The Other Valley is a strong debut from Scott Alexander Howard. It is beautifully written with strong characters and an intriguing world. Odile is 16 years old and lives in a valley surrounded by mountains and heavily patrolled borders. We learn that students her age must go through a vetting process for their perspective careers, and her choice is the much-desired Conseil. We also learn that there are past and future versions of the exact same town and people that lie in their own valleys to the east and the west. This is why the boundary lines are guarded, and it is the Conseil who decides when occasional visitors may come from the future or their own townspeople may visit the past and so on.

The story starts right off with its inciting incident, immediately pulling us into the conflict our young protagonist is facing: we know one of the characters will eventually die, and now Odile does too...

Odile is a wonderfully realized character, really all of the young people in the story are, and I felt connected to her journey from the very beginning. The burgeoning friendships, the conflicted relationship with her mother, the transition from timidity to self-assurance as she enters the vetting process, the touching, quiet moments with Edme the doomed. Despite the archetypes this is not your typical coming of age teen romance, and it's all the richer for it.

As the story progresses, Odile (and we the readers) becomes more invested in her life, her friends, her relationships with Edme, and her own future. I really appreciate that Howard takes his time building the world and the plot. The writing is often poetic and lush with imagery, especially when describing the natural world in which Odile prefers to spend much of her time. But as beautiful as the story is, there is also darkness and danger in it. Odile knows the day is drawing near that something dreadful will befall Edme, and she is torn on where her loyalties lie and whether action will betray her own community and entire upbringing.

To say much more would enter into spoiler territory, so I'm going to leave the plot details there. There is a big shift in time that happens at the midpoint of the book, and for awhile I wasn't sure how to feel about it. I was so invested in the first half's storyline and characters that I didn't want to leave them. But in truth they're not really gone, the story just jumps to a different part of their journey. After a few chapters I was back on board, and then a few twists were sprinkled in and it was full steam ahead.

I'm a big fan of speculative fiction in general, and stories that play with time in particular. The Other Valley is a moving, wistful portrait of grief, loss, and love that stretches between three locales located 20 years apart from each other. Despite a few pacing qualms, it's an intelligent and deeply satisfying read. Highly recommend!

*Special thanks to Atria Books for sending me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book takes you on a crazy ride! This story stayed with me. I can see this story turned into a tv show or a movie. If you like a good sci fi book then you will love this!

Premise: In an isolated village bordered by its own past and future, where grieving family members can petition to cross over to observe — but never interfere with — their loved ones twenty years in the past or future, a sixteen year-old girl’s efforts to apprentice with the governing authority are complicated when she recognizes two visitors from the future.

Review: This is a spectacular book. I was hooked from the first pages, fascinated by the premise, and impressed by the way the author engaged with the literary themes of loss and regret and the philosophical and ethical implications of time travel. This was so wonderful and I cannot wait to see what this author does next. Big thanks to the publisher for providing me with a digital Advanced Review Copy in exchange for an honest review. It’s always great when the honest review is a rave. I am not someone who shies away from providing constructive criticism on ARCs, but this is the rare case where I thought the book was pretty much perfect.

Bookish Pair: As lofty as this comparison may sound, the book this reminded me of the most is Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, for their shared careful plotting and nuanced philosophical themes in a literary, speculative fiction package.

Note: I will share my review on my dedicated Instagram account closer to the release date next month.

A coming of age story and time travel at its finest! This is one of the best books of early 2024, perfect for fans of Ishiguro

A thought provoking and haunting tale. I loved the writing style and the premise was extraordinary.
Many thanks to Atria and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Other Valley is a very well-received, unique debut by Scott Alexander Howard. I was immediately interested after reading the synopsis, as it’s just such a neat concept for a book.

That being said, I wanted to love this one as much as everyone else, but it just wasn’t for me. I absolutely loved the storyline and the idea of the book, but Howard’s writing style lacked the flow I normally look for when wanting to get lost in a story.

I kind of feel like The Other Valley would translate better into a movie or miniseries. I would love to see such a cool concept come to life one day!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I finished The Other Valley about a week ago, and can say I still feel pretty positive about this reading experience.

It's an interesting premise: you live in one valley and on either side, there exist other valleys 20 years into the future or the past. This continues in perpetuity, but you'd be lucky if you made if one valley away if you were so inclined. They valleys are surrounded by fences which are heavily guarded and, of course, there is a governing body that decides who gets to travel between valleys. The trip involves overnight camping in the mountains with a guide/gendarme (a policeman or woman for all those who aren't aware of the French translation), masks for disguise, and observation from a distance but absolutely no interference.

The story, though, follows a high-school aged girl named Odile. She is self-conscious and introverted, but is able to make friends in her last year before and during their apprenticeships. Their community is small and the concept of other countries or the "world" doesn't seem to exist. When Odile happens to spot to visitors from another valley, she must choose what to do with this information or risk interference. Here is where Howard begins presenting the idea of the butterfly effect. Later on, Odile will attempt to rectify her original choices regarding the sighting.

