The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

A literary speculative novel about an isolated town neighbored by its own past and future.
 

Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town--except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.
 

When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate, yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.

Understated, quietly moving, but absolutely brilliant nonetheless, upon finishing Scott Alexander Howard’s debut novel The Other Valley, it immediately shot to the top of my favorite reads of the year. This had everything I love in ambitiously written novels, including my love for time jump/continuity based speculative fiction elements. But what set apart The Other Valley from other similar books for me was its reserved and meticulous character work with its poignant tone and reflections on the choices one makes in their lives and morals behind it. It’s also a coming of age story that’s equally successful at portraying Odile’s life as a teenager as well as an adult in her late 30’s (coming of adult age) that felt so relevant despite the science fiction premise. I have nothing bad to say about The Other Valley which was a home run for me but as per the norm, I will attempt to write a detailed review that’s far too long to describe why I found it amazing.

First and foremost, there are two important things that need to be discussed upfront which are potential deal breakers in this book. The first is Howard’s deliberate choice to forgo the use of quotation marks to designate when characters are speaking. This isn’t a pretentious, arbitrary choice, and it makes narrative sense with the story’s conclusion. While I barely noticed its omission, casual or speed readers will likely find this a major issue. The other potential deal breaker is related to the valley’s existence. While there is some in-universe folklore and history to how the valley and its time jumping neighbors function, the novel never explains why the phenomenon exists in the first place or how the speculative fiction elements came to be. The Other Valley has an incredible amount of detail and thought put into the ethics, limitations and dangers for a society capable of jumping through time, but the narrative is almost entirely a character life based story that uses the valley’s mechanic as a means for thoughtful reflection. The implications of the valley only really relate to its human inhabitants and society, what happens if a bird flies over the fence and into the next valley or how does the Conseil have endless records of future events (partially explained in the conclusion)? Certain logistics require a bit of suspense of disbelief in order for the premise to work. The book does not discuss much about the valleys themselves, so if that type of world-building is necessary to one’s enjoyment of its story, I would also recommend avoiding this book.

With those important points out of the way, let’s get into why The Other Valley is so good. From the get-go I was immediately impressed by Howard’s writing that has a very sophisticated and scholarly style. Even if I hadn’t read his author’s blurb ahead of time, it’s obvious that Howard is incredibly well-educated and his doctorate in Philosophy is evident everywhere in the book. This was clearly a book written for readers looking for a critically sharp and ambitious reading experience and not a casual comfort read. Interestingly, despite the occasionally advanced vocabulary used and the quiet storytelling, I found Howard’s writing to be beautiful and at times, quite moving. There was a good balance between points explicitly explained vs points implied by reading between the lines (perhaps heightened by the lack of quotations), and despite the reserved style, I found the overall experience to be incredibly heartfelt and effective. The whole experience screams quality and finesse, with a confidence that I find lacking in most debut novels. In summary, the style and delivery was pitch perfect for my taste.

Despite the time-traveling plot element, minor spoilers but there’s relatively little time-traveling actually done despite its large implications. Rather than a mystery thriller about Edme’s impending doom or a traditional time-traveling epic, The Other Valley’s plot is largely a coming of age story that addresses the insecurities experienced by both teenagers and adults. Yet it also avoids the expected Nicholas Sparks-esque tragic lovers arc and covers material often excluded in doomed love stories, that being life after loss. Odile’s uncertainty about her future apprenticeships/future, her conflicted feelings towards Edme, her aloofness and solitude compared to her fellow classmates, these are all relatable topics we’ve all experienced growing up. Divided into two parts, the 2nd half which jumps to Odile’s adult life ponders topics of missed potential, what if’s, reaching vs settling for what’s comfortable/easy, and the different ways one can experience and handle grief and regret. It’s rare for me to find a book that is successful at portraying both teenage and adult years in a relatable and compelling manner, but Howard pulls off both parts successfully, all told with a wistful air to it.

