With The Passengers, Julia Brandon delivers her first novel. She tells us the story of Gustave, a man willing to do anything to go back in time and save his daughter from drowning. Amid magical power holders who don’t follow the rules and family secrets, will Gustave manage to change the past?
The Passengers belongs to those novels where you can’t ever predict what the next page holds. The author takes us on various trajectories, focusing on multiple protagonists, and with the main character’s travels back in time altering the present, the plot is ever-changing, and new characters sometimes appear.
Gustave is a teacher in the city of Pallia. He is an “elected one,” which means he possesses special powers but cannot talk about them with anyone except other elected ones, under threat of exile. The elected ones are the only ones aware of the existence of Time-Rewinders, candies that allow traveling back in time. Gustave has used them several times, hoping to save his daughter who died by drowning. But all his attempts are in vain.
On his side, Félix feels misunderstood. Rejected by his father who seems never to have loved him, he could until now count on his twin sister, but lately, she too seems to be pushing him away. It must be said that the adventures he has experienced recently seem straight out of a fairy tale. While he was about to drown in the river, an ice sheet formed, allowing him to reach the bank. Afterwards, after venturing into the forest, he discovered a small house from which his teacher emerged, accompanied by a man who looked like an ogre. His teacher was carrying a large bag filled with sugar candies. Seeing one fall, he grabbed it before quickly returning home. And upon tasting it, he could relive a moment from his past as if he were there. How could anyone believe that? To understand what is happening, the boy decides to talk to his teacher. It’s then that he discovers that he is an elected one, like him, and that he possesses powers!
While Félix seems to be the main character at the start of the novel, Gustave eventually takes his place. And their two stories are intimately linked. We then discover a world full of magic where time travel is possible. But The Passengers is also the story of a father ready to do anything to save his daughter, it’s the story of Félix who wants to understand what is behind his birth, it’s a love story that withstands time travel, it’s the story of a child who cannot bear his father’s relationship with another woman besides his mother, and it’s also that of an elected one who plays with dark magic.
Each of the characters in this novel is beautifully crafted, with a story of their own. It’s delightful to watch their development throughout the pages. The author plays with time travel and knows how to keep us on edge with cleverly thought-out twists and surprising revelations. For a first novel, Julia Brandon does remarkably well!
The author’s website: https://julia-brandon.fr/
