The Space Between Here and Now by Sarah Suk, 320 pages. Quill Tree Books (HarperCollins), 2023. $20.
Language: R (30 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
Going back in time sounds like a superpower, but, for Aimee (17yo), it’s a nightmare. Aimee has Sensory Time Warp Syndrome (STWS), which, for her, means that sometimes a smell will send her back in time to watch an old memory, making her physically disappear from the present for an uncontrollable amount of time. But her dad is in denial about the issue, even as the disappearances are starting to occur more frequently. Aimee needs help, and she’s desperate enough to fly halfway around the world to find it.
The story was initially unclear about whether Aimee’s disappearances were mental or physical absences, and the book was more enjoyable once that detail was made clear: the disappearances include a change in her physical location. While Aimee’s condition is fictional, her struggles to talk about and find help for STWS are relatable. She wants to be in control of STWS before she lives her life instead of learning to live with STWS and the ways it might disrupt any given day. The ending is more about closure than solutions, more about mindset than being bestowed with a magical happily ever after.
Aimee, Junho, and their fathers are Korean-Canadian; Nikita is Taiwanese-Canadian; and most of the other characters are either implied Canadian or Korean.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen