I really wanted to enjoy this book. It was an easy read, but the story wasn't compelling. I typically enjoy reading about characters in multiple dimensions of time, but how it was portrayed in this book was not that interesting. Very average read.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from Netgalley.com and the publisher Random House. Thanks to both and the author for the opportunity to read and review.

Ms. Day has written an extraordinary tale of the possibilities of what could be. The characters all have visions of an alternate version of their lives. A bereaved daughter, an overwhelmed new mother, a married couple under intense strain; all see another version of themselves and struggle to make sense of what they see.

An emotional story set in the shadow of a volcano. No one's lives will be the same. Deeply engaging and entertaining.

4 out of 5 stars. Recommended reading.

From debut author Kate Hope Day comes IF, THEN, a propulsive, character-driven story of possibilities and reality, and the glittering mysteries between the two.

Settled near an inactive volcano, the sleepy town of Clearing, Oregon, knows a thing or two about survival. In IF, THEN, we meet four individuals from this quiet town: Ginny, an ambitious and hard-working surgeon; her husband, Mark, a scientist; Samara, a young woman still grieving the recent death of her mother; and Cass, a scholar and new mother. Each is grappling with some major life change, be it marriage, loss or parenthood, but when they start to have bizarre visions, the realities intertwine in surprising and dangerous ways.

IF, THEN begins when Ginny is preparing to join her husband in bed. After feeling a mild rumble in the earth, she blinks and suddenly sees a female coworker, Edith, in Mark’s place. Even more surprising, she feels a heated and passionate sense of desire in her chest. While trying to go about her day normally, she cannot help but feel affected by her vision, and soon is catching herself waiting for Edith after rounds and trying to find her alone.

Not long after Ginny’s strange vision, Mark, feeling overwhelmed by the strain of their often one-sided marriage, is giving a speech about ecology when he, too, feels a familiar rumble. He has been tracking animal behavior to try to predict the next volcanic eruption, but spies something terrifying on one of his cameras: himself --- dirty, bearded and wearing tattered clothing. Is this version of Mark from the future, perhaps reeling from a volcanic eruption? He races to his research camp only to run into his double face to face. Though the other Mark does not seem to register him, Mark feels certain that his world is on the verge of collapse.

At the same time, we meet young Samara, whose mother, a real-estate agent, passed away following a battle with cancer. Unfortunately for our characters, her doctor was Ginny, and Samara feels a lot of resentment towards her neighbor. This is why it is so strange when she looks out of her parents’ window and sees her own mother smiling and hammering in a “for sale” sign. Desperate to reunite with her mother and learn long-kept secrets, Samara sets about trying to maintain everything her mother has ever touched, even as her father begs her to move on.

Last of all, we have Cass. For years, Cass was a passionate scholar of philosophy, but now she is just a new mother. She adores her child, Leah, but feels drained and unmoored by the loss of her academic life. She also has severed ties with her beloved mentor, and though she loves her child, it is easy to pick up on her hidden resentments for her lot in life. Just as Cass begins to adjust to motherhood, she feels the same rumble and turns a corner to see a vision of herself pregnant again. Desperate for fulfillment, she seeks to make amends with her mentor and begin her work on counterfactuals --- “if, thens” that hopefully will prove to be the theory of everything.

To say much more about the plot would be a huge disservice to Day, who has seamlessly interwoven plots and character arcs even when the details are slippery and seemingly malleable. Her characters all live in the same world, yet a careful reader will soon realize that they are not, in fact, seeing the same versions of one another that exist to themselves. Ginny and Mark know Cass as a pregnant woman, and Cass often seems to be catching the “other” Mark in various glimpses. Day toys with reality in a fresh and original way, and she is always careful to make sure that each storyline follows a clear order, even when they cannot all align in a familiar way.

IF, THEN is a masterpiece of a character-driven book. I read it eagerly and unflinchingly, and it epitomized for me all the best parts of strong, well-developed characters. I loved each of Day’s characters equally --- from queer Ginny to paranoid Mark and grieving Samara to brilliant Cass --- and yet I never felt as though I had to race through one chapter to get to the next to see where a previous character was in his or her journey. They are each so fully realized and wonderfully fleshed out that it felt a bit like playing with a dollhouse, with each doll firmly in your line of sight.

