The Cassandra Complex
The unforgettable Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick
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4.3 • 29 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
THE HILARIOUS NEW REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK
Published in the USA as Cassandra in Reverse
If you had the power to change the past... where would you start?
Cassie has never really fitted in. She remembers everything. Understands nothing. And consistently says the wrong thing.
So when she gets dumped, fired AND her local café runs out of banana muffins - all in one day - it feels like the end of the world.
But then Cassie discovers she has the power to go back and change things.
With endless chances to get it right, can she stop it all from going wrong?
'Witty, touching and totally absorbing' Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project
Not your average story. Not your average character.
But fitting in is overrated. . .
BUY THE STAND-OUT BOOK OF 2023
As featured on Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 2 Book Club, The Times & Daily Mail
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Cassie is not a People Person. But she's about to win your heart. . .
'A time-twisting delight' REESE WITHERSPOON
'Fabulously funny and filled with heart' DAILY MAIL
'Utterly brilliant!!' ZOE BALL
'Smart and funny' THE TIMES
'A triumph!' SUN
'Everyone should read it and everyone will love it' LINDSEY KELK
'Engaging, sharply written and utterly unique' WOMAN AND HOME
'Sharp, funny, quirky, insightful and so very, very relatable' JOANNE HARRIS
'A hilarious and heartwarming read' WOMAN'S OWN
'Extremely readable and highly entertaining' BUSINESS POST
'Deeply human, wildly original, and gut-warmingly funny' EMMA JANE UNSWORTH
'A war cry for you to be you and for me to be me' LAURA JANE WILLIAMS
'A quirky story, written with intelligence and humour' IRISH EXAMINER
'I rooted for Cassie throughout. Wonderful' DAILY MAIL
'This is THE book for anyone who has ever wished life came with an undo button' SOPHIE IRWIN
'Clever, unusual and often amusing' DAILY EXPRESS
'Dazzles with its wit whilst touching our hearts' SARAH HAYWOOD
'A brilliantly witty read' SUN ON SUNDAY
'Clever and breezily comic' RTÉ GUIDE
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The heroine of best-selling young-adult author Holly Smale’s debut work of adult fiction finds out fairly early on that she is able to travel through time. But such is Smale’s talent for rendering Cassandra’s inner life and her relationships, as well as her obsession with Greek mythology, that this detail isn’t even the most compelling thing about the novel. Yes, she tries to use her new power to avoid being fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend–understandable, surely. But as she makes her way falteringly through various timelines, this becomes a perceptive (and often funny) story about forging meaningful connections, and the importance of accepting – and celebrating – ourselves and other people for who we truly are.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Smale's appealing adult debut (after the YA novel Love Me Not), a London woman discovers an ability to travel back in time. Cassie Penelope Dankworth is prickly and uncompromising, traits that lead to her being fired by her London PR firm and dumped by her boyfriend, Will. She also has autism, a fact her intolerant coworkers wish was disclosed to them before she was hired. After these events appear to happen, however, Cassie realizes she's in a time loop—her boss calls her "sweetheart" and she still has a job. As she learns to manipulate her newfound ability, she muses on her power to change the story of her life. Smale then leads readers through a tale of Cassie's habitual time travel, which produces multiple outcomes from the same situations. Some of these are mundane—a slice of bread is burned, then toasted perfectly; keys are forgotten, then remembered—while others are consequential, such as Cassie's introduction of Will to her sister, which leads to their romance and bitter feelings for Cassie. Though Cassie's time tweaks can be hard to follow, her narration beautifully evokes her inner life ("I rarely understand what another human is thinking, but I frequently feel it: a wave of emotion that pours out of them into me, like a teapot into a cup"). This is a delight.
Customer Reviews
Awesome Book!
'My theory is that my brain is like a lazy IT department, and every time there's a problem with the electrics it just panics and pulls the plug out at the wall. Switch her off, switch her back on again: see if that helps'.
I loved, loved, loved this! A contender for my favourite book of 2023. There were definitely hints of Sally Diamond and Eleanor Oliphant in this book, and perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much.
Who on earth can lose their boyfriend, their job and their home in the same morning? Cassandra can! Bad luck or self-inflicted? Maybe a bit of both, but when Cassandra realises she can manipulate time to change the past, she sets out to do just that, not necessarily with the outcome she wants, so she tries again and again!
Such an amazing character. Cassandra stayed with me for many days after I’d finished the book. She resonated with me a lot, her quirky ways, her routines, just many things about her and I so want to be her best friend - even if she wouldn’t want to be mine!
I’m glad Holly wrote a beautiful story about neurodivergence.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for the opportunity to read and review The Cassandra Complex by Holly Smale.