I have what may be an unhealthy obsession with time travel. When I was a teen, I had bookmarked several sites that speculated on the possibility of time travel, and whether we’d eventually be able to travel forward and backward in time, or maybe just forward OR backward. I spent a long time wondering if I would rather solve the mystery of Stonehenge or see what America would be like in the year 2500.

So you can see why this book would appeal. In Ruby Red, the translation into English of the German novel by Kerstin Gier, we meet Gwyneth Shepherd, who is nothing special. It’s her cousin Charlotte who is the special one – she’s inherited the family gene that allows her to travel backward in time. Charlotte is at the age where the ability is supposed to manifest itself, and she’s got the trademark dizzy spells that indicate imminent travel.

But, surprisingly, it’s Gwen who travels one day. While Charlotte has been trained her whole life on how to survive in the past, Gwen has received no training. Without warning, she’s thrust into the world of time travel, and she has to learn how to behave in the past without giving herself away. She also becomes embroiled in the family machinations, which involve a secret order of time travelers and a strange machine called the chronograph that helps control the time traveling and needs the blood of the travelers to work. And there’s a boy time-traveler from another family, Gideon, who was probably in love with Charlotte and resents the fact that Gwen has replaced her. Unluckily for Gwen, she’s tasked with traveling back in time with Gideon and getting the blood of all the past time travelers (there aren’t many) to add to the machine, for reasons that are deliberately kept secret.

The biggest problem with Ruby Red is that it’s all exposition. We wait a long time for Gwen to finally tell her family that she’s traveled, and even when she has, the pace doesn’t really pick up. There’s a somewhat exciting battle near the end of the book that serves as its climax, but it doesn’t answer any questions. In fact, no questions are answered throughout the entire novel, and it makes for a frustrating read, not a satisfying one.

Furthermore, the book is framed by two confusing chapters about Lucy and Paul, two time-travelers from Gwen’s time who ran away – disappearing into the past – several years ago, and these chapters made no sense to me with the information I was provided. Perhaps they would make sense on a re-read after I’ve had a chance to read the book’s sequels, but I doubt I’ll put forth the effort.

The last thing I’ll complain about is somewhat small, but important. There’s a lot of sexism in the book. I should note that it’s not something the author supports. In fact, it’s used to show that certain characters are the bad guys. This is a problem. It’s like the author had this conversation with herself: “OK, here’s where I introduce the bad guy. How can I show that he’s bad? Oh, I know, I can have him make disparaging remarks about women!” It’s too easy, and it’s too pervasive. After awhile it just gets irritating to read about.

I think Ruby Red had a lot of potential that went unfulfilled. A time travel gene is such a neat concept (the Time Traveler’s Wife made mega money off of it), and Gwen has a unique narrative voice. It’s possible that some of the confusion and other faults are due to the translation. Ultimately, though, this isn’t a book I can really recommend. There’s not enough actual time travel, no resolution, and too much deliberate obfuscation. It’s not a bad read, it’s just not a particularly good one. There are plenty of other good books out there that are more worth your time.