Cassandra in Reverse

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What would you do if you discovered you could go back in time (though no further than a certain date)? Would you use it to win the lottery? Prevent accidents? Or try and keep from getting fired from your job and dumped by your boyfriend on the same day? Cassandra Penelope Dankworth chooses the latter option. It is, however, exhausting, and perhaps not what the universe had in mind.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Cassandra was such a wonderful, heartbreaking character. I would say I wanted to scoop her up and hug her and tell her there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with her, except, of course, she would hate that.

I did have a really hard time believing she had gone 31 years without realizing she was autistic, as that was blindingly obvious from almost the first moments of the book, but then I read that the author wasn’t diagnosed until she was 39, so I guess that’s sadly more plausible than I’d realized. I also read that the author herself processes emotions as colors, which explains the phenomenally beautiful way they are described throughout the book.

For readers’ advisors: character and language doorways are strongest. A fair amount of occasional swearing. References to sex and a time loop sex scene (as Cassie tries to “fix” things) which is not described in detail. No physical violence aside from the anti-fur protesters who yell and throw fake blood on Cassandra when she accidentally stumbles into their midst.

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