The Psychology of Time Travel

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas.

Lesbian lovers leap lustily

In 1967, four female scientists invent a machine allowing time travel (to any time the machine exists, so no going back to see dinosaurs). A burst of celebratory trips the night before they reveal it to the world triggers an underlying psychological condition in Barabra, causing her to have a breakdown on camera the next day and be excommunicated from the project.

Decades later the other three scientists work for (or run) The Conclave, the organisation which monopolizes time travel, while Barbara has been in and out of mental institutions and is currently staying with her grandaughter Ruby. Ruby receives a mysterious message she believes foretells the date of her grandmother's death, and in her efforts to prevent it will discover Barbara may actually have been the least mentally scarred by time travel.

As you'd expect from a story about time travel chapters do not neccessarily appear in the order they happen, and as you'd expect from the title the theme is how deliciously messed up being able to see your loved ones after death or know when you'll die can make you. These considerations drive the plot, but the moment to moment writing is focused mostly on characters. It's pretty fun piecing together the mystery of what happened and why as you progress through the story, though there's less 'figuring out' and more 'reading the answers' in most cases.

Overall a fun story which makes you wonder how you'd handle the story's version of time travel, worth a read but nothing particularly special in my eyes.