Girl Out of Time

Clyde Boyer, Girl Friday Books (MAR 7) Softcover $12.95 (368pp) 978-1-954854-22-2, SCIENCE FICTION

Otherworldly encounters transform a teenager’s new life in Clyde Boyer’s science fiction novel Girl Out of Time.

Anna’s head has always been up past the stratosphere, but when her parents die, she’s forced to come back down to earth. She moves from Boston to her uncle’s Indiana farm, where she’s surprised by how fast she makes new friends. Even this balance is compromised by flashes in the night sky, though—followed by a meeting with Mara, a woman from the future who’s opened a wormhole in space.

For Anna, new friendships, a new home, and new school issues were already a lot to deal with. She surprises herself by handling these demands well, though–including by putting a bully in his place. But her meetings with Mara present their own set of challenges: she learns about a future in which climate change has wreaked havoc; she interacts with advanced technologies like boots with which she can fly. The likelihood that alien creatures are roaming the woods (their arrival synced with Mara’s), and that they could unravel the very fabric of the world, is an additional concern. Still, Anna is unflappable: toughening up to help Mara face the alien threat; dipping through wormholes onto other planets; even arranging a date for her uncle.

While the ease with which Mara and Anna address the world-threatening perils they face strains credulity, and while Anna’s own heroics are at odds with her self-perception, these leaps make room for exploring the novel’s more wondrous features: other worlds, described in tactile, evocative manners; dreams realized, like picnicking in the sky and shooting up toward space. Indeed, audiences will want to believe in Anna’s expansive tale.

Introducing alien worlds and time travel elements, Girl Out of Time is an exciting novel.