3 stars.
Rebecca Serle's In Five Years was not what I was expecting from the beginning. Serle is an author known for her magical realism stories, so I was expecting something a little more whimsical. In Five Years, however, is very grounded in reality, except for the narrator's premonition of herself in five years. Other than that, it seemed very realistic and even somewhat relatable.
It is also not like the stories to which it was compared on the back cover: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and One Day by David Nicholls (disclaimer: I have read neither but seen both film adaptations). That is not praise or criticism, it is simply a statement that it had very little similarity in plot and conflict.
I will say that the narrator's best friend - who has a large role in the story - took me a while to like. She starts off as an annoying cliche, as exemplified by this quote: "[She] is spoiled, mercurial, and more than a little bit magical. It's not just me. Everywhere she goes people fall at her feet. She is the easiest to love and gives love freely." (6). She gave me manic-pixie-dream-girl vibes for the first roughly two-fifths of the story.
In Five Years is, for better or worse, not a romance novel. It begins almost as one, but becomes a story of a woman's life, almost a coming-of-age story (even though the narrator is twenty-eight at its beginning and thirty-three at its end). A lot of people (including me) thought they were getting romance, and were either disappointed or pleasantly surprised when it touched on other themes.
A little aside: I will say that present-tense narration used to throw me off. Not Rebecca Serle's: I did not even realize until the fifth chapter that the narration was in present tense.
What I disliked most about the book was its alarming lack of depth. I concede that lack of depth is a double-edged sword (it certainly made for a quick and easy read). But I didn't feel that there was any deep meaning or theme involved, that it was all narrative.
I will say this, about halfway through, maybe a little less, the story takes a very dramatic turn. I will not spoil anything, but it becomes much more intense. I didn't know where In Five Years was going from the beginning, but after that, I really had no idea.
Speaking of that, one thing Serle has going for her was that it was difficult for me not to look up the ending (I managed not to). Which is saying a lot, as In Five Years is not a nail-biting thriller or anything of the sort.
I debated three or four stars for a while, but decided on three. This is because of what happened when I got to the ending: I found it acutely anticlimactic, and in addition to the lack of depth that the story had, I just wondered what the big deal was. And since half-stars are not allowed, three stars it is.
Time spent reading: 4 hours, 10 minutes.
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