016. 4Q 5P M J S
"Oliver's latest will appeal to fans of her Delirium series. Both Gemma's and Lyra's stories are revealed, bit by bit, as
Oliver shows the reader the connections between them. As in Delirium (HarperCollins, 2011/ VOYA April 2011),
Oliver deals here with issues of what science can do and what science should do, in the context of an exciting
adventure story that will keep teen readers turning the pages."
Riggs, Ransom. Tales of the Peculiar. Illus. by Andrew Davidson. Dutton/Penguin Random House, 2016. 192p. $24.99.
978-0-399-53853-7. VOYA December 2016. 5Q 5P M J S
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"Continuing the fantastical world of peculiars, Riggs delivers on a companion to his Miss Peregrine's Home for
Peculiar Children series ... Davidson's artwork [is an] exquisite, creatively-drawn, and masterfully-executed addition
for fans... Bringing life to this historian of the peculiars creates an atmosphere of reverence to the peculiars he writes
about and expands Riggs's reach."
Ritter, William. Ghostly Echoes: Jackaby, Book 3. Algonquin, 2016. 352p. $17.95. 978-1-61620-579-9. VOYA August
2016. 4Q 5P J S
"Fans of Sherlock Holmes-type mysteries and television shows like Supernatural, Grimm, and Houdini and Doyle will
be sure to read this entire series and eagerly await its next installment. This story has everything covered in its mashup
of romance, mystery, adventure, horror creatures, fantasy lore, and gothic atmosphere ... All readers will not be able to
put it down."
Roth, Veronica. Carve the Mark. Katherine Tegen/ HarperCollins, 2017. 480p. $22.99. 978-0-06-234863-0. VOYA
February 2017. 5Q 5P J S
"Roth skillfully weaves the careful world-building and intricate web of characters that distinguished Divergent
(HarperCollins, 2011/ VOYA August 2011), with settings that are rich with color, ripe for a cinematographer. Roth fans
will cheer this new novel with its power to absorb the reader ... Readers will be anxiously awaiting the sequel."
Salisbury, Melinda. The Sleeping Prince: Sin Eater's Daughter, Book 2. Scholastic, 2016. 336p. $17.99. 978-0-545-
92127-5. VOYA June 2016. 5Q 4P S
"Fans of the first book will be delighted with this much stronger tale in the Sin Eater's Daughter series. Salisbury
continues to expand her rich world of unique characters and epic mythology. ... This is highly recommended for fans of
the first book, as well as for fans of fantasy and medieval tales."
Shusterman, Neal. Scythe: Arc of a Scythe, Book 1. Simon & Schuster, 2016. 448p. $18.99. 978-1-4424-7242-6.
VOYA February 2017. 5Q 5P S NA
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"The story is entirely compelling and intricately deals with the philosophically challenging issue of legal, compulsory
euthanasia.... This outstanding book is a must-have purchase for all libraries serving young adults, especially where
genre fiction and well-written, literary fiction is popular."
Spooner, Meagan. Hunted. HarperTeen, 2017. 384p. $17.99. 978-0-06-242228-6. VOYA February 2017. 5Q 5P M J S
"This beautifully told story blends two fairytale traditions: Beauty and the Beast, written by an eighteenth-century
French novelist; and the Firebird of Slavic tradition. Yeva is the hero who embarks on a difficult journey to capture the
Firebird and break the | spell.... The author's other characters are well-developed, too, and her depictions of the snowy
forests and magical valleys ... will keep the reader spellbound.... [T]his compelling story will have broad appeal."
Stanton, Angie. Waking in Time. Switch/Capstone, 2017. 360p. $17.95. 978-1-630790707. VOYA February 2017. 5Q
3P J S
"Stanton creates an intricate and well-crafted tale with the added twist of a second time traveler moving in the opposite
direction. ... Enough hints are present throughout the story to suggest what will occur, but it remains filled with
mysteries and revelations that will surprise the reader. Fans of Kierstin Gier's Ruby Red trilogy and of time travel will
enjoy Abbi's travels."
Starmer, Aaron. Spontaneous. Dutton/Penguin Random House, 2016. 368p. $17.99. 978-0525-42974-6. VOYA August
2016. 5Q 4P S
"The characters are also honest and sympathetic in a way that will draw readers into this realistic and slightly horrific
read. The author takes an interesting concept and runs with it in more than one direction. It is generally pretty fun.
While the author brings up some tough topics, he does not dig too deeply in to them, leaving the readers to draw their
own conclusions."
Stiefvater, Maggie. The Raven King: The Raven Cycle, Book 4. Scholastic, 2016. 448p. $18.99. 978-0-545-42498-1.
VOYA June 2016. 5Q 5P J S
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In "[t]he highly anticipated final installment of Stiefvater's Raven Cycle, Stiefvater excels at building an intricately
layered narrative with twisting, unpredictable turns, and her ability to introduce new, complex characters and storylines
while also tying up previous loose ends is remarkable.... Readers who have invested in the series for years will not be
disappointed, for the characters they have come to love are tested and found worthy in their sacrifices and redemption."
Tan, Shaun. The Singing Bones. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, 2016. 192p. $24.99. 978-0-545-94612-4. VOYA August
2016. 5Q 4P J S NA R (G)
"A new collection of artwork from the New York Times bestseller is paired with excerpts from the Brothers Grimm
classic tales ... The Singing Bones will appeal to fans of history and art, as well as lovers of fantasy and fairytales.
Reluctant readers and skimmers will like the short excerpts. Unlike any other, this is not your average fairytale book."
Taylor, Laini. Strange the Dreamer. Little, Brown, 2017. 544p. $18.99. 978-0-316-34168-4. VOYA April 2017. 5Q 3P
JS
"Lazlo Strange is an orphan, raised by monks, and is now a librarian at the Zemonan Abbey, where he has found out all
he can find about the Unseen City of Weep. Fans of Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy will be clamoring ...
[to] dive into Taylor's usual gorgeous prose and brilliant imagery, and relish this story about dreams, love, monsters,
gods, ghosts, war, and alchemy."
Thorne, Jack. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two: A New Play. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, 2016.
320p. $29.99. 978-1-338-09913-3. VOYA December 2016. 3Q 5P M J S NA
"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is for readers who know Harry and his friends, those who can close their eyes and
see Hogwarts, the train station, talking portraits, winding staircases, chocolate frogs, and many more amazing things ...
Reading this play is like reading a jigsaw puzzle; [and] once a reader of Potter stories, always a reader of Potter
stories."
Valentino, Serena. Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch: Villains, Volume 3. Disney, 2016. 208p. $17.99.
978-1-4847-2405-7. VOYA October 2016. 4Q 5P M J R
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In "[t]he third in Valentino's Villians series, Valentino skillfully combines the original Grimm's fairy tale and the
Disney adaptation, as well as borrows from other avenues of folklore and mythology, creating a unique, spellbinding
tale. There are always multiple sides to a story, and Valentino explores this fact through her Villians series.... Poor
Unfortunate Soul will make a great addition to middle-grade library collections, both school and public."
VOYA booklists are reproducible without permission for library, classroom, and workshop use. Reprinting in any
medium for sale by a commercial or nonprofit entity or posting on the Internet requires written permission from the
publisher.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Best science fiction, fantasy, horror 2016." Voice of Youth Advocates, Apr. 2017, p. 8+. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491949437&it=r&asid=8430fa8510f2c28324571761eb4df146.
Accessed 6 Aug. 2017.
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All Our Wrong Todays
Mike Doherty
Maclean's.
130.2 (Mar. 2017): p69.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Rogers Publishing Ltd.
http://www2.macleans.ca/
Full Text:
ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS
Elan Mastai
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Everything about Mastai's debut novel is clever, starting with the premise: What if the utopian society we dreamt up
after the Second World War (complete with teleportation, flying cars, garbage-cleaning robots) came true? And what if
that society had then invented time travel, but screwed things up in the past so badly that humanity ended up with our
flawed present-day reality?
Our hero, Tom Barren, is largely responsible for the screw-up: he's an unambitious thirtysomething from the utopia
who stumbles into a job as a "chrononaut" and unwittingly alters the defining moment that gave rise to his reality.
Marooned in our present, he becomes determined to somehow atone for his mistakes and bring his utopia back into
being. But in doing so (cue: ominous drum roll) he would erase the existence of a woman he has come to love.
Mastai, who earned a reported seven-figure advance for his first foray into fiction, is a Toronto-based screenwriter
known for his Philosopher Roger Scruton's new book discusses the self-awareness of humans--and dolphins film The F
Word; in the novel, he deploys his rom-com chops with zippy dialogue and deftly drawn characters, but also manages
to keep a bewildering number of narrative balls in the air. His speculative thriller meditates on architecture,
relationships, the kind of world we want to live in, and even narrative conventions--Tom has a self-aware go at generic
time-travel narratives and memoirs. Somehow, it all comes together, in ways that can be exhilarating, but exhausting,
too.
All Our Wrong Todays is the Centre Pompidou of novels: its mechanics are deliberately exposed, so you're constantly
reminded of how it has been constructed. Even when certain sections seem to stretch on--especially the opening, with
its prolix exposition-there's always an ingenious reason why they do. Tom anticipates criticism ("I am not a genius. If
you've read this far, you're already aware of that fact"); nonetheless, pace Dostoevsky, it grows wearying to be trapped
inside a smart, self-aware, self-flagellating loner's head.
When events beyond Tom's control force him to start truly interacting with people in different "todays," the book takes
off. Its braininess is balanced by moments of glittering wisdom, such as Tom's description of having children: "creating
life ... takes every bad decision you ever made and makes them necessary footsteps on the treacherous path that brought
you home." Mastai is not only an ambitious and committed talent, but there's a depth here that augurs well for when
