Editorial Content for Loop

In LOOP by Karen Akins, 16-year-old Bree lives in the future and goes to a school for time-travelers. The Bree future, as we’re told, is full of vegan food, miniature flying cow pets and slang-substitutes like “blarking” and “double dang.” My favorite thing about the future was the idea of chronosmuggling, which was creatively used in the plot and raises a lot of questions for Bree. My least favorite part was the capitalization; Bree is a Shifter who goes to an Institute where she is told to follow some very important Rules of Shifting. At least there isn’t a Society, though, right?

Finn is an action-figure collector who believes he’s in love with Bree, except there’s one small problem: he lives in the present. When Bree accidentally transports him back on a mission, they’re thrust into a twisty web of interconnected clues that may help Bree solve the mystery of what happened to her mother, discover her peers’ motives and figure out what Finn has to do with it all.

While Finn and Bree try to figure out what the clues mean, they are on a race against time, with only a little help from Bree’s future self. Someone is trying to stop Present Bree, someone wants something from her and someone else has all the answers. As Present Bree comes closer and closer to Future Bree, and the timeline becomes clearer, she must find a way to piece together the puzzle before it’s too late.  

The main thing I liked about the book was the mystery and the twisty plot; it's fun to see how things are explained later on.

This book is a pretty fun ride that reminded me of an action-filled, YA version of the TV show “The Jetsons,” or a fluffier, slightly more confusing version of my favorite time-travel book ALL OUR YESTERDAYS. It explores the question “how are our previous and past selves truly different?,” and has a warmer, fuzzier, younger tone than AOY.

The main thing I liked about the book was the mystery and the twisty plot; it's fun to see how things are explained later on. I was especially intrigued by the mysterious secret phrase Bree finds near the middle of the story and ICE --- how can you not like a secret organization named ICE? Some unexpected things happen, and a lot of things are cleverly hidden that you wouldn’t expect to turn up again, but do. The plot wasn’t perfect --- at times it was hard to follow and a lot of parts were explained as “oh…we don’t really question it; that’s how it is!” --- but its intricate, surprising nature made up for that.

In terms of characters, I loved that Bree Bennis is smart, funny and has a spunky presence, but didn’t like that she dismisses people giving her potentially pertinent information and continues doing her own thing. It’s like she just enjoys ignoring people so she can prove how independent she is. I also couldn’t understand the motivation behind some of her choices, even though they helped move the plot along.  Also, while I really enjoyed the dorky, quirky Finn, I wish that he didn’t have to morph into a male model lookalike at one point in the book. It was a small detail that still distracted from his personality and made him kind of unreal. My favorite character was Wyck --- I almost expected him to just walk out of the book and go star on a ABC Family teen drama.

This story was not completely my cup of tea but there were a lot of things I liked about it and I had fun reading it. I didn’t know what to make of the ending. Apparently this will have a sequel, which I’m confused about, because I thought the story was resolved except for a few details I didn’t remember. I guess they could be seen as cliffhangers, though I wasn’t invested enough to want to read more about Finn and Bree and their romance. The world and writing style are fun and interesting, albeit a bit middle-grade-ish in terms of voice, so I will recommend this to fans of light books that feature time-travel, twisty adventure and strong heroines who are witty and sarcastic.