Okay, so When I Was Me poses some really great ideas and potential for a great story. With some tweaking the characters could be really admirable and bring the story to life. The theories and interesting science fiction behind the story made it a very thoughtful and unique experience.Unfortunately that's where it ends.
I wish I could write more positive things. I don't like posting negative reviews. But, apart from being very unique with it's ideas and responses to a common fictional problem, this story sheds no positivity in any other areas.
Firstly, I'd like to talk about the main character, Ella. There is very little to be admired about her, she's stuck-up and self-centred. Though it may be a tired cliché amongst teen fiction, I believe that this generation is becoming used to strong, powerhouse females able to defend themselves on their own and take charge of the situation. Collins' Katniss, Clare's Clary and, for decades, Rowling's Hermione have moulded the idea of a perfect heroine. The fact that Ella defies these traits could be a refreshing change but instead just makes everything (ie: the plot, other characters and setting) drag on so much more.
When the going gets tough, normally, the girl gets going. She doesn't, however, get going to her new boyfriend of two dates and suddenly engage in "passionate and lustful" sex. Her sudden desperation to be held when faced with the ultimatum that will make the course of the story should make the readers sympathetic of her situation. Instead the sex was as forced as the romance was. The character of Will/Billy was without depth and his relationship with Ella was bone dry.
Consequently this led to a haphazard array of misplaced events and plot twists. Some were even left without conclusion!
SPOILER ALERT:
After Ella emerges back into her old body after committing suicide from her parallel body their is no further mention of the mysterious old lady that she repeatedly hallucinated about. Every mention of the old woman made the story a little more interesting and gave it more depth. This was immediately dashed when this plot point was not accurately finalised.
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My final point can either be considered a positive or a negative for the story depending on the interpretation of the reader.
The only character which stood out from all the rest was Daniel. His ingenuity about Ella's situation made him interesting but also really compelling and kept me asking questions like; how does he know this stuff? Can he be trusted? Is he hiding something? And so on and so forth.
However Ella's self-centred nature makes her oblivious to the point that, if he so desired, Daniel had her completely under his control. I'm just saying that she really rushed into trusting him. None of her decisions seemed very well-thought out.
Overall I can't say this story was a complete waste of time. It was certainly an experience. The only positive was that it made my think and consider the idea of parallel universes. I thought about it until my head hurt. But unfortunately the quality of this story goes no further than that.
1 out of 5 stars.