he's more comfortable with the form. Would that we could jump ahead in time and read his next book.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Doherty, Mike. "All Our Wrong Todays." Maclean's, Mar. 2017, p. 69. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA483560047&it=r&asid=d6ce0ed481c4bc6b992a9c97e3c6f9fa.
Accessed 6 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A483560047
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All Our Wrong Todays
Cat Acree
BookPage.
(Feb. 2017): p20.
COPYRIGHT 2017 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS
By Elan Mastai
Dutton
$26, 384 pages
ISBN 9781101985137
Audio, eBook available
SCIENCE FICTION
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Amid the deluge of unreliable, devious narrators that compose so much of recent fiction, meet Tom Barren. He's
refreshingly truthful, completely forthright--and an abject failure. In the debut novel from Toronto author and
screenwriter Elan Mastai, Tom would like to tell you how he screwed up the future.
Tom's self-effacing memoir opens with a dose of physics, as our apologetic hero does his best to explain just how he
got stuck in the "dank, grimy horror" that is our 2016. Tom is from an alternate reality, the kind of utopian future that
Americans dreamed of in the 1950s. In this technological paradise, the groundbreaking Goettreider Engine uses the
Earth's rotation to power all of humanity. Below-average Tom might be a disappointment to his genius father, but
things are generally pretty good for humankind in his 2016. That is, until--in a fit of rage, guilt and grief--Tom
defiantly hops into the time machine his father has built and accidentally halts the creation of the Goettreider Engine.
Mastai's utopian worldbuilding is complex and imaginative, but some of the book's most memorable sections are when
Tom attempts to navigate our "retrograde" world. Here, his family is different: His mother is still alive, his father is
kind, and he has a sharp-witted sister. His love is different, and his failures are different. This isn't your typical timetravel
story where the wrong reality needs to be righted.
An entertaining rom-com of errors, All Our Wrong Todays backflips through paradoxes while exploring provocative
questions of grief and the multitudes we contain within ourselves. Ultimately, it's a story about love--and the stupid
things we'll do for it.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Acree, Cat. "All Our Wrong Todays." BookPage, Feb. 2017, p. 20+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479076920&it=r&asid=cd1a95663d72bc6b7f6e61444f0d8558.
Accessed 6 Aug. 2017.
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Mastai, Elan: ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS
Kirkus Reviews.
(Dec. 1, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Mastai, Elan ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS Dutton (Adult Fiction) $26.00 2, 7 ISBN: 978-1-101-98513-7
Screenwriter Mastai's debut novel is the story of the world's first and, unfortunately for us all, most unqualified time
traveler.July 11, 1965, is the day the world changed. It's the day that physicist Lionel Goettreider turns on his new
creation, the Goettreider Engine, which works better than he or his 16 witnesses ever imagined: the machine generates
an unlimited source of clean energy. How does it work? "It has something to do with magnetism and gravity
and...honestly, I don't know...it just works. Or it did. Before, you know, me." This me is Tom Barren, who comes from
"the world we were supposed to have." Tom is not from the future but rather a wildly different and more advanced
2016. His reality is a place marked by the "absence of material want,"
and yet Tom isn't happy. His career and love life are going nowhere, and, considering he is the son of the foremost
scientist in the field of time travel, he is pretty much a failure. But then his father intervenes and hires him to become
the understudy of Penelope Weschler, the insanely driven woman preparing to become one of the world's first
"chrononauts," the fancy term for time traveler. Tom is there in case Penelope royally messes up, which would never
happen. But then Tom falls in love with Penelope and Penelope notices, and everything unravels--so much so that Tom
finds himself emotionally broken and activating the time machine without permission to go back to July 11, 1965, the
moment his world began. And since Tom is not Penelope, things go horribly wrong. Mastai's novel is both charming
and wondrously plotted--Tom's self-deprecation in the beginning seems to limit his potential as a character and yet, in
the end, he's an impressive feat of memory and consciousness. Mastai considers not only the workings, but the
consequences (and there are many) of time travel, packing so much into the last 100 pages it feels as if there's literal
weight pressing on your mind. "Existence is not a thing with which to muck around," and yet that's exactly what
fantastic storytelling attempts, warping reality, perception, and truth--and hopefully entertaining us as well as this novel
does.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Mastai, Elan: ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2016. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471901998&it=r&asid=807b3fecd24de83e68b09a99b2a4bf8c.
Accessed 6 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471901998
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All Our Wrong Todays
Publishers Weekly.
263.46 (Nov. 14, 2016): p28.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
All Our Wrong Todays
Elan Mastai. Dutton, $26 (384p) ISBN 978-1-101-98513-7
In Mastai's imaginative debut novel, Tom Barren's version of 2016 is a technological utopia based on a model
popularized by 1950s science fiction. There are flying cars, robot maids, jet packs, teleportation, ray guns, and space
vacations. Thanks to an experimental time machine, Tom travels back to the moment this glorious future was born--the
1965 invention of the Goettreider Engine, a clean-energy source that transformed mankind. Unfortunately, Tom's
presence causes the experiment to go haywire. He disappears, and when he rematerializes he is in an alternate timeline,
socially and technologically backward--in other words, our own 2016. Horrified at what he sees, Tom tries to come to
terms with his new environment, which is only made bearable by a bookstore owner named Penny, with whom he
promptly falls in love. In order to prove to her where he is really from, Tom is forced to track down the scientist who
invented the clean-energy device. From here, the story takes several startling turns as Tom tries to make things right by
using another time machine to change the future of this timeline. Mastai has fun with all the usual conventions of time
travel and its many paradoxes, and the cherry on top is his dialogue, reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"All Our Wrong Todays." Publishers Weekly, 14 Nov. 2016, p. 28. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA473458959&it=r&asid=c9acb80317f6bc9515d0078492836a7d.
Accessed 6 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A473458959
8/6/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1502072188021 16/17
Mastai, Elan. All Our Wrong Todays
Henry Bankhead
Library Journal.
141.16 (Oct. 1, 2016): p74.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution
permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
* Mastai, Elan. All Our Wrong Todays. Dutton. Feb. 2017.384p. ISBN 9781101985137. $26; ebk. ISBN
9781101985144. F
This debut novel is built on a clever premise: the "real" present actually was a technological wonder, as visualized in
postwar America. It was a world where every problem was solved by technology; a universe of flying cars and
synthetic solutions. This was the actual present, but the narrator, Tom Barron, erased it when he altered the time line by
mistake. Our current state of technology pales by comparison. The novel goes on to show how Tom screwed up and in
doing so casts a distinct contrast between Tom in the techno-future and his character as he ends up in our time. Here he
inherits a better life, just not "his" life. In describing the narrator's attempt to fix his "mistake," Mastai creates a
fascinating tapestry of interconnected alternate realities. Particularly creepy is the introduction of the specter of a third,
even darker possibility, which leavens the plot. VERDICT A potent mixture of sincere introspection and a riveting
examination of time travel and alternate realities, this highly recommended novel is reminiscent of Jo Walton's My
Real Children with the breeziness of Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. [See Prepub Alert, 8/22/16.]--
Henry Bankhead, San Rafael P.L., CA
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Bankhead, Henry. "Mastai, Elan. All Our Wrong Todays." Library Journal, 1 Oct. 2016, p. 74. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464982220&it=r&asid=622094277aaf4927aa9a48f75b8f15f7.
Accessed 6 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A464982220
8/6/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1502072188021 17/17
All Our Wrong Todays
Annie Bostrom
Booklist.
113.5 (Nov. 1, 2016): p37.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
All Our Wrong Todays. By Elan Mastai. Feb. 2017. 384p. Dutton, $26 (9781101985137).
Tom Barren has come from the 2016 we're supposed to be living in. He is the first chrononaut, a time traveler who has
just landed in 1965 at the inception of the most amazing invention that ever (sort of) was: the engine that harnessed the
velocity of earth's rotation to power the world. Unfortunately, Tom's very presence--he is invisible, but he neglected to
make himself undetectable, in unauthorized haste--throws off the whole process, and before he boomerangs back to
2016, the world as he knew it is forever changed. Where are all the amazing gadgets and buildings people made, no
longer needing to worry about fuel? Why is everyone calling him John? Though he immediately falls in love, and he
likes this version of his family better in this 2016, Tom's mishap weighs heavily on him, and he thinks he should
correct it. This is barely the beginning of the story Tom tells conversationally, acknowledging that it is utterly
uncontainable in short, sparking chapters. Screenwriter Mastai fills his debut with vintage-sf-novel-fueled names and
explanations to anticipate readers' every question; they'll enjoy the ride.--Annie Bostrom
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Bostrom, Annie. "All Our Wrong Todays." Booklist, 1 Nov. 2016, p. 37. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471142859&it=r&asid=8ae6d0a788fb369a5ad010a9aa00523f.
Accessed 6 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471142859