While the premise of time-traveling visitation was straightforward on paper, the tangible method of simply walking to the past or future and its potential to be infiltrated was surprisingly high-concept and unique in an otherwise heavily populated genre. Knowing that this story was foremost character-focused rather than plot-focused, I was pleasantly blown away by the ambition and execution of the plot as well! Without going into spoilers, I was constantly caught off-guard by numerous well-executed plot twists, and the story would consistently go in directions I would’ve never expected (which is hard to do considering this is one of my core reading genres). Odile’s testing for the Conseil I thought was incredibly clever, with the students tested with case scenarios to evaluate and discuss, fully utilizing and demonstrating the extent of the valleys’ capabilities. This was spaced out with teenage and coming of age content that was very well executed, material that I usually find tedious to read through. And just when I thought I knew where Odile was heading, the story pulls out a 180 twist at the ending of part 1, jumping straight into adulthood. It’s difficult to talk about the plot of part 2 without major spoilers for part 1, but part 2’s storyline was possibly even more wistful and heartfelt than part 1 that only adults in their early 30’s and onward will be able to fully experience. Interestingly enough, although I initially thought this would be a good recommendation for academically inclined teenage readers due to the content of part 1 being relatable, part 2’s concept and content cemented it firmly as an adult-only novel whose dramatic concluding impact will only land for those who have had more life experiences and years like Odile. I was also concerned that this book would focus entirely on Odile’s loss of Edme both as a friend and love interest and how the grief would affect her all her life. Instead The Other Valley had a nuanced approach to grief and loss best exhibited by the differences between Odile and Alain in adulthood as well as the many opinions and stances on visitations of visitors to the past and future.

Speaking of Odile, I loved her character and felt seen via her character’s obvious logical brilliance and her reserved display and connection with her emotions (particularly her internal debate of “settling”). I’ve seen some reviews criticizing Howard’s character work for being sedated, some going as far as saying Odile is neuro-diverse or has attachment issues. I laughed out loud reading these reviews, it’s like those readers have never experienced the perspective of a thinking intuitive person before; not everyone is an emotional trainwreck and everyone experiences social interactions differently. Similar to the themes and plot, Howard’s portrayal of Odile at both ages felt believable, and despite a clear jump between parts, I thought her character growth and shifting morals were incredibly well done. While not to say adulthood is filled with being jaded and tired, the difference in Odile portrayals pre and post jump nailed the differences between many people’s teenage and adult years, not to mention their concerns, morals and thoughts. One of the highlights of part 2 for me in particular was when Odile received updates about the adult figures in her life when she was a teenager and when she encountered some of her classmates decades later. Minor spoilers aside, Odile’s reunion with Edme’s best friend and ruffian Alain and her fellow Conseil study partner Jo were easily some of the most poignant and impactful moments in the whole book. Not only were they great moments for the plot, but the way Howard used both of their reunions as crucial character development moments of Odile contributing to her actions in the final chapters were chef kiss.

If I had to find a fault or negative point somewhere (apart from the polarizing lack of quotation marks), it would be that the momentum grinds to a halt between the jump from part 1 to part 2. With Odile’s conscious knowledge of Edme’s potential doom, there’s a sense of growing tension underneath her Conseil-related lessons and her small newfound friend group’s social outings. Once the concluding events of part 1 occur, the book immediately jumps to Odile’s adulthood and almost soft resets everything the reader experienced up to that point. The opening chapters of part 2 are mostly spent exploring Odile’s place in the valley’s society as an adult and explores completely new areas of the world compared to part 1. While these reserved and reflective chapters are crucial to set the scene for the latter half of part 2 and feature some of Howards most beautiful literary passages in these quiet solitary moments, this section felt like the story was sort of meandering around without direction. Having finished the book, I realized that those aimless chapters are metaphors for adult life (there is debatably no real goal to life except continuing to live) and were necessary for the full impact of upcoming plot twists. However, I had my doubts that the book would be able to pull the story back on track and match the momentum the ending of part 1 had. Ultimately I was worried for nothing as Howard not only brought every character, plot element, and theme full circle, he did so in a way that was full of surprises and left me in awe. Not only that, but the book’s plot and conclusion were free of plot holes all too common for time-travel related stories and it was consistent to the very end with the book’s philosophy and dynamics between the past and future interacting (to say which ethos the book’s time travel philosophy follows would to give away spoilers). And that’s not to mention how invested I was in Odile’s decisive resolve and final chapters. Full of restrained hope, the back half of part 1 and part 2 were absolute page-turners for me despite how methodically paced and deliberate slow they were.

With a high-concept premise and a plot that fully makes the most of it, The Other Valley is a true hidden gem and a science/speculative fiction standpoint. Yet, the fact that it’s truly a character life-focused story at its core and one that’s told with such sophistication makes it all the more astounding to me. It’s so rare for a speculative fiction book to have such a tightly written plot with such amazing character work presented in a style and tone that felt personally catered to my reading preferences. Not to mention that this is also Scott Alexander Howard’s debut novel that’s so ambitious and expertly crafted is beyond me. The fact that this book has largely flown under the radar so far apart from a few best of 2024 science fiction/time-travel related lists is a crime and I could go on far longer with this review if I included spoilers related to its plot and Odile’s ethics and morals. This is an automatic recommendation for anyone that’s a critically-inclined reader looking for a complex and philosophical read. The Other Valley is utterly brilliant and I’m not sure if any other book will be able to top it for my best read of the year.