Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to listen to this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
We meet London lad Alex at age 20. His life is full of promise: acceptance at Cambridge and a date with a beautiful girl who he adores and to his surprise seems to adore him. At the end of the date they visit a pub, where he meets his arch enemy and a fight ensues. Alex gets knocked out, and when he awakes ( and each time he awakes) he is a different age and it’s a decade later. The story has him moving back and forth in the timeline of his own life.
IMHO the concept only works when the reader is relating to or rooting for the main character. Unfortunately in this book- sweet shy Alex is a turd in every subsequent age- he slowly turns into a alcoholic, ne’er do well slacker . He hurts or lets down everyone he comes in contact with. He quickly realizes thats he can perhaps impact his future but instead knowingly proceeds onto pickle his liver despite experiencing the suffering he will endure a 20 years later. He is no fun to be with and this makes the book a slog. Sorry but I gave up at the 40% mark.
I did however like the narrator’s voice.

One of the dangers of writing books that play with time is that the story almost always becomes subservient to the concept, which rarely results in a good novel.

Such is a lot of the problem in The Day Tripper, which is so fixated on bending time that it sacrifices plot to the cause. I don’t mind fantasy novels that see characters traveling straight back or forward in time to participate in or alter an event, but that’s not what’s happening in this book, which is far more concerned with the manipulation of time than the events encountered.

The other major issue with this book is that it’s tragedy porn, which I find dull and manipulative. I was bored while reading for most of the story, endlessly waiting for something intriguing to happen and instead encountering nothing but story at cost of concept and a lot of wallowing in a depressing sequence of tragic events.

The writing itself is fine if a bit flat, and I always appreciate an author who tries to put a new spin on an old concept. This just wasn’t a successful attempt to do so.

I could see this becoming a book club pick which could trigger interesting conversations! The start is slow, but knowing the premise, I pushed through. Not everything is ideal in Alex's life, that keeps the story unique and enticing.