Another place Day shines is her setting. The home of a volcano --- active or not --- provides the perfect backdrop to her characters and adds some necessary drama to their often ordinary lives. As their visions begin to overlap, you must ask yourself what the volcano has to do with it --- after all, each vision is accompanied by the same rumbling and metallic taste. Science lovers will enjoy the references to ecology, science, philosophy and even medicine, and all readers will love the way that Day employs these “left-brained” themes in compelling and understandable ways.

So is Mark correct, and is Clearing (what a wonderful name for a town so lost in uncertainties!) really on the verge of an apocalypse? Or is there a more dreamlike explanation for their visions? If you read IF, THEN, then you will find out, but I can assure you that every bit of the journey to the truth will be worth your while. Day is a remarkable and careful writer, and I cannot wait for scores of readers to find this book in whichever reality they inhabit.

I don’t usually read science fiction, but the premise of If, Then—residents of a suburban community in Oregon start seeing visions of themselves living alternate lives—was intriguing. And Kate Hope Day can really write—her prose is clean and smooth, the story is propulsive and the characters (a husband and wife navigating a stagnant marriage; a new mother trying to balance her baby with her academic career; and a daughter mourning the loss of her mother) are interesting. The problem for me, however—and probably predictably—was the science fiction element. There was something a bit hokey about the “metallic taste” that presaged the characters’ entrances into their alternate reality worlds, and I found myself spending so much time trying to reconcile the timelines and details of their alternate realities with the main storylines—how can one person’s alternate reality life be part of another person’s actual life and, if so, which is actually real?—that I wished Day had left this distracting element out of her book altogether. Without it, If, Then reads perfectly well as literary fiction and was enjoyable to me on that level. My criticisms are probably unfair given that this book is, in fact, science fiction—I was probably predisposed to be a skeptic. But I do look forward to reading a future Kate Hope Day novel which I hope showcases her great writing and storytelling without the speculative elements. (3.5 stars.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

If, Then was so captivating! I liked it a lot and it stuck around in my noggin for a while after reading it, which is a good sign for me. It focuses on four people who all know each other in some way and live near a volcano in Oregon – and they all have weird occurrences of seeing visions of themselves in very different circumstances. Alternate realities! It makes them paranoid and questioning their realities – leading to lots of ‘what ifs.’ The story is intricate, honest, and exciting – you really don’t know how it’s going to end. It is more of a character exploration novel than a sci-fi journey, so keep that in mind.

If, Then is my favorite kind of contemporary novel: one with a twist. On the surface it’s pretty slice of life stuff … if you ignore the fact that the residents keep getting glimpses of a much happier parallel dimension. From a woman mourning her recently deceased mother, to a couple on the brink of divorce, and a new mom trying to navigate motherhood, If, Then explores the lives of an interconnected community living in the shadow of a supposedly dormant volcano, all while posing the possibility of a multiverse.

Confusing start, but once I begin to understand the characters and settle into the tone of the book. I really enjoyed this look at parallel/alternative world story. I think most of us have pivotal moments that we would like to know how things could have gone if you only went left instead of right, stayed instead or leaving, said no instead of yes or followed the dream instead of playing it safe.

Here Kate Hope Day has found a way to show the residents of a cul-de-sac glimpses of their other selves in other realities. I was very interesting, fast paced story that came together in the end in a satisfying way. You'll probably spend a few minutes going over the movements of the story once you finish reading the book.

If you believe or have any interest in parallel worlds then you'll probably enjoy this book. I did!! Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for an honest review.

This is a rather strange book. I like the premise of alternate lives and 'what if' and 'road not taken' etc. but the storyline here seems often confusing. Perhaps it's because of the number of characters, but the visions of their alternate selves don't seem consistent. I can see this as a tv movie where the visuals might clarify some of the confusion. For me, it just didn't quite work as a book. It was an interesting read anyway.

Clearing, Oregon is a typical kind of town. Ginny and Mark are a couple trying to find time for their marriage in between raising their son and their busy careers as a surgeon and a biologist. Down the street, Samara mourns the death of her mother and wonders if she should go back to her old life or follow in her mother's footsteps. Cass rocks her baby to sleep and wonders when she will have the time or mental strength to get back to work on her PhD. One ordinary day, each of the neighbors sees a vision of life as it might be: a life where they are married to different people, where a deceased parent is still alive, where they have a second baby, or a life where a terrible catastrophe destroys their neighborhood and impacts everyone who lives there. What are these visions? Are they seeing possible futures or whimsical dreams of what could be? Will their actions prevent these events or make them reality?

