This is not a fantasy with magic; it is a heart-felt story with a time travel situation. How would you feel if you took an old elevator up a floor and found you had traveled a year into the future? Sounds like a fun way to learn the future. But what if you learned of a horrible tragedy that befell the family of your best friend? Would you go back to the present and try to change the circumstances that led to the accident? Could you cause more damage - perhaps place your own life in jeopardy? I recommend this book to: middle schoolers (mostly girls) who like suspense, but not terror; to those who like to empathize with others having friendship problems; andto those who want a book filled with struggling, but quite nice people. After reading this, I developed... some mixed opinionsand I think I need to explain why. A Year Without Autumn clearly stands out on the shelves of a bookshop. The cover is beautiful, the name is intriguing and filled me with curiosity, and after reading the blurb, I really wanted to read on to find out what "tragedy" has taken place. Jenni's character was particularly well wrote (if that makes any sense) and as this story was told from the eyes of her it was intended that you warm to her. You feel sorry for her as she has literally had her entire world turned upside down simply by not taking the stairs. Although she can see it and works out what is going on, nobody else does because for them life is happening and nothing has changed, because there wasn't anyone in the lift with her. One character that I was really disappointed with was Autumn. You gather from the first chapter or so that she is anything but the way she turns out to be and this is just my opinion but I found her arrogant, hotheaded and self centered. This was merely just at the beginning though, and as the story jumped back and forward in time, those parts of her personality only increased. Many of the characters, even the characters that you were supposed to like were rather dislikable and maybe it is just Kessler's writing style, but I really didn't like that part of it.I read this book a year ago and although I can't remember how it ended, I know I wasn't satisfied with what the final result and thought it could have been a whole lot better if Kessler had explained the slightest things that were key to the story much more clearly. The book needed to be longer in order to get more detail into the parts that were crucial to the story but were shifted to the bottom of the pile almost and yet the parts that weren't as important needed to be shortened as those sections made the story drag. The plot was good, but it seemed in dire need of editing once again.
What do You think about A Year Without Autumn (2011)?
It was so sad what happened to Autumn little brother.
—Jeremiah
A bit predictable, but I really enjoyed the concept.
—dphyle
Interesting concept, kind of a tedious book.
—daffyduck546
