A man with a unique gift to stop time faces life, perfectionism, love, and work in this sci-fi-infused literary novel.
What would you do if you could stop time? Would you ensure flawless punctuality, utilize your unlimited time to catch up on work or rest, prevent clumsiness, or simply give yourself pause to escape the world to process and gather thoughts? David, a man with an exceptional ability to stop time in its tracks, does all of this and more. He strives for perfection.
“Time stopped. Abruptly and completely, everything halted instantly. Sound died, motion ceased. Everything, everyone, stood stock-still in place, all objects motionless as though in a snapshot he had taken.”
With David’s ability to freeze the world in its tracks, he has curated a perfect life. He is highly skilled at his job as a corporate lobbyist and excels in completing work expeditiously. His relationship is planned and executed effortlessly, ensuring he always does the precisely right thing next. But real life isn’t perfect, and sooner or later reality comes knocking.
After David uses his time-stopping ability to get great seats for a concert for his girlfriend’s favorite band and squeeze them into a booked-up reservation at a nice restaurant, you would think the flawless night would bring the couple closer together.
But for David’s girlfriend, the night only causes her to realize how David appears to be an old man stuck in a young man’s body; he acts like a man beyond his years. And with this revelation, his girlfriend determines he is not the one for her, and just like that, their relationship is over.
Where one door shuts, a window opens.
After a passing interaction with a beautiful woman on the subway, David finds new purpose. But even with his ability, he cannot find her on his own. It’s only when fate brings them together again that the sparks fly between them. With Julia in his world, David finds himself clinging to regular moving time, in a constant draw to spend more and more of it with her.
Amidst the loss and revival of David’s love life, his world of work keeps chugging on. As a corporate lobbyist, David has been tasked with a huge project that could potentially become law and make waves for his company. The work is hard, doubled by navigating a boss he loves and another boss who seems to have a vendetta against him.
Throughout Time-Stopper, we witness the blossoming of David and Julia’s relationship alongside the stress of David’s job and how David’s power touches every corner of his life. It’s a story of overcoming perfectionism and learning to let time run its course; perfection fueled by desire versus the effortless perfection of imperfection.
Time-Stopper is a genre-bending book with a unique sci-fi element, the deep emotions of a literary novel, and the stress of contemporary work life. With clear prose, the novel shines in its quiet, thoughtful moments of navigating hardships, stress, perfectionism, and all the emotions tangled up within. Even without one’s own ability to stop time, the characters remain relatable.
If you have any curiosity or interest in the world of lobbyists, specifically in the corporate sector, Time-Stopper offers a clear-eyed glimpse into their world. Young goes into great detail about David’s work, his ongoing project, and the inner workings of life working in DC. This is a large part of the story, and there is immense care to explain it in simpler terms. While I appreciated this, it does feel like a bit much at times. These work project deep dives are appropriately corporate, but for some readers, they may be less compelling than the character’s grander lives.
“In the dwindling moments David got away from work, Julia held him together. She provided his only sanctuary; she was his interlude. With her, he could stop the world– shutting everyone and everything out– even without stopping time.”
The time-stopping element of Time-Stopper is incredibly fascinating. Not only do we witness how David uses his time stops, but we are also offered delicious glimpses into the rules of time-stopping, such as how it affects the body and mind and how the stops are perceived by the world. In one particular time-stop, we get to see how David interacts with rain that is stopped in its tracks. With a creative use of time and a lovable duo at the forefront, Time-Stopper is a satisfying literary sci-fi.
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