I’ve been working on a time travel story myself for ages (and always keep putting it aside to work on other things), but I also always keep coming back to that story. Maybe I’ll finish it. Future me would know.
Anyway, I love time travel books so much. I love the paradoxes, the second chances, and the mind-bending concepts that are central to stories that explore time itself.
It all started with The Sweet Valley Twins The Year Without Christmas (one of their special edition books). It may even have influenced me even more than the Back to the Future movies (which were also huge in my childhood).
Basically: if a story has a time travel component, it’s probably going to be one I love.
(If you’re curious, I also made a TikTok I made about this!)
Here are some of my favorite time travel books that have stayed with me long after reading…
The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of my all-time favorite time travel stories. It’s more drama, romance, human and less sci-fi world-building, but the time travel functions as a core springboard for (what I think is) the real core of the story: the way we, over time, are constantly shaping the people we love.
I love everything I’ve ever read by Ted Chiang, including Arrival. For me, the core/point of Arrival isn’t time travel itself so much as the question it raises: If we could experience life outside of linear time (seeing beginnings and endings all at once), would pain and loss feel smaller? And relatedly, is the specter of loss a reason not to choose a path that promises love? Is love bigger than the promise of loss?
This one feels the most like a true time travel thriller. It’s less introspective than the others on this list, and way more edge-of-your-seat. I flew through reading it and loved it. (Blake Crouch’s writing/pacing in this book also reminds me a little of Sidney Sheldon’s thrillers, especially The Doomsday Conspiracy).
What would we do if we had the chance to live life over again, with the full knowledge of how things would turn out? That’s the heart of A Gift of Time. It’s set in a richly drawn Americana backdrop (though it veers into very, very strange territory by the end) and kept me hooked throughout. This book is different from anything else I’ve read.
A mother wakes up each day, further and further back in time, trying to prevent her son from committing a crime. The story was engrossing and kept me on my toes, but it was also unexpectedly tender. Wrong Place, Wrong Time, despite being a thriller, also captures the fleetingness of parenthood – how we often don’t recognize which moments are precious until they’ve already passed.
And one more…
If you were a Sweet Valley girl, you might remember this Groundhog Day–esque story where Jessica keeps waking up on Christmas morning until she finally learns an important lesson. This was probably one of my earliest favorite time travel stories, and was an early spark in my lifelong love of the genre.
If you’re here because you love books that play with time, you might also enjoy my debut novel, The River’s Daughter—a South Asian romantic fantasy inspired by the legend of Mirza Sahiba. While it doesn’t use time travel, it does explore how misremembered history shapes the present. You can learn more about it here.
(Also, make sure you sign up for my newsletter in case I do finish my time travel novel.)
