Hazards Of Time Travel

Joyce Carol Oates, Fourth Estate, £16.99

Set in 2039, this novel opens to a world where books don’t exist and students live in fear of being vaporised for thought crime.

Herione Adriane, teletransported to 1959 for making a “seditious speech”, is coming to terms with all that is new to her there – from trees, to smoking and sexism.

Margarret Attwood fans might appreciate this but

Oates’s characters are a little flat. OUR VERDICT 6/10