In January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.

Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.

He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.

Challenge accepted.

Mark Lawrence is without a doubt one of my very favorite authors. There’s just something about his writing that’s so alluring & compulsively readable. So when he announced he had a new trilogy on the way, and that it was outside the fantasy genre, I was fucking ecstatic! And then to find out he was inspired to write the Impossible Times trilogy after watching Stranger Things, one of my favorite shows OF EVER, excitement levels shot through the goddamn roof!

And I just loved One Word Kill. Like, a lot. Oof…this was one of those books I could not wait to get back to whenever I was away from it, and now that I’m done with it, it’s kind of lodged into my heart & left me feeling SUPER eager for the second book!

This is the story of Nick Hayes, a fifteen-year-old boy from London. He’s tall & gangly, a bit awkward, incredibly intelligent, and also he’s dying. He’s recently been diagnosed with leukemia when we meet him, which sends his whole life into upheaval. The book is set in 1986, when survival rates are not what they are today. Nick’s prognosis is not great.

The biggest (and perhaps only) part of his social life lies with his Dungeons & Dragons group: himself, John, Simon, Elton, and most recently, a girl named Mia. Each of these characters has such a unique personality, and I loved the group as a whole. These kids all come from different walks of life, but they all found each other anyway, and are bound by this deep love for D&D, and the associated storytelling.

I really like that Lawrence didn’t lean too hard into the stereotype that kids who are into D&D and sci-fi and fantasy are hopelessly nerdy. I mean, of course Nick & his friends aren’t exactly “the cool kids”, but neither are they caricatures of “the D&D kids”. These kids just felt so goddamn real to me.

And then there’s the time travel element. It’s worth noting that Mark Lawrence is a scientist, and he really flexes that muscle in One Word Kill. The time travel concepts he introduces in this book are…a lot. And they can feel totally overwhelming & confusing. But…BUT!!! And this is becoming one of my favorite aspects to a time travel story (and it featured in Kameron Hurley’s The Light Brigade as well)…the characters are as confused as the reader, and I appreciate that kind of solidarity! Nick is an actual math genius, and even he struggles to get his head around all that’s happening. All he knows is he’s been visited by someone claiming to be from the future, and who is desperate for help.

Mark Lawrence is a writer that can break your fucking heart with just a turn of phrase, and that’s no different in One Word Kill. This relatively short novel is packed with gut-punchy, tender, and brutally human moments. He captures exactly what it feels like to have a crush so bad it feels like you can’t breathe…to be totally undone by a smile…the nearly electric feel of that first kiss.

There was sort of a curiosity feeling when I started reading this, a Mark Lawrence sci-fi novel. But then you quickly remember he is a fucking monstrously talented writer, and the thought of him hopping across genres is an incredibly exciting prospect!

Absolutely DYING for Limited Wish now!!!

*insert Stephen Colbert “GIVE IT TO ME NOW” GIF*