If, Then is a story that can be classified as sci-fi or magical realism, but it focuses not on the how or why of these visions, but their impact on the people who have them. In fact, it is sometimes difficult to tell which version is real and which is a possible version of events. It is an inescapable part of life to wonder how our lives would be different if we had made different choices and Kate Hope Day lovingly renders the pain and the potential of these musings. But this isn't a book where the plot meanders for the sake of character development; the choices that these characters make change their lives and families in big ways. This is one of those stories where it's easy to convince yourself you will read just a few more pages, only to find that you've been reading for an entire hour.

I really enjoyed this debut novel. The author makes the reader really care for each character as we jump from one potential timeline to another, all the while wondering if Ginny, Mark, Samara, and Cass will be able to find fulfillment and happiness. I will certainly be picking up whatever Kate Hope Day writes next.

If, Then
By Kate Hope Day
Random House March 2019
272 pages
Read via Netgalley

I love the premise of people getting to see alternate realities of themselves living lives that could have been if only. We meet 4 neighbors in Oregon seeing alternate versions of themselves and not understanding why. There's Ginny and Mark, an unhappily married couple, Samara, a young woman not really coping that well with her mother's death, and Cass, a mother who's trying to reconcile motherhood with her academic dreams she feels she may have missed out on. Each character sees visions of an alternate reality that gradually becomes almost a parallel universe with their current realities. My issues are with the structure and the lack of coherent lot development. I found myself feeling bored with Samara's storyline and often Cass's. Furthermore, this was way more science fiction to me than what I feel it was marketed as being. Between the constant jumping around and the lack of emotional connection with any of the characters, this didn't end up being enjoyable for me.

I couldn’t get interested in this book. I read it all the way to 30% on my Kindle and it still felt like a chore.

If I had to describe this book in one word it would be “eerie”. Throughout the book you get this ominous feeling that something bad is about to happen. The book introduces you to residents of Clearing, Oregon, and then takes you through some of their alternate lives. These residents are all connected in some way and it was interesting to read about their different lives. The writing is well done and it isn’t too science fiction-y. Overall I liked it, I just don’t know how memorable this one will be for me.

Rating 2.5? This was weird and confusing and boring all at once. The concept of parallel realities was intriguing but I felt no connection with any of the characters so I ended up not caring. It felt like nothing really happened and I kept waiting for an explanation and when it finally came it was blah. I already feel myself forgetting all about the plot of this which is never a good sign.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

If, Then is a debut author of Kate Hope Day, the novel is all about counterfactuals, which is an if then statement. It is statement about other possibilities in our world. For three neighbors facing a disaster they will be faced with these counterfactuals coming to life in real manifestations. The premiss for this book is awesome but I don't feel it went far enough, and could've been used better. The character's are all fully fledged out and easily relatable, they're the driving force of this novel. A special thanks to netgalley and Random House publishing for giving me an advanced reader's copy for an honest review for If, Then By Kate Hope Day.

The Plot: Three neighbors live their life not knowing there connection and how much there lives affect each other. Mark and Ginny Raise their son Noah. Ginny is a surgeon and Mark is a professor studying how animals react to natural disasters. Samara is not too far out of college and has moved back home to take care of her dad after her mother complications from surgery where Ginny was her mother's surgeon. Cassandra left grad school to have a baby much to her professor and advisors dismay, he is famous for writing a book on counterfactuals and has not published another and believes that Cassandra's insights and questions could be key counterfactual research, the professor has since had liver complications and his surgeon is Ginny. So they all connect and live with in a house's distance from one another and recently have started having visions and seeing doubles of themselves, acting out of character. Ginny has an affair, Mark see him self dirty and menacing, Samara see's visions of her mother still alive, and Cassandra sees herself pregnant again. If they see themselves this way will they then become their visions?

What I Liked: The characters are really described well, I felt like I've interacted with them in some way. There's a car scene where everything goes wrong and Mark has to take the kids to work because the school, is closed, that is too perfect I've lived that day and found so many similarities. The use of counterfactuals was cool I do feel it could be used better but did make me question things in my own life. I liked that that everything connected.

