This was an odd book. I'm not even sure if I totally understood what I had read when I was finished it. There were a lot of things that didn't quite add up, in my mind. I mostly enjoyed it, and it was a good reminder that every person has their own personal demons they are battling. A very good effort, I enjoyed the uniqueness of the setup, even though I'm not sure if the actual execution worked.

http://ensuingchapters.com/2013/12/06...Backwards By Todd Mitchell Did you know there is no adjective form of the word “integrity”? Look it up. I was going to open this review with a declaration of how integritous we are here at Ensuing Chapters. Or is the word I’m looking for integrian? Integrilicious? None of the above. Nevertheless, that’s my silly way to introduce a serious (and seriously good) book with the requisite disclaimer: I have known Todd Mitchell, the author of the young adult nove...

Man, this book. I'm really torn on how I feel about it. On the one hand, the backwards thing was cool, despite starting each day regularly (waking up in the morning to going to sleep at night, which I'll talk about later). Also, the characters were cool, and the Rider concept was intriguing. Easy to read, if a bit lacking in a few places. On the other hand, it was very anti-climatic. From the beginning of the book I knew what had happened to Cat. I also knew Dan didn't do whatever she thought he...

What made me pick up this book was the fact that the author would be attending READCON, an amazing event put on by the High Plains Library and specifically the Farr Library in Greeley, CO.I browsed the display of books that Farr had presented in anticipation of the authors, and of course was drawn in by the compelling cover of Backwards. Additionally, my curiosity was piqued by the concept of the book. It was the Rider's fate to experience life backwards, linked to a body and a teenager named Da...

Who wouldn't want to go backwards through time with the hope of changing something that didn't come out quite the way you wanted it to? In Backwards, by Todd Mitchell, the Rider begins traveling back through time, one day at a time. Attached to Dan, the teenager who commits suicide in the opening scene, the Rider goes along as Dan's life unfolds backwards, while seeking the reason for its own existence. Though its topic is depressing, the book is as thrilling to read as a roller coaster is to ri...

This book doesn't shy away from the anger, the mistakes, the misunderstandings, the emotional growing pains of being a teen. Nor does it trample the presence of possibility and hope. Instead of dwelling on the aftermath of suicide, it focuses on the before, the many small moments in a teen's life that can become all encompassing. Told in reverse, the reader follows events as they happen before understanding the underlying reason why. This is an intriguing, thought provoking read for parents and ...

I first became familiar with Todd Mitchell through his YA novel, The Secret to Lying. In that title, his main character recreates himself. In Backwards, the main character is trying to figure out who he is, pulling the reader along every inch of the way, back through time. I hesitate to call Backwards a time-travel novel, since time only moves in one direction - in reverse. When a "Rider" finds himself hovering above and then inhabiting Dan, a teenager who has just committed suicide, he does not...

“Backwards” is a YA novel that begins with the suicide of Dan, a popular high school student. The author takes us on a journey through Dan’s past in order to understand why Dan decided to commit suicide in the first place and whether his “Rider” can change the course of history. A few characters play an essential role that include TR (another Rider Dan’s Rider befriends), Teagan (Dan’s younger sister), and Cat (an artistic girl who runs outside the “popular” crowd, but is the object of Dan’s aff...

I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of this amazing book-- now one of my all-time YA faves. Backwards is that rare, multi-layered kind of book that manages to tell a thrilling, page-turning story while prompting you to think about the big who-am-I questions of existence. I love books like this, ones that change your perspective on what it means to be alive. The unique characters and their world will stay with me for a long time.

Two things really delighted me about this book. The first was how the action unfolds backwards; you're constantly reinterpreting what you know about the different characters and the world. People who seem wonderful or obnoxious on one day seem totally different when you discover what happened the day before to make them act that way, and yet it all hangs together beautifully.The second thing, tied to that, is the way we slowly get to know the main character, Dan, and what drove him to suicide. A...