by Peter Clines
Release Date: November 11, 2025
2025 Blackstone Publishing, Inc.
Ebook ARC; 560 Pages
ISBN: 979-8874830878
ASIN: B0DVJNMD3C
Audiobook: B0FQPNMFQ6
Genre: Fiction / Sci-Fi / Mystery
Source: Review copy from publisher/publicist
3.5 / 5 Stars
Summary
Forty years ago, the Gather family—James, his
daughter Beau, and his son Billy—vanished during a whitewater rafting
trip and were presumed dead.
Five years later, Billy reappeared on the far side of the world, telling an impossible tale of a primordial valley populated by dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. Little Billy became the punchline of so very many jokes, until he finally faded from the public eye.
Now, a group of graduate astronomy students follow their professor, Noah Barnes, up a mountain for what they believe is a simple stargazing trip. But they’re about to travel a lot farther than they planned …
Noah—the now grown Billy Gather—has finally figured out how to get back to the Valley. Accidentally bringing his students along with him, he’s confident he can get everyone back home, safe and sound.
But the Valley is a puzzle—one it turns out Noah hasn’t figured out—and they’ll need to solve it together if there’s any chance of making it out alive.
Five years later, Billy reappeared on the far side of the world, telling an impossible tale of a primordial valley populated by dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. Little Billy became the punchline of so very many jokes, until he finally faded from the public eye.
Now, a group of graduate astronomy students follow their professor, Noah Barnes, up a mountain for what they believe is a simple stargazing trip. But they’re about to travel a lot farther than they planned …
Noah—the now grown Billy Gather—has finally figured out how to get back to the Valley. Accidentally bringing his students along with him, he’s confident he can get everyone back home, safe and sound.
But the Valley is a puzzle—one it turns out Noah hasn’t figured out—and they’ll need to solve it together if there’s any chance of making it out alive.
My Thoughts
God's Junk Drawer is one of those books to which I was drawn because I am drawn to stories whereby people are accidentally sent back in time to different time periods, and seeing how they would actually survive. And would it actually be possible to survive these trips, scientifically. I grew up watching Land of the Lost in the 1970s, so I've pretty much been fascinated by the concept since I was around five years old. This book had a lot of the elements of that tv show and quite a few surprises I wasn't expecting, but it took me longer to read it than I expected because I sort of lost interest around the fifty percent mark as it really slowed down. However, there was enough that was intriguing that I did pick it back up, and I am really glad I did.
Noah, at first, appeared to be the main character in the story, but the story was told in different POVs, something over which I was glad as I actually grew quite irritated with the character as the story progressed. For someone who possesses a PhD in physics, he was quite dense and it drove me absolutely batty that he was not willing to listen to other people and their theories most of the time, falling back constantly on the fact that he was there when he was ten and knows the valley better than anyone. For cripes sake, he was TEN!!! How much science do you know at ten years old? How much do you completely understand at that age? And why would you expect nothing to change in 40 years?
Now, I did really enjoy Sam and Parker's POV, understood their uneasiness, their questions, their concerns, and how the reality of the situation made them think outside the box. I especially enjoyed Sam's growth and development as a character and looked forward to the chapters that were about him. When you are thrown into a dangerous situation with limited options, Sam was the one who dealt with every obstacle thrown his way. I also liked how he matured over the time period as he realized his idol, Noah, was not exactly who he appeared to be, and he slowly took charge of situations. You never know how people will react in dangerous situations until they are tested and it was interesting to see how the various characters reacted to the dangers around them. Of course, if you did something silly, chomp, chomp by one of the allosauruses roaming the land.
Did I mention there were dinosaurs? Oh yes, many of them. Plus, robots, aliens, and so much more. This is where all the mystery comes into play. There are people from many different timelines, including neanderthals, and everyone had to survive this crazy valley in which they were thrown. The plot was not what I was expecting, and there were quite a few surprises in store for me, one of which I did not guess at all. The story started with quite a bang, continued with some explosive action scenes that do include some dinosaurs, and then...slowed down to the point where I put the book down for about a week. I literally could not put down the book at the beginning as it was intense, and the latter part of the book was the same way, but the middle part lagged. It's not that it wasn't interesting, but we get caught up in Noah's refusal to accept that things changed over the years, plus some other mysteries, things that did slow down the story considerably. The characters spent a lot of time discussing their situation without really doing anything, just talk, talk, talk. But what I did find interesting is that I was never on the edge of my seat wondering if the rest of the college kids were in danger during most of the action scenes, if they would make it out alive. I should have been flipping the pages wondering how things would turn out, but that tension just wasn't there.
Verdict
God's Junk Drawer was definitely unique and for the most part, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I would have liked a bit more character development and I definitely would have liked a bit more tension, more uncertainly with regards to the fate of the people, but the twists and turns and the mysteries were quite interesting. For those who are not too impressed when there is a lot of science in these books, the author did manage to keep it to a minimum, and to a degree that was fairly easy to understand. I did think there needed to be a better balance between the action and all of the explanations as that seemed to be where everything slowed down. Overall, a fun book and one that I would recommend.
