I just finished Cassandra in Reverse (US) / Cassandra Complex (UK) by Holly Smale. I read the book in one day, and can't stop thinking about the ending. I didn't see this in any reviews I read, so wanted to see what other may think. Spoilers ahead.
I was wondering if the whole time travelling premise of the book is a ploy by the unreliable narrator, Cassandra. (There are some points where Cassandra makes a point of telling the reader she created the beginnings and ends of the book).
We never learn any concrete details about how the time travelling works or came to be other than Cassandra can seemingly close her eyes and keep redoing life over and over again, and it just kind of all of a sudden began. Cassandra can only go back as far as the day she first met her x-boyfriend. I am wondering if that day is also significant because it is the first day Cassandra's sister tries to contact her and tell Cassandra she has autism via a pomegranate scented envelope (Cassandra is estranged from her sister, Art, and refuses Art's attempts at contact. Cassandra omits telling the reader about her sister for a good chunk of the book. I just read the book in one sitting, so those dates may not line up exactly but I think they do??)
I am wondering if the story is actually- that right before Cassandra time travels for the first time, she has the actual first encounter with her sister, Art, where Cassandra learns she has autism for the first time. When the first time travelling meltdown occurs is Cassandra melting down from her very bad day and this new life-changing news??
In this reading, Cassandra goes down a rabbit hole reminiscing about if she would be having the worst day ever if she had opened the letter from Art 4 months ago- if Cassandra's life would be any different if she knew she had autism sooner. Could she have prevented the really bad day of being dumped, fired, about to lose her apartment, no banana muffins if Cassandra had known she was autistic earlier and could have prevented her autistic tendencies from sabotaging her?
In Cassandra's book, she uses time travel as the literary device instead of just seeing inside her head as she ruminates over her last 4 months and if her changes would have changed anything, while she is in an existential crisis (probably just in her room, hiding in bed, processing everything).
Some facts that could point to this reading of the book:
– we never see further into the future than when she is in the doorway of that pub melting down, before she first time travels (on the very bad day)
– Cassandra is keeping things from us as the reader/ she isn't a truthful or trustworthy narrator (ex. what are the envelopes, her sister)
– all of the things changed or discovered with Cassandra's time travel stem from seeing her actions, others' actions or words, and the situation differently now than she did the first time she lived it/ playing with the consequences to see which actions she did that caused the very bad day to happen (could she have prevented the very bad day?)
– Cassandra's sister, Art, at the end of the book is knowledgeable of Cassandra's time travelling abilities. Art seems to be the only one who knows, and accepts it as "real". When Cassandra wants to time travel again to see if she can have Art successfully stay with Cassandra's x-boyfriend, Art doesn't want Cassandra to time travel and give up everything else that Cassandra successfully fixed. Cassandra says that it is okay because everyone else won't know, but she, Cassandra, will know at least. Art is also the one who tells Cassandra she has autism (as she found a diagnostic report in their parents' attic 4 months ago). Art wants to help Cassandra do what she needs to do, so the two can repair their relationship. I think Art may also help Cassandra in processing the past 4 months, which is why Art becomes enmeshed in the story (Art with Will, Art living with Cassandra's roommates, etc)
– Cassandra tells us she cocooned away for 6 months after her parents died and doesn't remember much about what happened- processing the death after they died and the fall out with her sister. It would be reasonable that she would need a similar processing experience for her very bad day– and before she time travels the first time- she is in fact melting down. There is even the notion that Art was at the edges of a lot of the time travelling scenes and Cassandra didn't realize or was trying to block her out.
– Cassandra had wanted to time travel back to her parents' death and prevent their deaths, but couldn't. We later learn after she reunites with her sister, that in reality, there was nothing Cassandra could have done to prevent that car accident (despite her sister saying otherwise at the funeral). I think the 4 months ago beginning date is important, but not because of meeting Will that day.
The "time travelling" or ruminating/ writing a time travelling book about the last 4 months allowed Cassandra to figure out how to go forward after the very bad day, and move on to her next chapter (I imagine: move back to her dead parents' house, attend Cambridge for Classical Studies, reconnect with her sister, get over her x boyfriend, be happy she lost her job, move on from her apartment, grieve and move on from her parents' death, realize that there were some good people and potential friends that she had in her life- Sal and Sophie).
Upon finishing this book, I went to the reviews, excited to see what everyone would say about the book. I found a lot of people disappointed about the lack of exciting time travelling, lack of spelling out the mechanics of the time travelling, bored by the Greek tid bits, unable to connect to Cassandra as a character and surprised Cassandra didn't know she had autism.
I am unsure if being neurodivergent allows me to "get" this book more than some reviewers I found, but I really related to the book- even if I do not share many of the autistic traits Cassandra has. I really related to the idea of constantly being unsure of what you did wrong, misreading social cues, questioning what if, and the experience of being late diagnosed/ masking your neurodivergence as a survival mechanism with limited support. This book was very vulnerable in putting things out for the reader to see (like lack of long term romantic partners) without it being a joke or quirk, but showing the why/ the real unmasked version of events.
Maybe my interpretation of the ending, and thereby reinterpretation of the whole book, also comes from my own late life diagnosis and questions about if certain aspects of my life would be different if I "knew" sooner. Would I want to time travel back further into my life and potentially change hard things by "knowing" sooner??
The author, Holly Smale, wrote the book after being diagnosed with autism at 39.
by Immediate_Top8566