The only real flaw in this feverish page-turner is the pedestrian heaviness of the dialogue. Jack's strange destiny takes him from the bloody battles of WW II Guadalcanal to a government-run mental institution, where he suffers amnesia and a drug-induced type of catatonia. Unbeknownst to him, he is becoming entangled in his own family's ugly history: past and future are irremediably entangled. Jack escapes through the time-travel door, planning to wait 50 years and prevent the crime. In the present day, Jack's father is rampaging: he calls the boy's mother a ""hardheaded bitch,"" breaks her fingers and eventually kills her with a baseball bat. There, the 13-year-old discovers a door that can hurtle him 50 years into the past. Trying to escape from his violent father, Jack and his mother move into his late grandfather's mysterious house in Memory, Minn. Ingenious plotting and startling action combine to make this time-travel thriller a riveting read.
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