For their whole lives, Joy Moody has told her adopted twin daughters Andromeda and Cassiopeia that they are both from the future, and on their 21st birthday they will be transported back to the year 2050 to save the world. Starting as a wondrous tale to explain how they came into her life, Joy has fallen deep into her deception, and now there’s no return. She isolates her daughters from the world, barring them from technology and socialising with people. So when Joy is found dead on the twins’ 21st birthday, all the secrets that have lain buried come to the surface. Where did Andie and Cassie come from? And what happened to their real mother?

Andie and Cassie are very different people. As she’s grown older, Andie has questioned her mother’s story, both the truth of it and also her forecast role in it: what if she doesn’t want to go back to the future and take on the responsibility of saving the world? She wants to explore the world, and find out who she was meant to be without having been told first by her mother. Cassie, however, cannot imagine life outside the laundromat her mother runs. Yes, she is also curious about the world, and she may have just had her first kiss and fallen in love. But Joy has relied on her daughters her whole life. Can Cassie really take a step towards forging a future of her own choice?

I remember reviewing Kerryn Mayne’s debut Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder last year, and absolutely loving it, knowing I had to get my hands on her next book as soon as it came out. Mayne’s characters are quirky, unique, and simply unforgettable. She balances the light and the dark, explores the complexities of human emotion and memory, and fills her character’s lives with both suspense and promise.