I'm not sure where to start. This novel is so many things I wasn't expecting.

At its core, I'll Stop the World is a young adult speculative fiction novel with multiple timelines, several POV characters, and gobs of teenage angst—but beneath the surface, there's much more packed into this fast-paced novel. From social commentary (How long will it take for all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, pick your other, to be accepted? Why should anyone bother with the small stuff when the world is in chaos?) and philosophical speculation (Do we have free will, or is everything fated? Do our actions and choices ever really make a difference?) to sociological debates (Which is more powerful, nature or nurture? Can one person truly effect change?) and those impossible, unanswerable questions we all ask ourselves (Can we travel back in time?), this book is deep and thoughtful without being preachy, while also managing to be entertaining. It is a roller coaster of emotions, and I got all the feels—happiness and fear, hope and despair, love and hate, gratitude and anger.

But most of all, it is a poignant story that will stay with you for long after the end of the book. A story will make you look at your own life and the world around you, and think about how you can change it for the better. A story that will make you want to slow down, take notice, be grateful, exist in the present, because tomorrow is never a guarantee.

I got approved for this one shortly before the archive date, and I was worried I wouldn’t get through it in time. Boy was I wrong! I flew through it in less than 24 hours!

Thanks to NetGalley and Mindy's Book Studio for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
This is definitely a young adult novel which, as far as I can tell, is not advertised as such. There are a ton of characters and they each have a POV. That was very confusing. The time travel part of the story doesn't happen until the 30% mark, and by that time I was done. It was too dragged out and I truly didn't care about any of the characters. It was mostly boring. I was speed reading and skipping whole parts until 60% when I just gave up. Other reviews noted the time travel element was a small part of the story, and that's why I wanted to read it in the first place. If I had known it was young adult, I would not have chosen it at all.

What a great idea for a book! This was just released and I'm thankful to NetGalley for the ARC for the purpose of this review. Three stars! Fast-paced, great male MC energy and a mystery! It's all included.

I’LL STOP THE WORLD by Lauren Thoman is an enthralling, smart, humorous, and vulnerable multiple-POV story with a diverse cast that kept me guessing and gasping until the very end. I could not put it down. And when I had to, my mind was still in 1985 twisting and turning trying to figure out what was going to happen.

This book has time travel, romance, tragedy, mystery, and multifaceted relationships. Thoman expertly weaves storylines and timelines together in a way that will keep your emotions and attention highly engaged. The cause-and-effect of actions people take, no matter how small, play an important role in this book, sparking larger conversations around fate, our purpose, and the meaning behind who we are and where we are.

The details in this book are excellent, from the observations of being human to the call-outs of differences between 1985 and 2023 (which both made me laugh and forced things into perspective). These characters leap off of the page and feel so real that I was able to easily cheer them on while also feeling heartache for them. The ending left me teary, and I still get chills when thinking about how the events unfolded throughout the story. What a gripping and stunning debut!

I’LL STOP THE WORLD will be out on April 1, 2023, and you can pre-order it now. Thank you to Lauren Thoman, Mindy’s Book Studio, and NetGalley for this book. All opinions are my own.

I'LL STOP THE WORLD is a great debut for Lauren Thoman! Reminiscent of PAPER GIRLS, we follow multiple characters throughout different time periods on an urgent quest to stop a singular event and, hopefully, change the future forever. Or at the very least get home where if things aren't perfect, they're at least a known quantity. The characters are well fleshed out and Thoman does a fantastic job navigating the inherent paradoxes in time travel. The twists are great and the ending is both satisfying and surprising. Loved this awesome, nostalgic, YA!

Nostalgia, pop-culture, time travel, and musings on the world and everything in it- this debut story from talented writer Lauren Thoman is a good one. No foolin’, you won’t want to miss “I’ll Stop the World when it comes out next April 1st!