Synopsis:
Alba DeTamble has never lived a life in order. Born with the same rare Chrono-Displacement Disorder as her father Henry, she slips unpredictably through decades, haunted by the secrets of a future she can witness but cannot change. As Alba strives to maintain a normal life with Zach, her safe, supportive anchor, she forms a tight-knit community of artists and activists who fight to take care of each other in an increasingly unstable world.
At once intimate and expansive, Life Out of Order plunges readers into a world of Niffenegger’s dazzling imagination: from the riot-torn streets of a dystopian Chicago, to a digital museum for forgotten memories and lost artifacts. Curating this ever-expanding museum is Isadora, Alba’s mysterious stepsister and an unsettling presence in their family – whose fate may be intertwined with Alba’s in more dangerous ways than she knows.
Told through a kaleidoscope of perspectives, the story moves through a boundless, unfolding universe of virtual reality, skimming the wildest reaches of technology and our natural world. The result is a testament to the power of art and community to sustain us in these fractured times—and an epic tale that’s set to define an entirely new genre in a way only Niffenegger can.
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I’ll admit I hopped on The Time Traveler’s Wife bandwagon way later than most people. When I received the ARC for Life Out of Order and started reading, I fell in love with what Audrey Niffenegger was doing with time travel, and I wanted to honor this series and do it right. So I paused the ARC, went back, and read The Time Traveler’s Wife first. I’m so glad I did, because it was a five-star read for me.
The Time Traveler’s Wife has gotten mixed reviews over the years, and honestly, I disagree with almost every criticism. One of the biggest complaints is that the time travel could have been more thrilling, with Henry jumping to faraway places and centuries. To that I say: the title is The Time Traveler’s Wife, not The Time Traveler. This is a story about a time traveler and his wife, how they met, how she experienced his traveling, and how it shaped their relationship. It was never meant to be a story about time travel. It’s a story about love, loss, and relationships, and how time travel affected all of it, for better and for worse.
Life Out of Order is a four-star read for me, and while the author says it can be read as a standalone, I have to strongly disagree. Read The Time Traveler’s Wife first. Trust me.
The Story
Alba DeTamble, daughter of time traveler Henry DeTamble, inherited her father’s Chrono-Displacement Disorder. She slips unpredictably through decades, carrying the weight of futures she can see but can’t change. Through it all, she tries to live a normal life as a gifted violinist, finding refuge in her music and in a close-knit community of artists and activists.
But her world is coming apart. There’s a mysterious curfew at night. People are disappearing, people are being killed, and some are forced to run and hide. Alba is also keeping secrets from the people she loves most, including Zach, her steady anchor in the present, while time pulls her to places like the eerie Yellow House, where she meets fellow time traveler Oliver.
Reading Experience
Life Out of Order has so much going on. Beyond the time travel and how it shapes the characters’ lives, there are political issues, a dystopian world, and a plot with a lot of moving pieces. It was a lot to keep up with, and it did get confusing at times.
That’s exactly why I don’t think it works as a standalone. There’s so much happening in this world that not enough time is spent helping readers understand how the time travel works, and all the what-ifs and why-nots never really get answered. The Time Traveler’s Wife lays that foundation beautifully: how the time travel works within the body, how it moves back and forth along a timeline, and how it affects the traveler, their loved ones, and the times and places they land. Without that groundwork, I think readers will feel lost.
Writing Style
Life Out of Order layers a whole other genre on top of the time travel, and early reviews are mixed on it. Many readers don’t like the dystopian and political elements. I actually disagree. We already lived through the emotional roller coaster of a husband and wife in book one. If Niffenegger had written book two the same way with two new characters, it would have felt like a redo instead of a sequel. The dystopian and political plotlines added a lot of flavor and intensity, and kept this story from feeling like a repeat. And we’re talking about time travel here, so it’s not exactly supposed to be realistic.
Characters
This is where Life Out of Order lost a star for me. In The Time Traveler’s Wife, we got to know the characters so deeply. We felt their struggles, experienced their pain, and lived through it with them. We saw how hard time travel could be, but also how exciting, unique, and fascinating it was.
That was missing for me here. The characters felt a little colder, and it was harder to connect with them emotionally. Given who this book is about, I really wanted that heavy, emotional character development. I was also disappointed that some beloved characters from The Time Traveler’s Wife didn’t get much page time. That’s a personal preference, and the author can certainly write about whomever she pleases, but as a sequel, I was hoping to see more of them.
There were also so many characters that I had a hard time keeping track of them all. The Time Traveler’s Wife gave us a foundational cast we stayed with the whole way through. Life Out of Order adds a lot of new faces to an already complex plot, and without a deep emotional connection to them, it was hard to keep everyone straight.
Heartbeat
At their core, both of these books are about relationships. The Time Traveler’s Wife is about love and loss, and how time travel affects the people who live alongside it. Life Out of Order takes that same idea and drops it into a fractured, unstable world, asking what it means to love and live when time and the world around you are both falling apart.
Final Thoughts
If you’re picking up Life Out of Order, please read The Time Traveler’s Wife first. It gives you the explanations, the experiences, and the emotional depth that make everything in book two make sense, and I think you’ll miss so much without it. The Time Traveler’s Wife was a beautifully written five-star read that had me deeply connected to the characters and their story. Life Out of Order didn’t hit me with quite the same emotional weight, but it’s a bold, intense sequel that refuses to simply repeat what came before, and I respect that so much.
Thanks Netgalley and Audrey Niffenegger for my gifted ARC. All thoughts are my own.
Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and a faculty member at Columbia College in Chicago. In addition to her bestselling debut novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, she is the author of two illustrated novels, The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress. She lives in Chicago.
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