"Best science fiction, fantasy, horror 2016." Voice of Youth Advocates, Apr. 2017, p. 8+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491949437&it=r. Accessed 6 Aug. 2017. Doherty, Mike. "All Our Wrong Todays." Maclean's, Mar. 2017, p. 69. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA483560047&it=r. Accessed 6 Aug. 2017. Acree, Cat. "All Our Wrong Todays." BookPage, Feb. 2017, p. 20+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479076920&it=r. Accessed 6 Aug. 2017. "Mastai, Elan: ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471901998&it=r. Accessed 6 Aug. 2017. "All Our Wrong Todays." Publishers Weekly, 14 Nov. 2016, p. 28. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA473458959&it=r. Accessed 6 Aug. 2017. Bankhead, Henry. "Mastai, Elan. All Our Wrong Todays." Library Journal, 1 Oct. 2016, p. 74. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464982220&it=r. Accessed 6 Aug. 2017. Bostrom, Annie. "All Our Wrong Todays." Booklist, 1 Nov. 2016, p. 37. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471142859&it=r. Accessed 6 Aug. 2017.

• Washington Post
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/all-our-wrong-todays-by-elan-mastai/2017/02/16/f58dcedc-f453-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.af3f1153b066
  Word count: 636

  Review
  ‘All Our Wrong Todays,’ by Elan Mastai
  By Keith Donohue February 16
  Everyone knows to be careful when traveling through time because of the possibility of disastrously changing the past. One small misstep could ripple through history with a cataclysmic impact on the present. That’s the premise behind Elan Mastai’s amazing debut novel, “All Our Wrong Todays,” but it explores that old conundrum in fascinating new ways.

  (Dutton)
  It all starts when Tom Barren wakes up one morning in 2016 and realizes that he’s in the wrong world. He remembers a much better place, “a techno-utopian paradise of abundance, purpose, and wonder” — the world of the Jetsons and all those pulp sci-fi paperbacks of the 1950s and ’60s. Hover cars should be zipping across the skies. Billboards should be tailored to your individual interests. People should be happier and healthier. After all, on July 11, 1965, the invention of the Goettreider Engine that harnesses the power of the Earth’s rotation, started a chain of events that solved all our problems.

  Except that world doesn’t exist. It was disrupted by Barren’s impulsive decision to use his father’s time travel machine to go back to the summer of ’65 and witness the birth of utopia in Lionel Goettreider’s lab. When the inventor realizes Barren’s presence in the room, a series of catastrophes ensues. The Engine fails and with it every wonder of the age.

  The rest of this dazzling and complex novel involves the protagonist’s awakening to his new life (reborn as John Barren) in an alternative present. Here he has a sister, a mother spared from the fatal accident that took her life in the old world, a more understanding father and a young woman to love. The story hinges on the tug between these two timelines. Given the chance to go back in time to the same spot, Barren causes yet another disruption, unleashing a much darker world, and the ingenuous plot circles and loops across these versions of reality. It is a tale told by an idiot, of sorts. Affable and witty, Barren has just enough scientific knowledge to be charmingly dangerous.