Overall, this book is a great mashup of different genres and sub-genres. I always love when I don't know where to place a book because it means that the author was able to do something original. I think the book could have been a bit shorter as Odile's insecurities were a bit belaboured, in my opinion. Odile herself was not necessarily a likeable character (she frustrated me because she could not seem to get out of her own way), but the other characters, the idea behind the novel, and the worldbuilding more than made up for this. This was a wonderful debut and I am excited to see what Howard releases next.

The concept in The Other Valley is absolutely five star worthy, and the writing itself wasn't bad. What I didn't love was the pacing or that, in all the presented characters, there's really nobody to connect with. Even with our FMC being centered throughout the story, I never felt like I particularly cared about her or what she was doing. It felt like there was a lot of filler throughout, and it would've been a much more enjoyable book as a short story or novella.

I'll start this review by saying that I stayed up way too late last night finishing the story. Way too late. I really enjoyed this book - high concept with enjoyable characters and a twist on time travel.

A valley with life not too unlike ours, but with less technology and no wider world other than the next valleys over. Those next valleys are 20 years in the past and the future, depending on which direction you travel. Travel is limited because of the possibility of making permanent changed to reality down the time stream. This is the story of Odile is a student who, when her friend Edme dies, is derailed from her path. When she has the opportunity to make changes based on information from the future valley or changes that might improve her own life, we explore the struggle of fate, responsibility, choice, cascading effects. While the rough life/bullying we see for Odile was a little hard to stomach at times, the plot kept me hooked and raced toward the resolution.

“The Other Valley” by Scott Alexander Howard is an unusual tale about an adolescent girl who lives in a valley surrounded by two other valleys. One valley is 20 years in the future and the other is 20 years in the past. Because of a tragedy that happened in her past she has to decide which direction to journey to understand her destiny. This was a very slow read for me although it was written beautifully, which is why I ultimately finished the book. I am sure this book will wind up in the hands of the right audience as it deserves to be read by people who enjoy this genre.

Thank you NetGalley and Altria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Atria Books for an advance copy of this new book, about looking back, looking forward, pain of dealing with loss and the decisions we make to let someone go, or to fight to keep them.

There is a song entitled Just Breathe by the band Pearl Jam that opens with the lines; Yes, I understand/ That every life must end/ As we sit alone/ I know someday we must go. Death happens, there is nothing anyone can do about it. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. There are a few people I would love the chance to see one last time, even if they couldn't see me, or even understand it was me. That would be a gift. Maybe. As is is not possible, this will be just a wish, or a problem I don't even know I am dodging. However what if this was possible. That one could go back 20 years and see someone you loved, who left too soon. Maybe even 40 years. What would that do to a person, and what that do if we were spotted in the past. What could be the ramifications. The Other Valley is a work of speculative fiction, with an intriguing and troubling idea, a debut novel by Scott Alexander Howard, that is a story about grief, love, growing up, growing old, and making decisions no one should have to make.

Our story is set in a town in a valley, one that people don't really leave, that stays pretty consistent in growth and people. Odile is sixteen, a young woman who has decided not to talk much, bullied by people in her school, and pushed for something she is not sure what she wants by her mother. The time is coming for the choosing of where the students in her school are going to apprentice. Odile's mother wants Odile to join the Conseil, a powerful group in this very unique village. If one travels to the east one comes to the same village, but one that is twenty years ahead. If one travels west, one comes again to the same village, but this one is twenty years behind. The Conseil controls the movement of people over its borders. Allowing grieving people to travel and see their lost loved one's twenty years earlier. Odile has lost her father, whose loss has effected Odile in many ways. Odile one day sees two masked people, and knows them immediately. They are the parents of Odile's only friend, looking back to see their child, meaning that her friend is dead. And Odile is faced with many hard decisions.

A book that is hard to categorize, which is a great thing. A long line of the same villages spreading to infinity all twenty years ahead of the one behind it. Travelling back to see the dead. Deep philosophical thoughts about the purpose of grieving. And of course control. Control of the people, control of the grieving process, and control of emotions. The writing is really quite good, passages that tell so much, and yet a book that could have gone on for another two hundred pages. The author shines in this debut, which is hard to believe is a debut. The idea is good, the control and the way Howard unfolds the story is really quite skillful. One thinks quite a bit at the end of some chapters, and even a few days later I still keep thinking about different scenes.

Recommended for people who love to try something new, for teens, adults and all who have felt loss, and those that really want to get away from the news and the world, and picture a valley where not only is the past close behind, but the future is also.

I really enjoyed The Other Valley- it's a quiet sort of sci-fi/dystopian novel about 16-year-old Odile, a shy oft bullied girl whose mother is insistent on her applying for a job with the Conseil. The Conseil is the most important job in Odile's valley and in the position, she would make decisions on who is and isn't allowed to cross over the borders...

