Book Review | Paris Adrift by E J Swift

Paris Adrift is probably the best time travel book I’ve read so far this decade. I don’t often say things like this, but it gripped me. I must check out the other time related books I got from Storybundle in April 20!

Paris Adrift

by E J Swift

Paris was supposed to save Hallie. Now… well, let’s just say Paris has other ideas.

She’s linked to a hole in time and chosen by fate to prevent a terrible war. Tumbling through Paris’ turbulent past and future, Hallie changes the world—and falls in love.

But with every trip, she loses a little of herself, and every change she makes ripples through time, until the future she’s trying to save suddenly looks nothing like what she hoped for… (Goodreads)

My Review

Paris Adrift starts in the far future. How far is not specified, but with the gentle description of the place and the weather, you start to realise with a sinking heart what is going on. How could it have come to this? Surely there was a turning point in our history… and fortunately, a set of people know how the anomalies that connect places in time could be used to find the tipping point.

We arrive in the present era (2018 to be specific) with Hallie, who is on the run from her family, her Uni course, and wondering what to do with herself. Paris is her first stop. She is easy to like, she gets in with a crazy lifestyle, and enjoys Paris to the full. And we enjoy it with her, as the author has the most wonderful way of painting pictures of the places, scenes, energy, and ambience. Unlike other authors, these take you into the setting, rather than distracting you from the story. Perfect balance. Perfect Paris, even though I don’t know the parts of the city involved that well — hardly at all, in fact.

vividly expressed

Hallie is drawn into a time anomaly, encouraged by a very weird stranger. Her trips into the past are beautifully imagined, vividly expressed, both visually and emotionally. Developments in her own reality get threaded through time’s spiders web until she learns of a worse fate that awaits, that still skews the ‘preferred’ development of our future.

I don’t know whether E J Swift was particularly prescient, or whether she had a special interest in European politics, but writing in 2017, and my reading it in 2024, gives a stark reminder of the tensions of extremist right wing versus liberal and progressive policies. The near-future Paris is chillingly organised into a controlled state named for LePen. It gives me chills, anyway. As did the book. I really enjoyed it, looked forward to the next episode, loved the characters with all their quirks, and the madness of an all-night bar in twenty-first century Paris. It’s brilliant, thrilling, highly enjoyable and I’m looking forward to more from this author.