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  Mastai’s work as a screenwriter shows through the twists and turns and the relentless drive of the story. Most of these 137 chapters are short, some a single page, and a couple of times, a summary of the preceding action reorients the novel in a way reminiscent of Flann O’Brien’s “At Swim-Two-Birds.” Mastai has that same penchant for exuberant plot, a quick dash of character and fearlessly funny storytelling.

  Author Elan Mastai (David Leyes)
  One of the clever elements of “All Our Wrong Todays” is its self-reflexive speculation on what it takes to write a novel. Barren often breaks through the page, addresses the reader directly, almost plaintively asking for understanding. In his brave new world, people don’t read for fun. “Unless,” he explains, “you were constitutionally inclined to sublimate yourself to a stronger personality, in which case reading a book where every word is fixed in place by the deliberate choice of a controlling vision, surrendering agency over your own imagination to a stranger you’ll likely never meet, is some sort of masochistic pleasure.”

  In the alternative reality of our own day when many long for the chance to turn back time, some solace might be found in the masochistic pleasures of this trippy and ultimately touching novel.

  ADVERTISING

  Keith Donohue is the author of five novels, including “The Motion of Puppets.”

  ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS
  By Elan Mastai

  Dutton. 384 pp. $26

• The Globe and Mail
  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/elan-mastais-all-our-wrong-todays-reviewed-a-high-concept-debut/article34065766/
  Word count: 1088

  Elan Mastai's All Our Wrong Todays, reviewed: A high-concept debut
  DANIEL H. WILSON
  Special to The Globe and Mail
  Published Friday, Feb. 17, 2017 9:38AM EST
  Last updated Friday, Feb. 17, 2017 9:38AM EST
  0 Comments Print

  Title All Our Wrong Todays
  Author Elan Mastai
  Genre fiction
  Publisher Doubleday Canada
  Pages 373
  Price $32
  A creeping doubt rises as we stare slack-jawed at tiny, glowing screens spitting nonsense; or sit knee-to-tray in overstuffed airplanes; or endure the endless red eyes of taillights in the grind of traffic … this is not the future we were promised.

  Once upon a time, humankind dreamed of a better place. Flying cars, space vacations, and robot maids were the hallmarks of yesterday’s world of tomorrow. And yet our modern lives are more Flintstones than Jetsons – we’re still running on fossil fuels, sorely missing the jetpacks, underwater hotels, and supercities we expected.

  We’re living in the wrong future.

  This indignant feeling periodically leaps to the forefront of the public consciousness – usually when the date is turning over to a nice round number (we’re due for the next burst of outrage in 2020).

  It’s a sentiment that also happens to be the high concept behind Elan Mastai’s debut novel All Our Wrong Todays.

  In the novel, Tom Barren, a young man born and raised in the future we were supposed to have (i.e., the techno-utopia imagined in the 1960s), is dropped into our reality through a horrific time-travelling accident. In Tom’s world, free limitless energy was discovered in 1965, instantly bequeathing to humankind all its technological dreams. Predictably, Tom finds our version of the future dreary and barbaric, the architecture unrefined and the food-pill selection severely lacking. That’s not to mention what he doesn’t find at all, including moon bases, disposable clothing and world peace.

  These parallel realities provide a compelling backdrop for our not-altogether-likable protagonist to work out his issues with women, his father and with the different versions of himself he could (or already has) become. And what could have been a navel-gazing examination of self-doubt and mediocrity blossoms into a high-stakes sci-fi drama in which Tom tries to escape our brutish world to rejoin his spandex-clad companions in the future we all supposedly deserve.

  The question is whether he really wants to go back.

  It’s a dilemma that is simplified because the novel treats Tom’s retro-future as a bona fide paradise, using the optimistic predictions of yesteryear as a convenient pop-culture shorthand – a grinning caricature of the aspirations of the greatest generation.

  But the world of tomorrow was never really a Utopia.

  The most familiar aesthetics of our lost future (e.g., flying cars, domed cities, superhighways) often trace their roots back to the corporate-driven World’s Fairs of the mid-20th century. In a typical exhibit called Futurama II at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, General Motors predicted hordes of robotic tractors lasering through raw jungle as they built 20-lane freeways that laced between monolithic skyscrapers in the City of Tomorrow. Nothing fit a human scale, everything existed to serve corporate interests and human beings were reduced to faceless consumers.

  These predictions were often bottom lines masquerading as Utopian futures.

  Arriving in our present from an idealized future, Tom is soon seduced by the imperfections he finds. He discovers that our music is superior, its creation fuelled by strife. Punk rock and rock ‘n’ roll never happened in his world, thanks to the narcotizing effect of universal peace produced along with all the clean, free electricity.

  It feels like a missed opportunity to explore a more realistic evolution of our whitewashed past.

  The systemic sexism of the 1960s (not to mention all the other “-isms”) seems to have disappeared without explanation in Tom’s idyllic future. But without the social struggle of a women’s liberation movement, I wonder how humankind could reach an age in which men and women are treated equally? How could free energy generate civil rights or LGBTQ rights or gender equality?

  These social struggles, fought decade by decade, define the progress of human culture as much as our technological accomplishments, and arguably more.

  In fact, past visions of the future are often fascinating not for the science, but because they tend to freeze the social mores of the time and project them into a modern setting – with predictions such as a “kitchen of the future” for women who were nowhere to be found by the time said future arrived (hint: they have careers).

  All quibbles aside, the mechanics of this time-travelling adventure do lead to some fascinating insights.

  When Tom lands in our timeline, he occupies the body of a parallel self who is subsumed by the new personality. Remembering this other person’s life, Tom is shocked to find that in our world he has become an architect who borrows ideas from his dreams of an alternate reality and renders mundane versions of the sleek buildings of the future.

  It’s an authentic point to make – that the future lives in our imaginations.

  Every product, every movie and every sci-fi novel is a reflection of the present world that gives us a clue as to what the future should look like – not only the future of our society, but also the future of the individual. We each carry in our imaginations a version of ourself that we would like to become, if only we could make that person real.

  And this is where All Our Wrong Todays is at its strongest, as Tom considers (and sometimes interacts with) different versions of other people and himself, coming to understand that every new day represents a new opportunity to bring a better, more thoughtful, more heroic and happier version of himself closer to reality.

  Leaping through time, Tom learns that we live in the echoes of our own minds – and the futures we spend time imagining are the ones we are most likely to get.

  Daniel H. Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse. He earned a PhD in robotics from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His latest novel, The Clockwork Dynasty, will be published in August.