The borders to the other valleys. Which are essentially the same as Odile's, but the valley to the east is twenty years ahead in time. Yes, it's a little mind boggling, but just stick with the story and you'll get it. The Conseil only allows very special cases to cross- namely mourning family who they can be sure won't make any moves to try to change events that have already happened. Odile is finally making friends at school when she sees two masked visitors who she recognizes as the parents of her friend, Edme. Which likely means that something horrible has happened to Edme.

It really is hard to precisely label this book- sci-fi, dystopia, and magical realism all *kind of* work, but not totally. Ultimately, it's a story about dealing with loss and the intersection of free will and fate. It's quiet, but also all-encompassing. I truly felt like I was in the valley with Odile and was grappling with the same decisions she was.

I think this book is going to be a big hit in 2024!

A clever , unique storyline that kept me interested and reading all night. It wasn't hard to keep up with the timelines as I feared. Great characters.

This one just didn't work for me -- the prose is beautiful, the story itself is intriguing, but I"m just not in the right headspace and can't immerse myself in this book the way it deserves to be read. I'm glad that it's finding its audience, and I hope to revisit it someday. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

A strange, other-worldly novel that reminded me of odd books I read as a child. I loved the high concept plot and the interesting characters.

The Other Valley is a quiet and speculative debut about a girl who lives in a valley surrounded by two other valleys, one 20 years its future and one 20 years its past. Written with soft and sometimes meandering prose, the story opens with our female MC, Odile, witnessing something she should not see, sparking discourse in her life from her adolescence into adulthood.

Set over a twenty year period, Odile spends her early adulthood training for a role in the Conseil, the governing body that determines who can cross Valleys, but the events from the beginning of the book have Odile questioning everything, and when tragedy strikes her close friend group everything changes. Odile’s life moves in a new direction but the events of 20 years ago have her thinking about the Valley in the past.

This book felt like if it was read out loud would be soft spoken, it had this melancholic feel to it and was written in such a thoughtful way that each paragraph took on an ethereal zeal. Sometimes I did crave a bit more directness, often I was caught up in descriptive text that I’d forget where the story was going.

The characters weren’t particularly fleshed out and could use a bit of depth, the motivating force behind Odile’s decision making suffered because of this and I was left a bit uninvested. Though the second half of the story did see Odile take stronger foothold in her own life and I was eager for this transformation and I felt satisfied with the conclusions.

Read for the original plot, this is a debut from an author I think we will be seeing more speculative wonders from in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced digital copy all opinions are my own, this book publishes February 27, 2024.

I'm not sure how I ended up previewing this book; sci-fi, fantasy, dystopia is not in my wheelhouse. That being said, imagine a world consisting of three valleys and you're 15 years old, in the middle valley. To the east, you are twenty years older and to the west, you are twenty years younger. The governing body patrols and prevents people moving or viewing the other valleys for obvious reasons, but people are allowed to petition to return to a valley under certain circumstances. Can you imagine being able to go back in time and prevent a disaster or help your younger self so you can lead a better life? What if your older self actually meets your youngerself? What if your younger self accidentally stumbles upon your older self and doesn't like how life turned out? Oh the possibilities. I would categorize this story as young adult as well.

I love an outside-the-box book premise, and The Other Valley certainly delivered.

In this world, there are three adjacent towns. One lies in the present, one town is twenty years in the past, and the other is twenty years in the future. Studious and quiet sixteen-year-old Odile is living her life when she recognizes visitors from a neighboring town in the future - her friend, Edme's, parents. This can only mean one thing - Edme is going to die soon, and his parents have been escorted into the "present" to catch a glimpse of their still-living son. Odile is sworn to secrecy and must wrestle with the consequences.

At times, I found the pacing a little off, but I was super intrigued by the concept and was curious to learn more. I imagine this would be a very cool movie or a book series that highlights other townspeople and continues the world-building. Overall, this was a fun, quick read that I'd recommend to anyone that enjoys speculative fiction or something a bit different from your run-of-the-mill coming-of-age story.

I wanted to love this book soooo badly. It reminded me of "The Giver" meets "Never Let Me Go," but it was just very confusing to follow at parts. I did love the characters, I just felt a little confused at all times.

4.5 rounded to 5.

Howard’s debut novel is a beautiful, atmospheric read! It is definitely a slower paced, character driven plot so if you’re expecting a lot of action and events to unfold, you won’t find it. There is, however, a deep sense of foreboding, even after a time jump, and the ending does get suspenseful. And although it’s classified as science fiction, aside from the two valleys on either side in different time zones, it’s not as sci-fi as you might think.

Honestly, I really liked it. The pacing, the atmosphere, the way it’s written, reminds me a lot of Amanda Coplin’s The Orchardist (which is one of my top favorite books ever!) It asks the reader a lot of philosophical questions without always outright asking them. Questions about life, grief, regret, privilege, morals, relationships, and fate. It also includes discussion questions at the end to delve deeper into some of these things.

Content and trigger warnings include loss of loved ones, some mild profanity, underage drinking, a brief mention of teen sex, and a brief moment of violence. If you are a reader who gets frustrated with or hung up on a lack of quotation marks, fair warning that this is one of those books (as is The Orchardist).