Fifty in Reverse by Bill Flanagan

☆☆☆☆1/2
ebook, 166 pages
Expected publication: September 1st 2020 by Tiller Press
About the Book:
If you had the chance to live your life over again, knowing everything that you know now, would you take it? Would you still take it if it meant losing everything you have today? Would a second chance to correct every mistake and missed opportunity be worth giving up the world you know and the life you have built? In Fifty in Reverse, fifteen-year-old Peter Wyatt does just that. In the spring of 1970, Harvard psychologist Terry Canyon is introduced to Peter, a quiet kid from a wealthy family who has been suspended from ninth grade for stripping off his clothes in Algebra class. When Terry asks Peter why he did it, the boy explains that he was trying to “shock myself awake.” It turns out that Peter believes he is a sixty-five-year-old man who went to sleep in his home in New York in the year 2020 and woke up in his childhood bedroom fifty years earlier. Hilariously depicting Peter’s attempts to fit in as a fifteen-year-old in 1970 and to cope with the tedium, foolishness, and sexual temptations of high school as he tries to retain the sense of himself as a sixty-five-year-old man, Fifty in Reverse is a thought-provoking and enlightening novel about second chances and appreciating the life you have today.

Oh my gosh! This book was so good I sat down after supper and read it in one sitting. This book had me feeling all the feels. I was laughing and sad and reminiscing. I really enjoyed the way things play out, the story has a bit of irony and symmetry to it that was very well done. It’s a heart-touching story that has some humour, and deals with a lot of issues people faced back in the day.(I was 4 in 1970) I could definitely relate to some of Peter’s struggles. This is a very short book at 166 pages but a lot is packed into those pages so it is still a very satisfying read.

Overall this was a very engaging and interesting story. I enjoyed the discussion around the different issues and loved the fantasy element. I am not a big science fiction fan but I love time travel stories. This was a funny, creative, and heart-warming read. It wasn’t the kind of thing I normally read as I am a thriller buff but I think fans of time travel, historical fiction or coming of age stories will find a lot here to like. I would have gladly given it five stars but the ending was a teeny, tiny disappointing.

Thank you NetGalley, Bill Flanagan and Tiller Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

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