Erasing Time by C.J. Hill

Erasing Time by C.J. Hill
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books on August 28, 2012
Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Pages: 368
Source: ARC From Publisher, Won
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Rating: ★★★½

In this high-action and romantic futuristic adventure, there is no escape from the future for two contemporary girls pulled out of their own time.

When twins Sheridan and Taylor wake up 400 years in the future, they find a changed world: domed cities, no animals, and a language that's so different, it barely sounds like English. And the worst news: They can't go back home.

The twenty-fifth-century government transported the girls to their city hoping to find a famous scientist to help perfect a devastating new weapon. The moblike Dakine fights against the government, and somehow Taylor and Sheridan find themselves in the middle. The only way to elude them all is to trust Echo, a guy with secrets of his own. The trio must put their faith in the unknown to make a harrowing escape into the wilds beyond the city.

Full of adrenaline-injected chases and heartbreaking confessions, Erasing Time explores the strength of the bonds between twins, the risks and rewards of trust, and the hard road to finding the courage to fight for what you believe in.

Erasing Time is sandwiched somewhere between ‘awesome’ and ‘ridiculous.’ It’s fun to imagine what our world will be like 400 years from now, including new fashion trends, language evolution, and so on. But some of the things in Erasing Time just seemed silly. For example, the people in the future claim that they study the past by reading old accounts, stories, texts, and watching old movies. But they view children’s stories like Winnie the Pooh and Little Red Riding Hood as real life accounts, so they say that Sheridan and Taylor must be lying when they say animals didn’t used to talk. The people in the future wouldn’t know because animals are supposedly extinct. But surely if they have access to old texts, they could read factual books about how animals communicate. And if this society is so incredibly advanced and doing things like curing aging, then surely they can tell the difference between a scientific text and a children’s book. Things like that just seemed a little ridiculous to me.

I was kind of disappointed by some of the things that were left out in the book, like a lot of the science and technology. For example, here are a few things Taylor asked:

“Is garbage taken outside the city?” “How is fresh air ventilated inside?” “Where does the city get the raw materials to build things?” “Tell me about the material that covers the city? How does it withstand the rain and snow beating down on it year after year?”
ARC of Erasing Time, Pages 100-102

But we never actually get to see the answers to any of those questions! The author just says something like, “Jeth answered all her questions but Sheridan tuned out.” But I would have loved to have more information. I was really curious about this futuristic world C.J. Hill created and I wanted to know more about it, but felt like I wasn’t getting the juicy details I craved.

There was a small romance in Erasing Time, but unfortunately I didn’t connect with it at all. Echo and Sheridan start falling for each other but I kind of feel like it came out of nowhere. A day and a half after they meet, they’re kissing. But where did that come from? I still don’t even understand why they kissed. There had been a little flirting but it was so minimal and so corny, that I never even imagined they’d actually kiss. And then as the story continued, I literally couldn’t tell if they were ignoring the kissing incident and just being friends, or if they were officially dating. The romance had no chemistry and very poor development to the point where I couldn’t even tell if it was supposed to be a romance or not!

Despite all my issues with this book, it was an interesting and engaging read. It was part frustrating, part ridiculous, but also very interesting. The main thing that this book has going for it is that there are so many twists and turns. For a large part of the book, you have no idea which characters to trust. C.J. Hill was constantly teasing me, leading to believe that Echo was a good guy, then had me thinking he might actually be bad, then thinking he’s good again, etc. Then the same thing for some of the side characters.

This book is full of action, conspiracy, and secret organizations.. and of course, time travel. Erasing Time wasn’t perfect—there were some inconsistencies and unanswered questions—but it was an interesting story that kept me turning pages.

The Verdict