{"id":58020,"date":"2025-11-27T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=58020"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T21:11:08","slug":"dual-timeline-young-adult-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/dual-timeline-young-adult-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual Timeline Young Adult Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s talk about a controversial narrative structure in books: dual timelines. Some people love them, some people hate them! Dual timelines usually present as past and present narratives that are linked together by a common mystery, thread, or story. Sometimes dual timelines are told from the perspective of the same character, but they can be told from two different characters’ perspectives at different points in time. The important key to remember, and what separates dual timelines from a multiple narrator or dual perspectives story, is that one timeline is typically set in the past and another is set closer to the present. I fall in the reader camp that loves dual timelines. I love the switch between characters, seeing how the past informs the present, and the little clues that the author leaves for readers to find. Below I have gathered six young adult novels with dual timelines that have caught my attention recently. As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>All You Have to Do<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Autumn Allen<\/p>\n

In All You Have to Do, two young Black men attend prestigious schools nearly thirty years apart, yet both navigate similar forms of insidious racism.<\/em><\/p>\n

In April 1968, in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s assassination, Kevin joins a protest that shuts down his Ivy League campus . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

In September 1995, amid controversy over the Million Man March, Gibran challenges the \u201cSee No Color\u201d hypocrisy of his prestigious New England prep school . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

As the two students, whose lives overlap in powerful ways, risk losing the opportunities their parents worked hard to provide, they move closer to discovering who they want to be instead of accepting as fact who society and family tell them they are.<\/em> – Kokila<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Death at Morning House<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Maureen Johnson<\/p>\n

The fire wasn\u2019t Marlowe Wexler\u2019s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.<\/em><\/p>\n

With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that\u2019s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It\u2019s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe this job isn\u2019t such a gift after all. Morning House has a horrific secret that\u2019s been buried for decades, and now the person who brought her here is missing.<\/em><\/p>\n

All it takes is one clue to set off a catastrophic chain of events. One small detail, just like a spark, could burn it all down\u2014if someone doesn\u2019t bury Marlowe first.<\/em> – HarperCollins<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Going Bicoastal<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>by Dahlia Adler<\/p>\n

Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make the biggest choice of her life: stay home in NYC for the summer with her dad (and finally screw up the courage to talk to the girl she’s been crushing on), or spend it with her basically estranged mom in LA (knowing this is the best chance she has to fix their relationship, if she even wants to.) (Does she want to?)<\/em><\/p>\n

How’s a girl supposed to choose?<\/em><\/p>\n

She can’t, and so both summers play out in alternating timelines – one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the girl she’s always wanted. And one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the guy she never saw coming.<\/em> – Wednesday Books<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Nothing Burns as Bright as You<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Ashley Woodfolk<\/p>\n

Two girls. One wild and reckless day. Years of tumultuous history unspooling like a thin, fraying string in the hours after they set a fire.<\/em><\/p>\n

They were best friends. Until they became more. Their affections grew. Until the blurry lines became dangerous.<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the course of a single day, the depth of their past, the confusion of their present, and the unpredictability of their future is revealed. And the girls will learn that hearts, like flames, aren\u2019t so easily tamed.<\/em><\/p>\n

It starts with a fire.<\/em><\/p>\n

How will it end?<\/em> – Versify<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Only This Beautiful Moment<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Abdi Nazemian<\/p>\n

2019. Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself.<\/em><\/p>\n

1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country\u2019s burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises. And even worse\u2014he\u2019s forced to live with the American grandmother he never knew existed.<\/em><\/p>\n

1939. Bobby, the son of a calculating Hollywood stage mother, lands a coveted MGM studio contract. But the fairy-tale world of glamour he\u2019s thrust into has a dark side.<\/em><\/p>\n

Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this tale of intergenerational trauma and love is an ode to the fragile bonds of family, the hidden secrets of history, and all the beautiful moments that make us who we are today.<\/em> – HarperCollins<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Some Mistakes Were Made<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Kristin Dwyer<\/p>\n

Ellis and Easton have been inseparable since childhood. But when a rash decision throws Ellis\u2019s life\u2014and her relationship with Easton\u2014into chaos, she\u2019s forced to move halfway across the country, far from everything she\u2019s ever known.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now Ellis hasn\u2019t spoken to Easton in a year, and maybe it\u2019s better that way; maybe eventually the Easton-shaped hole in her heart will heal.<\/em><\/p>\n

But when Easton\u2019s mom invites her home for a visit, Ellis finds herself tangled up in the web of heartache, betrayal, and anger she left behind . . . and with the boy she never stopped loving.<\/em> – HarperCollins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s talk about a controversial narrative structure in books: dual timelines. Some people love them, some people hate them! Dual timelines usually present as past and present narratives that are linked together by a common mystery, thread, or story. Sometimes dual timelines are told from the perspective of the same[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5,1,8],"tags":[10667,10659,10665,10660,10663,10661,8160,402,10662,10669,6944,10664,10666,10668,847],"class_list":["post-58020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-read-a-likes","category-reference","category-staff-picks","tag-abdi-nazemian","tag-all-you-have-to-do","tag-ashley-woodfolk","tag-autumn-allen","tag-dahlia-adler","tag-death-at-morning-house","tag-dual-timeline","tag-fiction","tag-going-bicoastal","tag-kristin-dwyer","tag-maureen-johnson","tag-nothing-burns-as-bright-as-you","tag-only-this-beautiful-moment","tag-some-mistakes-were-made","tag-young-adult"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-f5O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58020"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58057,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58020\/revisions\/58057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}