I really enjoyed this first book in a planned duology. At first it seems like a portal fantasy. Margo is heading to a boarding school in Ireland, when all of a sudden the train she is on changes, and she finds herself in a different world and in the company of salesman Moon. Chapters alternate POVs between Margo and Moon. In this reality, there are different worlds that all have different hours in a day, and people age faster as the day length shortens. The further north one goes, the shorter the day. But is this world as different from ours as it seems?
Margo and Moon end up on the run because people start looking for Margo. We also learn more about the oppression of Northern worlds by Southern worlds, and the characters become involved with an organization that’s working to address this.
The plot went at a pretty good clip, the premise is clever, and I was engaged the whole way through. I didn’t find the author’s explanation about the days quite as satisfying as I’d have liked, but it was ultimately easy to just go along with it. While it’s the overall plot that really kept my attention, Margo and Moon are likeable characters doing their best in a reality that privileges worlds with more time. Theirs was the strongest relationship in the book. There are side characters who are introduced, but I think we are told to care about them more than we are actually made to care about them.
The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, though not necessarily unexpected as seeds of the information that was revealed were planted along the way. The sequel hasn’t been announced yet, but I will definitely read it once it comes out. 4.25 stars.