What I Disliked: I felt life the counterfactuals could have been used better, I thought a lot of them were too safe. The synopsis of the plot kind of tells you almost everything, there's was barely any surprises. There's a twist in the story that was kind of dead on a arrival, I was only a little intrigued, I don't think it was explained all that well. And I still have questions if certain character's choices ad where that left them to other character's relationships. Ginny's affair with a woman comes in terms of a vision, was she bisexual before or did the vision turn her, because there was never that question of I'm a lesbian or bisexual? it's just ignored like any other affair. I just read an the excellent The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo who masterfully explained why a character was bisexual and carried on with an affair.

Recommendations: I would like to recommend this just for the character's alone, but I felt the plot was just not there enough to recommend. Its getting compared to the Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin, which I agree on character's but the plot was strong and pushed the narrative where If, Then slowly moves along. I do think this author does have a talent for characters which will motivate me to read her next one. I rated this 3 out of 5 stars.

I was so highly disappointed by this book. If you do not enjoying negative reviews, just scroll to the end to get my rating and wrap up summary.
If/Then follows 4 main characters; Ginny, her husband Mark, and their neighbors Cass and Samara. Ginny is the chief of surgery and is never home, leaving Mark to raise their pre-teen son Noah. Cassie is the mother to a newborn and her husband is away on a research trip. Samara has just lost her mother and is trying to figure out where her life should be. One day, Ginny sees another version of herself lying in bed, not with her husband, but with a female nurse that she works with. Mark, Samara, and Cass also start to see alternate realities of themselves and their loved ones. No one knows why, but Mark gets a feeling that something terrible is about to happen.

Basically, I have a few major issues with this book so I will try to express them in the clearest and nicest way possible. Issue number one is the reason that everyone starts seeing alternate realities. To me, it was such a let down. It was something I immediately guessed and kept hoping that maybe it wouldn’t be the explanation I was expecting but then it was and just, ugh. I also thought there would be more to do with the alternate realities, while in actuality the visions were few and far between. I also completely did not understand the point of Samara. She could’ve been taken out of the story with little to no consequence. I’m not saying I didn’t like her, but when you have so much going on with so many characters already, why throw in another one who really doesn’t bring anything to the story?

I feel like if Samara had been taken out of the story, it could’ve resolved another one of my issues which is that because of the jumping around, I never felt like I got a good understanding or connection with most of the characters. This made it hard to be sympathetic toward their actions and resulted in me not liking most of them.

There was one twist to the story that I did enjoy, but then just confused me even more. But I think the confusion with that was more along the lines of sometimes thinking about alternate universes making my head hurt and not the actual twist.

There are a lot of books and movies that do a great job of dealing with alternate realities and, unfortunately, I don’t think this is one of them. I read a review comment on Goodreads and someone stated it read as though someone was writing a TV script and I feel like that’s a solid point. This book might make a good mini-series if they could work out some kinks, but as a book it just did nothing for me. I enjoyed the book until about half way through which is why I didn’t give it 1 star, but once I hit the halfway point I struggled to pick it up and just found myself getting mad at it. I know this book has been on a lot of peoples’ lists for being one of the most anticipated books of 2019, but I’d say give it a pass.

I don’t even know what I just read?! I’m confused and left wondering what this was all about. Since I can’t review favorably at all I won’t be reviewing elsewhere but I so appreciate the opportunity

I loved the premise of the book and found it a very engaging read up until the ending. I was confused by the parallel lives of Cass and felt like she was the only character living her alternate life. I’m thinking I may need to read it again to catch the clues I missed the first time.

{My Thoughts}
What Worked For Me
The Premise – We’ve all thought it: If I’d only said or done something just a little bit differently, then my life would be completely changed.

“…she was writing a dissertation on the philosophy of counterfactuals, “if….then” statements like: If I hadn’t been assigned a cubical in the science library, I would never have met Amar. Or, if I’d remembered to pack my birth control pills on our camping trip to the redwoods, Leah wouldn’t exist.”

