Leslye Penelope: "The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass" (ARC Review)

Title: The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Leslye Penelope [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller or Mystery, Sci-Fi
Year: 2026
Age: 16+ (the book is marketed to adults, but the protagonist is in the NA age range, and parts of the novel are set in her or her sister's past. See the WARNING! section though)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Interesting blend of magic and technology with an intriguing mystery core. Puts a strong sibling relationship front and center.
Cons: Requires some suspension of disbelief. A couple of twists aren't hard to figure out. The main character comes across as younger than her age. Too much focus on lust/potential romance.
WARNING! Blood, violence, injuries, death, illness (sickle cell disease), kidnapping, earthquake-like events, bugs, snakes. Alleged mental illness (delusions/obsession), forced hospitalisation, racism, anorexia/fatphobia (mentioned), OCD, masturbation.
Will appeal to: Those who can appreciate a magical twist on the Millennium Bug crisis. Those who enjoy sibling narratives with strong characterisation.

Blurb: In April 1995, Zahara watched her twin sister, Annica, get hustled into a stranger’s car and disappear - only to return to a world where no one has heard of Annica. Not her mother. Not the police. No one. Four years later, as the world braces for the looming Y2K crisis, Zahara finds evidence proving her sister was real and hires a private investigator to dig into her family’s shadowed past. When the investigation leads to two charismatic men who once served with her father in Vietnam, Zahara realizes she and her sister may be pawns in a dangerous power struggle with unthinkable consequences. To find Annica, Zahara must face the truth about her family, her memories, and the power lurking within her. But the sisters’ reunion comes at a price - one that could bring about the end of the world. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

PECULIAR PATCH-WORLD

A number of books are capitalising on the '90s nostalgia lately, but TIUOZD is one of the rare exceptions where the time setting is actually integral to the story: the plot deftly incorporates the Y2K (Millennium Bug) scare, when half the world was afraid technology would stop working (or at least mess up big time) as soon as the computer clocks hit 00:00 on January 1st 2000. While - based on the synopsis - I was anticipating your typical multiverse scenario, the story went in a direction I didn't expect, weaving Caribbean folklore/magic and technology, sisterly love (of course) and family secrets, past, present and future, in a very satisfying way. If the explanation behind Annica's disappearance and the retconned world it spawns needs some suspension of disbelief, it nevertheless creates the path for a wild, high-staked adventure that I haven't seen the like of in any other story - and if it takes some time to get there (the real, sometimes madcap action isn't introduced until the last third of the book), that doesn't mean it isn't time well spent. Along the way, we get glimpses of Zahara's experience as a Black ballet soloist, while a number of flashbacks recount Annica's battle with sickle cell disease and the rise of her hacking abilities, and their father's brush with the supernatural while he was serving in the Vietnam war - with the author making use of chats/computer entries and tape recordings as narrative devices for the latter two narrators. [...]

MINOR CONCERNS

Speaking of characters, both the main ones and the supporting cast are strong and well-developed, and Zahara is an easy-to-love heroine (especially in the end), but I have to admit that a couple of things about her gave me pause. First off, though she's 21, her inner monologue and her impulsiveness feel very young adult - and I mean, you all know how much I love teen protagonists (hello, my blog is called Offbeat YA for a reason), but the age here doesn't support her case. Another problem I had with her (which somehow ties in with the above) is her hormones being constantly out of control, even while looking for her long-lost sister no one else remembers. The story tends to focus on lust at odd moments (going as far as to include a masturbation scene while Zahara fantasises about a certain character 😯), and there's a romantic angle that gets into play too much (and too soon), though I must admit it serves a purpose eventually. Add to it that I was able to foresee two of the twists in advance, and you can see why my rating suffered a bit. On the whole, though, I found the story to be intriguing and poignant, posing moral questions that feel even more timely now than they were at the turn of the century (especially with the rise of AI) while putting very human feelings front and center. As a matter of fact, the build-up to the ending is visually spectacular, but at the same time it hits all the emotional notes, and the (unexpected, yet well-earned) epilogue leaves enough to the imagination without robbing the reader of the answers that count (though loose threads do linger). In conclusion, if a mix of mystery, adventure, magic, technology and sibling love (with the added bonus of nostalgia) sounds even remotely like your speed, I wholeheartedly recommend this one.

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