How to Stop Time

A story told between current day and flashbacks, this felt like Highlander on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, Highlander had a better main character (with considerably less angst) and plot. Also, the mafia-like main villain was more irritating than interesting.

I can't help but think this would be a better story told from the perspective of one of the female characters. The dialog of Camille, the "love interest", could be used as a review in itself.

"It's strange... How much time you spend worrying about the future." - the main character spends more time worrying about everything than living. It would have been fine to just say that, but we the reader have to live it, which gets irritating. I can't imagine Benedict Cumberbatch whining this much.

"Name dropper." - Yes, our long-lived main character meets cool people in history. A lot of them. The scene with F. Scott Fitzgerald may be a nod to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but it is too much following William Shakespeare, Captain Cook, Josephine Baker and Charlie Chaplin (to name a few).

"Je vais m'expliquer." - translates to "I will explain myself." I wish Matt Haig had - I don't speak French, and had to figure out the language from context. Unfortunately less than half the time.

I was pretty excited to read this, and love time travel stories. 2 stars is the best I can do.