If….then. That is the underlying premise of Kate Hope Day’s debut, so aptly titled. Neighbors in a small college town in central Oregon begin to catch glimpses of themselves and their loved ones in slightly altered realities. Mark sees a disheveled, somewhat scary version of himself lurking near his home. His wife Ginny sees herself with a different partner, but still living in the home she shares with Mark. Samara Mehta, grieving the recent loss of her mother, sees her mom out front, alive and healthy. And, new mother Cass, stuck at home quietly falling apart, finds herself rescued by a very much alive Mrs. Mehta. No one wants to talk about what they’re seeing because each chalks it up to stress, exhaustion, or sorrow. No one wants to admit that they just might be starting to fall apart. As the visions come and go, each wonders what the “if” might be to make the “then” reality.

Lots of Mystery – Besides the entire premise which constantly has you wondering, many other questions arise in If, Then. Ginny herself becomes a mystery as her real life begins to take on elements of the life in her visions. Samara uncovers secrets about her mother, which leave us all wondering.

Samara blinks. She tries to reorganize the facts in her mind. What she thought she knew about her parents, and what she knows now.”

Cass, perhaps the biggest mystery of all, has more insight than the others into what might be happening, but for much of the story she’s completely in the dark. And Mark’s visions of himself leave many questions, starting with, “Why is Mark so terrified by them?” It was a fun journey as all the questions finally came together in the end.

Dystopia Light – I like a good dystopian story, but I know it’s a genre that some struggle with. If that describes you than If, Then is a perfect book to try. Yes, there are dystopian elements, and the book leaves you thinking, but this is not the story of a cataclysmic world event that alters life on Earth. It’s about one small town and a series of events that changes the people living there. It was a perfect size dose of dystopia.

What Didn’t
Cass & Her PhD. – In the story Cass had stopped working on her philosophy PhD. after becoming pregnant. With a daughter only a few months old and a husband on an extended research trip, Cass decides to go back to her thesis. I was fine with all this, but I felt like Day should have either taken it further, or not as much. As it was, that part of Cass’s story became a little messy and felt like it was forced into the larger context of her story. For me, Cass was really the most interesting character because of the variety of things she saw and I’d have liked to know more about that aspect of Cass. Why was her reality so different from that of her neighbors?

{The Final Assessment}
I thoroughly enjoyed If, Then. It was the perfect palate cleanser in the middle of my winter reading. I found it just different enough to keep me constantly engaged, but never so out-there I was rolling my eyes. The characters were well thought out and completely likeable. Best of all, I liked the reminder that everyone might have different possible versions of themselves…if only. Grade: B+

Note: I received a copy of this book from the Random House (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review. Thank you.

If, Then falls somewhere between sci-fi, literary fiction, and dystopian literature. The story follows multiple characters near a dormant volcano in Oregon who are experiencing strange visions of an alternate universe and it is fully of what-if's: Are they crazy? What do the visions mean? Was there a warning? How do they know what's real?

This novel mixes the oddities of science fiction with authentic and realistic literary characters and truly encourages the reader to stay curious until the very end. I found myself not only questioning which of the parallel realities were true but also hoping for ones that I knew to be fiction.

The transitions between characters happen quickly and often, but Kate wrote the story in a way that feels natural and readable. I found myself flying through chapters, wanting to know more and more about her characters' thoughts and feelings

Thank you for the free review copy NetGalley + Random House

If, Then is a quiet, speculative novel about four neighbors living in suburban Oregon. Ginny and Mark are an unhappily married couple, Samara is a young woman coping with the recent death of her mother, and Cass is a young mom who's had to sacrifice her academic ambitions for motherhood. Gradually the novel introduces the possibility of parallel realities which have begun to overlap, as each character starts to see visions of an alternate version of themselves. Throughout the course of the short novel we study each of these characters and unearth the decisions each of them made which prevented their other self's reality from coming to fruition.

While I enjoyed this from start to finish and found the ending in particular to be utterly brilliant, I ultimately think I was hoping for more from this novel's speculative angle. Suburban life is chronicled convincingly, and each character is constructed carefully, but I don't think this digs deep enough to be the kind of character-driven novel it's trying to be. This could have been offset by the concept of parallel realities playing a larger role, but instead, that element is more of a vehicle used by the author to explore the novel's central concept: if I had done this instead of that, then what would have happened as a result? Still, it's a quick and thought-provoking read, and though it's underdeveloped in places I think some of the ideas it raises are interesting enough to make up for that. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.