Book Review: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

If you know anything about the movie business, you know that when movies are put in front of test audiences, their success is measured through something called a CinemaScore. CinemaScore is measured through letter grades like in school, and movies that score lower than an A- usually have a hard time finding success at the box office.

What's interesting about CinemaScore is that it doesn't ask test audiences "How did you like the movie?" What it asks them instead is more along the lines of "Was this the movie you were expecting?" It's pretty fascinating when you think about it that what production companies have found is the best measure of future success isn't how we think about a movie, but if it delivers to our pre-existing expectations - that despite our desire for movies to try new things and show us something different, we tend to reward the movies that mostly play out just like we think they would.

Which brings us to Kaliane Bradley's novel The Ministry of Time. It wasn't what I was expecting. And I didn't like it.

What I knew going in was that this was a time-travel book, where a department in present-day England had developed time travel and brought a 19th century explorer to the present day to learn our customs from a modern potential love interest. But then: Stuff happens! So here's what I assumed - lots of fish-out-of-water comedy, lots of travelling to different time periods, and ultimately love.

Here's the reality: The explorer is one of a number of people brought to modern-day England from the past. There's some fish-out-of-water stuff, but mostly in the beginning (although some time travelers become acclimated easier than others). The book can be funny in some spots, but it's definitely not lighthearted. Stuff definitely does happen, although it can get a bit hard to follow. Almost all of the book takes place in the modern day, with the exception of shorter chapters from the explorer's perspective taking place in 1847. And there's love - there are sections towards the end of the book that are nonstop SPICY CONTENT - but the status of the relationship is unclear at the end.

So this was not the book I thought it was. And I don't like it.

Now, this might be unfair for me to develop an idea of where a story should go and then penalize it for not being that story. But you know what...you're right! That's no way to review a book!

But at the same time, I had trouble reconciling the story I thought this was going to be with the story it actually was. Simultaneously, the characters in the book didn't hit me the way they were intended to, and I never really became too engrossed in the story. Was this because of substandard writing, or was this because of pre-existing expectations? I don't know!

As much as I try to be as objective as I can in these reviews, in the end they are by nature subjective. And subjectively, this book felt disappointing. I can only give it six out of ten hot dogs - but with the reminder that these are MY hot dogs - your hot dogs will vary!