The Postman by Nicole C. W. wasn’t quite the book I’d thought that it would be. I was able to get an ARC of the book. The regular version comes out on January 26th. This is a time travel book mixed with a love story and a bit of a murder mystery. Because of the time travel elements, it has a bit of a sci-fi feel to it at some points.
What Didn’t Work for Me
A lot of what I didn’t like about the book won’t bother some other readers. First of all, this was kind of an odd book. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the combination didn’t quite work for me. I don’t want to ruin the story, so I’ll just say that it’s a time-travel love story with a bit of a mystery element mixed in. For me, the combination just felt like the author was trying to tell too many stories in a short space. I think if the book had been a bit longer, the mixture of genres may have worked better.
This book is told mostly in chronological order from Alice’s viewpoint. Evan (the postman) time travels from the future to Alice’s time and back throughout the story. Maybe, I’m misreading his time travels, but it feels like they are also mostly chronological. It’s like things are moving along chronologically, and then suddenly Alice encounters the Evan from a previous time again. For me, it would have made more sense if it were either completely chronological on his part or completely random when it came to his time travels.
Warnings to Readers
As a warning to readers, there are several things that some readers may find difficult to read. There is some minor swearing, as in probably about five times. There is some minor sexualization of a child, which is presented negatively but may still be hard for some readers.
The big issue is the violence. This includes child abuse, animal abuse, murder, and abuse towards family members (both toward adults and minors). There are two scenes that come to mind that may be a bit graphic for some readers. The second one I ended up skimming parts of it.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the concept of the story was interesting. Yet, it just didn’t work for me. Along with that, the relationship between Alice and Evan gets increasingly creepier as the story progresses. This might be a bit of a spoiler, but when they meet, they are both in their mid-20s. I’m not 100% sure if I remember this right, but I think they are both 25. As the story progresses, Alice continues to age, but Evan stays 25.