• Washington Times
  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/8/review-all-our-wrong-todays-by-elan-mastai/
  Word count: 970

  Review: “All Our Wrong Todays” by Elan Mastai
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  This cover image released by Dutton shows "All Our Wrong Todays," a novel by Elan Mastai. (Dutton via AP)
  This cover image released by Dutton shows “All Our Wrong Todays,” a novel by Elan Mastai. (Dutton via AP) more >
  Print
  By LINCEE RAY - Associated Press - Wednesday, February 8, 2017
  “All Our Wrong Todays” (Dutton), by Elan Mastai
  What if the world we know today is actually a dystopian society? Could the reason we don’t live like the Jetsons be attributed to one person’s mistake that altered the evolution of technology? Elan Mastai explores this possibility in his novel, “All Our Wrong Todays.”
  It’s 2016 and life is full of handy gadgets that help you sleep, eat, drink and travel. The Earth is pollution-free, crime-free and poverty-free. There’s an algorithm to find solutions for most problems, which helps society continue to move forward at a rapid pace. Thanks to an incredible invention in 1965, the world as we know it never existed.
  Tom Barren is a normal guy who works for his genius father in a research lab. After his mother dies and the love of his life breaks his heart, Tom bursts into the lab one night and tests his father’s time machine. He chooses to travel back to that fateful day in 1965 when history changed forever. Not only does he want to be the first man to time travel, he also wants to be part of something spectacular. Instead, he inadvertently alters time and space, thereby creating a new 2016. Our 2016.
  In the beginning, Tom is overcome with emotion that he’s stranded in a wasteland version of his home. Close friends were never born. Inventions were never pioneered. Technology seems to have stalled. Just as he begins to panic, Tom’s mother enters the picture. A woman who has been dead for years. His sweet father follows, along with a sister he never had in his world.
  Tom learns he is a world-renowned architect. He has a loving relationship with his family. He seeks out the girl who broke his heart and immediately falls in love with this slightly alternated version. Suddenly, this 2016 doesn’t seem like such a bad place. Should he fix what he did to history? Or should he stay in this world, knowing he would always battle his secret truth?

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  “All Our Wrong Todays” is an incredibly creative work. It’s as if Mastai time traveled and took copious notes of what a future utopian world would be. The science is as engaging as the romance. Mastai has mastered the art of endearing himself to an audience through both knowledge and entertainment. It’s definitely out of this world - or an alternate universe.

• USA Today
  https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2017/02/19/all-our-wrong-todays-elan-mastai-book-review/97715450/
  Word count: 603

  Time-traveling 'Todays' is quite a trip to yesterday
  James Endrst , Special for USA TODAY 2:02 p.m. EST February 19, 2017

  Read an excerptpowered by Zola
  All Our Wrong Todays: A Novel

  by Elan Mastai
  (Dutton)
  in Fiction
  Buy Now
  USA TODAY Rating
  We’ve all had that nagging feeling — the one that says: “This isn’t the way things should have turned out...” We wish we could go back and, you know, fix things. But we know we can’t fix them because we can’t go back.

  But Tom Barren — the unlikely hero of Elan Mastai's All Our Wrong Todays (Dutton, 369 pp., ***½ out of four stars) — well, he can go back, though to say that nothing works out exactly as he might have imagined is an understatement of epic proportions.

  In Mastai’s instantly engaging debut novel, the world as we know it (or knew it in 2016) is the dystopian future that never happened. Tom Barren’s world (or as he puts it, “where I come from”) is more like The Jetsons: “Flying cars, robot maids, food pills, teleportation, jet packs, moving sidewalks, ray guns, hover boards, space vacations and moon bases.”

  You know that future everyone fantasized about in the 1950s? It all happened, says Tom. Until, that is, he kind of undid it. And he undid it, at least in part, for love. He also undid it out of resentment — a very messy way of lashing out at his imperious, “super-genius scientist” father who invented the time-travel machine that propels Tom and the story on a wild ride through the space-time continuum.

  Tom is kind of an accident-prone mess. He’s a disappointment to his dad, himself, women in multiple time zones and realities, and he misses his mom. Waking up in the world we’ve all come to know “sucks” for Tom. And yet, life in “the glittering technological utopia” he knew was anything but ideal, because, he says, “I was alone.”

  Author Elan Mastai.
  Author Elan Mastai. (Photo: David Leyes)
  He’s a grown man in his 30s, but still coming of age. So when Tom snatches his father’s time machine and makes a mad dash back in time to 1965, to the invention and historical pivot point where everything changed, he changes things in a way he never intended. Not only for himself, but for everybody.

  And then he changes it again.

  Mastai (a Canadian screenwriter whose credits include 2013’s What If starring Daniel Radcliffe) doesn’t spend too much time in All Our Wrong Todays drawing pictures of “square-jawed and bosomy scientists” or dwelling on “robots and ray guns.” He keeps it all thoroughly human in the all-too-vulnerable form of Tom.

  And that’s the beauty of All Our Wrong Todays (which is headed for the big screen). It’s a timeless, if mind-bending, story about the journeys we take, populated by friends, family, lovers and others, that show us who we might be, could be — and maybe never should be — that eventually leads us to who we are.

  Only in Tom’s world, he has an opportunity nobody in our world is ever offered. He gets to choose. He gets to decide which version of himself, his family, his friends, his time and reality he prefers — a decision that not only impacts his life but the lives of billions of others born and unborn.

  Lucky him. And, thanks to Mastai, lucky us.

• News OK - The Oklahoman
  http://newsok.com/article/5540872
  Word count: 608

  Book review: 'All Our Wrong Todays' by Elan Mastai
  Oklahoman Published: March 12, 2017 12:00 AM CDT Updated: March 12, 2017 12:00 AM CDT
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  "All Our Wrong Todays" by Elan Mastai (Dutton, 380 pages, in stores)

  Time travel novels have been around for over 100 years, so it's not easy to find one with something new to say. Most are just variations on a theme that has been seen hundreds of times.

  The debut novel from Elan Mastai, “All Our Wrong Todays,” is something of a critical darling. Publishers Weekly compared it to Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and Kirkus Reviews called it "charming and wondrously plotted."

  I disagree. Mastai makes an effort, but in the end it's simply another time travel and its attendant complications story. It is both a futuristic novel and a contemporary story about relationships, but neither angle really goes for penetrating depth.

  The construction of the story itself is its biggest stumbling block — the approach ricochets between alternate versions of 2016 like the silver sphere inside a pinball machine bouncing off targets, due mainly to the rapid-fire short chapters (most don't exceed two-and-a-half pages, and there are 137 of them, which seems a bit unnecessary in a novel that taps out at 380 pages).

  Also, the conversational tone of the narration, which in most novels usually results in a smooth and seamless read, actually ends up feeling like listening to a relative going into detail about vacation slides; in other words, there's a bit too much instruction and not quite enough experience.

  The hook of the story is this: The “techno-utopian paradise of abundance, purpose, and wonder” envisioned in the past (think The Jetsons, cars that fly, robot servants, etc.) actually came to fruition by 2016, and it is there that our narrator and protagonist, Tom Barren, finds himself, somewhat adrift and feeling like a misfit, struggling to find his place in life. When his mother, Rebecca, dies, his father, Victor, gives him a job at the Chrononaut Institute (a lab Victor founded to work on time travel).

  At the lab Tom meets and falls for Penelope Weschler; she's training to become a time-traveling astronaut (or chrononaut), and Tom is assigned to train with her as a backup. Penelope's ambitions are shot down after an ill-advised intimate encounter with Tom, and she ends up killing herself. The project is put on hold for the foreseeable future, but Tom sneaks into the lab, hoping to travel back in time to “fix” things.

  He eventually finds himself in 2016 again, but it is our 2016, not his futuristic version. He could find his way back to his own reality, but now there's a catch: In this “primitive” 2016, he finds that life is actually much improved for him. Work is more satisfying, he gets more respect from his family, and the love of his life is alive and well and loves him back.

