If, Then is a debut author of Kate Hope Day, the novel is all about counterfactuals, which is an if then statement. It is statement about other possibilities in our world. For three neighbors facing a disaster they will be faced with these counterfactuals coming to life in real manifestations. The premiss for this book is awesome but I don’t feel it went far enough, and could’ve been used better. The character’s are all fully fledged out and easily relatable, they’re the driving force of this novel. A special thanks to netgalley and Random House publishing for giving me an advanced reader’s copy for an honest review for If, Then By Kate Hope Day.

The Plot: Three neighbors live their life not knowing there connection and how much there lives affect each other. Mark and Ginny Raise their son Noah. Ginny is a surgeon and Mark is a professor studying how animals react to natural disasters. Samara is not too far out of college and has moved back home to take care of her dad after her mother complications from surgery where Ginny was her mother’s surgeon. Cassandra left grad school to have a baby much to her professor and advisors dismay, he is famous for writing a book on counterfactuals and has not published another and believes that Cassandra’s insights and questions could be key counterfactual research, the professor has since had liver complications and his surgeon is Ginny. So they all connect and live with in a house’s distance from one another and recently have started having visions and seeing doubles of themselves, acting out of character. Ginny has an affair, Mark see him self dirty and menacing, Samara see’s visions of her mother still alive, and Cassandra sees herself pregnant again. If they see themselves this way will they then become their visions?

What I Liked: The characters are really described well, I felt like I’ve interacted with them in some way. There’s a car scene where everything goes wrong and Mark has to take the kids to work because the school, is closed, that is too perfect I’ve lived that day and found so many similarities. The use of counterfactuals was cool I do feel it could be used better but did make me question things in my own life. I liked that that everything connected.

What I Disliked: I felt life the counterfactuals could have been used better, I thought a lot of them were too safe. The synopsis of the plot kind of tells you almost everything, there’s was barely any surprises. There’s a twist in the story that was kind of dead on a arrival, I was only a little intrigued, I don’t think it was explained all that well. And I still have questions if certain character’s choices ad where that left them to other character’s relationships. Ginny’s affair with a woman comes in terms of a vision, was she bisexual before or did the vision turn her, because there was never that question of I’m a lesbian or bisexual? it’s just ignored like any other affair. I just read an the excellent The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo who masterfully explained why a character was bisexual and carried on with an affair.

Recommendations: I would like to recommend this just for the character’s alone, but I felt the plot was just not there enough to recommend. Its getting compared to the Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin, which I agree on character’s but the plot was strong and pushed the narrative where If, Then slowly moves along. I do think this author does have a talent for developing relatable characters which will motivate me to read her next one. I rated this 3 out of 5 stars.