By the end, I was left floundering. I wondered what the lesson was. What was the message, the timeline of anything, the takeaway from everything I just read...? It's so unfortunate, but the promising beginning fizzled out to confusion in the final chapters. Everything I thought the book was about changed to something else, then left completely unresolved and undone. I decided on three stars, but this really was a tough one to rate. I enjoyed the author's writing style a lot, unfortunately the execution left something to be desired. Also, a minor complaint I have is the excessive references/comparisons to ancient Greek Gods. I understand that it was Cassandra's obsession, but there were so many insertions into the story that it became boring and I started skimming over them. Self discovery and awareness become the byproduct for Cassandra as she tries to fix her responses to Will in their dating events. It’s half way through that she looks outside herself to discover the other side and it’s not just about her and Will anymore. Other relationships must come into play.

i feel loneliness inside me, all of the time, and i also like to be alone and don’t really like other humans much either, so where the hell does that leave me?” I liked the family/sister/parents storyline (however overdramatic it was) and all of the Greek mythology references, in the names and in Cassandra’s thoughts and its importance to her.I ended up liking the female roommate. Yes, the “message” of accepting yourself as you are and expecting that also from others is a good one as is being fine not being neurotypical. There are some quotes that I loved! Cassandra is an absolutely brilliant character and I completely fell in love with her' READER REVIEW ***** If you give the power of time travel to a woman who eats banana muffins ever day, for three decades, you can’t go expecting her to be someone else with it” Smale [] combines well-developed characters with laugh-out-loud humor….Readers will be drawn into Cassie’s life and won’t want to leave. This neurodiverse tale is ripe for discussion.” —BOOKLIST, Starred ReviewI've read more novels with this premise last year than the year before and I know I'll see more novels with this narrative this year.

Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria p.10 (1988) Cassandra Dankworth is one of the most compulsively readable protagonists in contemporary fiction. This is a truly original novel, a war cry for you to be you and for me to be me. I loved it.' Laura Jane Williams The Cassandra metaphor (variously labeled the Cassandra " syndrome", " complex", " phenomenon", " predicament", " dilemma", " curse") relates to a person whose valid warnings or concerns are disbelieved by others. A brilliantly clever, twisty story that dazzles with its wit whilst touching our hearts' SARAH HAYWOOD i’ve never been in love. not really. not fully. and i’m really scared that i’m not capable of it, not built for it, not destined for it —that i don’t know what true love means, or feels like, and i never will— which means that i am, actually, broken.” 🥹🥹

'Powerful and heartbreaking:' Ireland reacts to story of young Traveller Patrick McDonagh

Unfortunately, the book was mostly too predictable for me to enjoy it. I like Cassandra's arc, she goes a long way, but even that was already too obvious from the start for me to feel like congratulating someone. So. It's the 2040s~ and people wear smart clothes that keep them safe from germs and they can resist stains and so on. Emortality hasn't been invented yet, biowarfare is happening and people in Britain are trying to live like everything's normal, that the end of the world isn't nigh. This is the cool stuff in this book: the glimpses at this society and how it works, whenever the plot isn't occupied with the bland mechanisms of interviewing suspects and inter-police squabbling and the protagonist trying to piece together the clues. I'm sorry, Stableford, but you can't maintain tension. His writing skills just aren't up for it - he's a thousand times better with other plots and other settings, but this was a whiff. The 'mystery woman' - this character (i wont explain more as I don't want spoilers) but this woman that keeps appearing and getting brushed off by Cassandra. I’m not a big fan of ‘groundhog day’ types of repetitive scenarios, especially when they repeat someone’s worst day of terrible encounters over and over again. So much awkwardness and pain. Ugh! The repetitiveness went on too long and just wasn’t enjoyable to read. I wanted to stop. But I persevered and did find redeemable aspects to the story. I definitely likes things a certain way myself, but I always wonder if authors who write from the POV of an individual like Cassandra is generalizing people with autism or truly knows someone with her attributes?