  What does he do now? If he stays put, the glorious technological future won't exist for anyone, but he'll be happy. If he returns, his good fortune will disappear, but mankind in general will be in a much more positive situation. Where and how should the line get drawn between the desires of one man versus the good of all mankind?

  Overall, this is a relatively interesting debut with slightly flawed execution. If Mastai can rein himself in with future releases, he just may become a force to be reckoned with.

  — James Basile, for The Oklahoman

  Subscribe to NewsOK's Arts & Entertain

• Entertainment Weekly
  http://ew.com/books/2017/02/15/all-our-wrong-todays-elan-mastai-ew-review/
  Word count: 222

  Elan Mastai's All Our Wrong Todays: EW Review
  CLARK COLLIS@CLARKCOLLIS

  POSTED ON FEBRUARY 15, 2017 AT 10:51AM EDT

  WE GAVE IT A
  B+

  Where are our jet packs? Where are our flying cars? Why aren’t you reading this review on your holographic computer while commuting to Mars as a nimble-fingered cyborg administers a soothing massage to your perfect, genetically-enhanced skin? In short, whatever happened to the bright, shiny, Jetsons-style future we were promised back in the ’50s and ’60s?

  One answer is offered by this debut novel from screenwriter Elan Mastai (What If, Alone in the Dark). We start in 2016 — or a 2016 anyway, one where those technological advances did occur, as our hero-narrator Tom Barren explains: “Flying cars, robots maids, food pills, teleportation, jet packs, moving sidewalks, ray guns, hover boards, space vacations, and moon bases… It all happened, more or less exactly as envisioned.” All Our Wrong Todays reveals how Barren, the underachieving son-of-a-genius, travels in time back to 1965, accidentally alters history, and winds up in our own comparatively backward reality. The remainder of the book entertainingly mixes thrills and humor as our protagonist attempts to set things right — or, the very least, not make them worse — while adjusting to a world where windows “don’t do anything cool.”

• The Speculative Herald
  http://www.speculativeherald.com/2017/01/30/review-all-our-wrong-todays-by-elan-mastai/
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  Review: All our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
  JANUARY 30, 2017
  Review: All our Wrong Todays by Elan MastaiAll Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
  Published by Dutton Books on February 7th 2017
  Genres: Science Fiction
  Pages: 384
  Format: eARC
  Source: Publisher
  Thanks to Dutton Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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  Elan Mastai opens his debut (and, in my view, awkwardly-titled) novel All Our Wrong Todays, with a great hook: the world that we are living in is a mistake, a dystopic alternate timeline that never should have happened. We’re supposed to live in a retro-future paradise of flying cars and instantly-generated clothing. Our should be a world without want or poverty, where no whim or desire goes unfulfilled. Food, clothes, employment, and even sexual partners (provided you don’t mind, say, an artificial construct made from the DNA of your ex) are all available in whatever form a person might choose. This paradise was made possible by the Goettreider Engine, which uses the earth’s motion to generate limitless clean energy. So profoundly has this invention changed the course of human history, that its inventor, Lionel Goettreider has become the most celebrated man of modern history. At least that’s how it’s supposed to be. Our narrator, Tom Barren, tells us pretty quickly that the world is dangerous and messy and violent because he has somehow messed it up.

  I’m a sucker for this kind of alternate-reality novel. I also happen to love witty first person narratives focusing on messed up or underachieving protagonists. Rarely do I get both genres in the same excellent package. Even though this often reads like a breezy, character-driven story, the science is impressively sophisticated yet manages to come across as effortless. All Our Wrong Todays, in other words, has the pace of a comedic social novel, but it is still seriously legit science fiction. That said, the narrative voice is so amusing and engaging that I would have enjoyed this book if it had been about plumbing or accounting.

  Mastai is a successful screenwriter, and his novel follows a clearly discernable three-act structure. The first third deals with how, precisely, Tom Barren managed to mess up reality – a spectacularly significant accomplishment considering when we meet him, he has distinguished himself as a slacker in a society that seems to be made up primarily of slackers. Tom’s father, however, is an overbearing titan of a man, a scientific genius who sees himself as second only to the great Goettreider. Seeking to make his mark on scientific history, Tom’s father has set out to invent time travel. In this world of plenty and endless indulgence, he imagines the technology’s most logical use to be tourism — specifically to witness the historic moment when Lionel Goettreider first activated his invention.

  Tom, meanwhile, is stumbling through life, comforting himself after his mother’s accidental death – an extremely rare event in his world – by sleeping with a series of ex-girlfriends and alienating himself from his few remaining friends. Taking pity on his useless son, Tom’s father brings him into the time-travel project, training him as a sort of understudy time traveler. We can see where all of this is going, and the build-up to Tom’s ultimate disaster is part of the fun. Much of the narrative tension of the first part of the book is waiting to see just how, precisely, Tom manages to ruin utopia to the point where we end up with our messed up world. Mastai is clever and patient enough to move toward this plot point obliquely, focusing his energy on Tom’s relationships with friends, family, and co-workers. The science is right where we can see it, but the story is never about the science. Mostly it’s about Tom living in the shadow of his remote, self-aggrandizing father and then Tom’s absurd crush on chief time traveler Penelope, a woman he desires as much for her clipped and cold personality as her beauty.

  I’ll hold off on any more plot details. The book makes it clear from the beginning what is going to happen, and much of the fun is seeing the how of it. Suffice to say, Tom does, in fact, manage to mess up everything, and he finds himself in our endlessly disappointing reality. Here some people are much like they were in the previous timeline, but others are entirely different – and sometimes significantly kinder and happier than they were in paradise. Mastai’s exploration of how realities line up isn’t necessarily original in this kind of story, but it’s handled with real emotion and insight. I’ll also mention, keeping things deliberately vague, that the plot develops in ways I found genuinely surprising and original. Mastai develops the science behind time travel pretty early on, but he allows the implications of his concepts to unfold in ways that intertwine creatively with plot and character.

  All Our Wrong Todays is a thoroughly entertaining novel, though I did have a few problems with it. I enjoyed the first third about as much as any novel I’ve read in recent memory, and the last third was breathless and compelling, but there was some middle lag. For a significant chunk of the story, the narrative energy falls prey to Tom’s touristy gawking at our reality. Having introduced a character and his world, Mastai must do the same thing all over again, and while the comparisons are often interesting and insightful, the overall effect is to slow things down.

  I also found Tom’s growth over the course of the novel to be a little too Hollywood for my taste. Maybe I’m projecting because I know Mastai is a screenwriter, but given the cleverness of this book’s prose and its insightful handling of both character and technology, I was disappointed by a central emotional arc that felt like it could have come from an Adam Sandler comedy.

  I’d hate for these quibbles to keep anyone from reading this book, though. Too often readers are made to feel like they have to choose between character-driven stories and big-idea science fiction. All Our Wrong Todays manages to be deliver the whole package and do delightfully.

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  David Liss
  David Liss
  David Liss is the author of ten novels, most recently Rebels, the second book in the Randoms trilogy. His previous bestselling books include The Coffee Trader and The Ethical Assassin, both of which are being developed as films, and A Conspiracy of Paper, which is now being developed for television.Liss is the author of numerous comics, including Mystery Men, Sherlock Holmes: Moriarty Lives and Angelica Tomorrow.

• Den of Geek
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  Word count: 569

  All Our Wrong Todays Review
  Screenwriter Elan Mastai's debut novel is the perfect genre read for anyone who worries they're in The Darkest Timeline.

  REVIEW
  Kayti Burt
  Feb 7, 2017
  All Our Wrong Todays, screenwriter Elan Mastai's debut novel, could not have come out at a topical time. The time travel story's protagonist, Tom Barren, doesn't have to wonder if he is living in the wrong timeline. He knows he is. After all, he was the one who messed it up.

  Tom comes from an alternate utopian timeline where retrofuturist ideas like flying cars actually came to be. It is only through his own irresponsible time travel machinations that our 2016 was formed. I'll leave you, dear reader, to decide if it is The Darkest Timeline or not.

  There's something slightly comforting, not to mention generically clever, about spending time in a fictional reality where our timeline is the "wrong" one. The conceit casts All Our Wrong Todays' often unlikable protagonist as our closest confidante. Or, more accurately, we're his closest confidante. It is unsettling, at times, to be so strapped to such a self-indulgent, thoughtless narrator. As the book progresses, Tom begins to gain some perspective on how his actions affect others, but it literally takes him diverting history for the lesson to sink in. A self-centered privileged man with the power to change history and the perspective of a grasshopper: another topical element of this book.

  A self-aware "memoir," All Our Wrong Todays has an unusual structure for a time travel novel. It has the tenor of an oral story, but the ambitious plot and worldbuilding of a much more traditional science fiction tome. The book has been described in some places as a sci-fi novel for those who don't necessarily like science fiction. It has a literary bent, and is more akin to something like The Time Traveler's Wife than The Time Machine.

  Mastai does a good job capturing the inherent tragedy in time travel and the realities of life not even temporal shenanigans can cure: losing your youthful energy, losing your loved ones, losing your life. But it is trying to tell a much larger-scale story than a story like The Time Traveler's Wife, and it loses something intimate in the proces, despite its memoir-like format.

  Like his script for romantic comedy What If, Mastai's strength is not in characterization or character dynamics so much as big ideas and existential questioning. What makes a successful life? What makes a successful timeline?

  Unlike What If's main character, Tom has a much better reason for being upset at the world (or, in this case, the multiverse) and the relative lack of depth or detail in the connection between Tom and his lady love Penny comes with a reason that holds weight — though one I cannot elaborate here as it is one of the big twists that fly at you in this book's roller coaster of a final act.

  All Our Wrong Todays sets itself up to say some grand, insightful things about the nature of our reality versus other possible ones, but never fully delivers. However, it does succeed as a fun, fast-paced, thought-provoking ride — the perfect novel for someone looking to indulge in the possibility that this is not the world we were supposed to grow into.

• Readings
  https://www.readings.com.au/review/all-our-wrong-todays-by-elan-mastai
  Word count: 340

  All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
  Reviewed by Kelsey Oldham
  27 FEB 2017
  All Our Wrong Todays is Elan Mastai’s debut novel. A screenwriter by trade (the 2013 indie What If, starring Daniel Radcliffe, was written by him), Mastai’s first novel ambitiously adapts the film genre of indie rom-com into book-form, but with a sci-fi twist.

  Tom Barren lives in an alternate version of 2016 – the version that ‘we were supposed to have’ – basically the utopian future theorised in the 1950s and depicted in The Jetsons. There is no war or inequality, people drive hover-cars and holiday on the moon, and the planet is in tip-top environmental shape. That is, until Tom screws everything up.

  As he continually reminds us throughout the first half of the novel, he’s a total idiot and a disappointment in his genius-physicist-father’s eyes, so it’s no surprise when he tampers with the launch of his dad’s new time machine, and alters the course of history. He finds himself in a new 2016 – our 2016 – a reality where poverty and pollution very much exist, but, paradoxically, Tom’s personal life is exponentially better. Mastai envisions contemporary society as an experiment gone wrong – the present timeline is the dystopia.

  There is a lot going on in this novel and sometimes it’s difficult to keep track, especially when it comes to Tom’s over-explanation of technology, time-travel and his alternate personalities. However, Tom’s earnest narration and the romantic plot involving a sexy bookstore owner (who was, in the utopian version of 2016, an ambitious astronaut) means that, when the time comes for Tom to (inevitably) step-up and save the world, you find yourself rooting for him.

  Ambitious in scope, All Our Wrong Todays attempts to be a lot of things all at once; if the idea of 500 Days of Summer meets The Terminator piques your interest, then this novel is for you.

  Kelsey Oldham works as a bookseller at Readings Hawthorn.

• Mashable
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  Word count: 1002

  'All Our Wrong Todays' is the mind-bending science fiction romance you need to read
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  But oh so right.
  But oh so right.IMAGE: PENGUIN
  2016%2f06%2f30%2ff1%2f201507140cheadshot 20.b2214.78bb0
  BY CHRIS TAYLOR
  FEB 15, 2017
  Mashable Choice highlights the best of everything we cover, have experienced first-hand and would recommend to others.
  If you're a fan of books that leave you gaping open-mouthed like Keanu Reeves at the end of The Matrix when you turn the final page, you're going to love All Our Wrong Todays.

  This is a debut novel by Canadian screenwriter Elan Mastai, whose work you might know if you've seen the Daniel Radcliffe movie What If. Mastai reportedly received an eye-popping $1.25 million advance for All Our Wrong Todays. Naturally the hype level around the novel, out this month, has been high.

  SEE ALSO: This book is the fastest sci-fi thriller you'll ever read

  I'm pleased to report that the hope lives up to the hype. All Our Wrong Todays is the endearing transdimensional tale of Tom Barren. Barren is the indolent son of a great scientist in a flying car-filled, there's-my-jetpack version of 2016. Through a series of unfortunate events that include getting an ex-astronaut pregnant, Barren accidentally destroys his utopian world and gets stuck in our darkest timeline instead.

  More specifically, he gets stuck in the head of John Barren, the alternate-universe version of him. Turns out the two Barrens have been mentally connected all their lives. John is literally plagiarizing Tom's now-destroyed perfect Earth; he has become a famous architect by drawing its futuristic buildings from memory. (Frank Gehry, do you have something you'd like to tell us?)

  That only scratches the surface of what this fast-paced novel is about. Much of it revolves around the events of one day in 1965 in San Francisco, where a scientist is about to throw a lever on an experimental energy device that will either lead to Tom Barren's perfect world, do nothing, or cause a global apocalypse.

  It's not too spoiler-ish to say that over the course of the novel, all three of these outcomes happen — or that a third, apocalyptic version of Barren eventually enters his shared consciousness.

  If all of this sounds like the setup for Kurt Vonnegut's whimsical brand of science fiction satire, you'd be right to make that vaunted comparison. I also detected a touch of Douglas Adams in Mastai's description of the utopian 2016: lots of asides about why time travelers need to wear suits made of their own skin, or why that world has so much abundance that people cycle through fashion trends in the space of a day, dropping old clothes into roving recyclers.

  But I wouldn't call All Our Wrong Todays a comedy. As much as it romps, it has a sad center. As with Vonnegut and Adams, there are serious points being made about our world — our misguided quest to have technology solve all our problems, our deep disgust that it's 20-goddamn-17 and the future we were promised seems to have forgotten us.

  SEE ALSO: MashReads Podcast: 'Cat's Cradle' is the absurdist book we should all read

  It's also about relationships — between parent and child as much as lovers. There are enough sad, tender moments between various couples for the book to qualify as a romance. Tom Barren falls in love with Penny, our world's version of the astronaut he impregnated, then has to deal with the fact that John Barren takes over his head for one day and abuses Penny.

  As a novel, this collection of premises may seem doomed to go off the rails. It could have been like three stories trying to tell themselves in the same space — Jekyll and Hyde and Cat's Cradle and The Time Traveler's Wife all jostling around uncomfortably in the same space like the three versions of Barren.

  But Mastai pulls it off because he knows, as a screenwriter, to keep scenes short. Most chapters are three pages or less. So even when he gets experimental with them — there's a time-twisted chapter meant to be read backwards, for example — you're not going to get too bogged down. And yet the poetic weight of meaning is ever-present in these short nuggets.

  Reality Shock
  To give the book another huge compliment, I was reminded of Ursula LeGuin's magnificent 1971 short novel The Lathe of Heaven. That book also had a premise that sounds ripe for jokes and whimsy — guy walks into a psychiatrist and complains that his bad dreams change the nature of reality around him; psychiatrist decides to use the guy's power for fame and fortune. And indeed, they're both funny, snappy reads.

  But deep into these tales you start to feel a little weird, like the walls of your own reality are starting to shift. You start to wonder things that might get you strange looks if you talked to friends about them, like how maybe our best creative ideas come from alternate-reality versions of us. You may find yourself doing Google searches on the multiverse — yep, physicists still think it's a thing — and wondering how porous its boundaries are.

  The joy of a book, Tom Barren says, is that it's a telepathic compact between writer and reader. He's lamenting the fact that his almost-perfect world has abandoned books for egotistical forms of narrative that beam directly into your brain and form stories around your life. But books aren't about us, and thank goodness.

  We don't read to be alone; we read to know we're not alone. You'll certainly draw that conclusion from Wrong Todays — and you'll also end it with the feeling that maybe our present dystopia has actually been the utopia all along.

  Woah.

  BONUS: '

• The Rumpus
  http://therumpus.net/2017/03/escaping-time-with-all-our-wrong-todays/
  Word count: 1009

  ESCAPING TIME WITH ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS
  REVIEWED BY ALEXA DOOSEMAN
  March 23rd, 2017

  Imagine the year 2016 as a techno-utopian alternate reality—one where political conflicts and material desires are extinct, and flying cars are indeed a mode of transportation. Sounds particularly good after the real 2016, doesn’t it?

  But it doesn’t sound great to Tom Barren, the protagonist in Elan Mastai’s debut novel All Our Wrong Todays. Even though he lacks for little, Tom can’t escape the realities of grief, loss, and heartbreak. In an irrational blur of these feelings, Tom decides to take a spin on his scientist father’s time machine—even though he has told us many times that he is unqualified to do so. He sends himself back to July 11, 1965, the day a different scientist turned on the Goettreider Engine, a machine that “generate[d] unlimited, robust, absolutely clean energy” and catapulted the world toward its future utopia.

  This brief foray into the past has disastrous results. Tom erases the 2016 he knows and becomes stuck in the 2016 we all know. (A less specific version of it—thankfully, Donald Trump does not pop up for a cameo.) But while humanity gets the short end of the time-travelling stick, Tom does not. In our 2016, Tom has a happier life, with a warm family, supportive girlfriend, and successful career.

  Thus the dilemma. Is it Tom’s responsibility to return humanity to a better 2016—even though his life there is worse? Is it even possible for him to do so? And, in a larger sense, is there a future (or, for that matter, a present) that Tom is supposed to have?

  To answer those questions, Mastai mainly relies on two storytelling techniques: immersive world-building and Tom Barren’s narration. The former works with dazzling results, while the latter is hit or miss. Mastai creates details that are so distinct and original, it’s easy to envision Tom’s world and understand the physics of it—no small task when it comes to the mechanics of time travel. For instance, in Tom’s 2016, in order to understand time, you first need to understand space. As Tom explains:

  If you were to travel back in time to yesterday, the Earth would be in a different place in space. Even if you travel back in time one second, the Earth below your feet can move nearly half a kilometer. In one second.

  The reason every movie about time travel is nonsense is that the Earth moves, constantly, always. You travel back one day, you don’t end up in the same location—you end up in the gaping vacuum of outer space.

  Mastai takes the predictable stakes of time travel (erasing the future, changing the past) and heightens them. Now Tom doesn’t only need to worry about disrupting the flow of time, he must also concern himself with landing in the middle of the solar system. Mastai does this over and over again—he sets up fascinating puzzles, and we watch his characters reason out of them (or sometimes, crash through them). This clever world-building includes everything from mattresses that “subtly vibrate to keep your muscles loose,” to the fact that punk rock doesn’t exist because it wasn’t needed in Tom’s 2016. Ideas like these are addicting, and they hurtle All Our Wrong Todays forward from one brainteaser to the next.

  The only hiccup to this page-turner is Tom himself. While his first-person narration is engaging and snappy, it is also sometimes self-indulgent. He talks about himself a lot—how much of a disappointment he is, how much he messed up the world, how he doesn’t deserve the chances he received. After hearing Tom’s complaints against himself, you can’t help but agree with him. Here Tom is after suffering a massive loss, explaining how he ended up sleeping with an ex-girlfriend:

  And I’d cry and say she’s right, I am lost, but I don’t think I can be found. I knew saying it like that, sobbing and jagged, instead of shrugging it off with a self-deprecating joke or a snarky dismissal, would resonate with the woman I was speaking to, because three of [my ex-girlfriends] had ended things with me for the same reason, which is that they got sick of my bullshit.

  It’s tough to remain empathetic to a character who knows he is bullshitting, knows his actions have consequences, and continues with his bad behavior. This is the exact same problem when Tom goes back in time. He has explained that he messes things up, but he doesn’t stop himself from entering the time machine. When his trip goes disastrously, I couldn’t help but think, “Well, what did you expect?”

  To be fair, in the course of All Our Wrong Todays, Tom changes and sees the results of putting one’s own reality above everyone else’s. Ultimately he steps outside his self-centeredness and becomes a hero. But it was difficult to shake my annoyance that he knew better in the first place and still went ahead mucking up the world. Maybe it’s the timing of the book. I currently have little stomach for self-centered men who decide to destroy the future on a whim.

  For this reason All Our Wrong Todays never quite landed an emotional punch for me. As smart, mind-bending and funny as it is, I couldn’t sympathize with Tom’s predicament. Perhaps if All Our Wrong Todays had come out a different year, I’d feel differently. But, as Tom Barren himself knows, the reality of time is one you can’t escape.

  Alexa Dooseman is a freelance writer living in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared on McSweeney's Internet Tendency, HelloGiggles, Defenestration and other places. Find her online at www.alexadooseman.com. More from this author →

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