Marked as DNF 2/8/16: With less and less time for me to read as of late and a recent conversation with several other bloggers/readers who share quite similar reading tastes, I've decided to put down INTO THE DIM. 
 My main issue with the book is that it's another one that was marketing improperly, attempting to appeal to a mainstream audience (obviously Outlander here) and the book was really nothing like it. Time travel + Scotland does not equal Outlander. Confession: I actually haven't even read the books or watched the show but my huge issue here is that I make reading comparisons and recommendations largely based on a feel and/or mood along with large topics. Scotland is a setting that can make two books feel similar but can also be incredibly different based on content. Time travel is a pretty big concept and even though it's a favorite topic of mine, I am very sensitive with how it's handled. I think the sum of the parts just didn't quite come together in INTO THE DIM and with that in mind plus the original cover release, I was expecting something much more serious and deep. 
 INTO THE DIM felt rather cheesy to me. Explanations were simple, the sort of "alternate history" that made this time travel possible really didn't feel genuine, and it felt like a lot of telling instead of showing. I had kind of a hard time with the writing because it did feel so simplistic and I felt like the reading level was rather low. This is great for the lower end of the YA spectrum if parents/teachers/librarians, etc want to recommend this book to younger teens who have a higher reading level but it really lost me there as an adult reading a YA novel. I also don't feel like writing has to be taken down a level for any reader but I'm also no expect on these things. (I really don't think this was done intentionally? But that's what the reading experience felt like.) 
 I really did not like how the time travel concept was explained and it felt super silly. Time travel can largely be explained by either a scientific concept or a total paranormal/fantastical phenomenon and it seemed like this book tried to combine both which wasn't quite working for me. It seemed a bit glossed over to explain and then Hope was shocked but almost immediately accepting. I really wished there would have been more time spent on exactly why and how this time travel worked instead of simply telling Hope/the readers that this is what it is and immediately jumping into time travel, especially since the beginning felt like a rather long set-up. 
 I also really didn't care for the characters either. Hope was not an enjoyable character for me. I don't think I had as strong of an issue as some readers did but she just felt boring and flat. I didn't really see many layers to her and there was no strong personality to really latch onto. I feel like Hope was played off to be tedious except for her photographic memory (which is SO hard to write into a book, I feel, because you can't ever have the character forget something without readers calling that out) and it really made me not like her much. The secondary characters also felt a bit flat to me and just really seemed like a basic character that I've read before. (I was actually somehow reminded of the Cullens in Twilight? No idea why I made that connection but there it was.) 
 The (developing) romance was also a bit rough and seemed like it was leading into a triangle? I'm not against love triangles but this seemed like an unnecessary set-up. It could have easily been one or the other and not this weird pull towards both. The attraction to both guys also seemed to happen quickly which again, is totally fine BUT the chemistry wasn't there for me. Without that natural pull towards someone, it ends up feeling like a high school crush or instalove with no real depth to it. (Okay, I know she IS in high school but you know what I mean.) 
 This wasn't a BAD book but I still had about 300 pages to go and I really wasn't a huge fan of what had been happening so far. I wasn't super engaged and with this being a series, I doubted that I would pick up the second book when I finished. With limited reading time, I decided to trust my peers and ended up putting this one down. There's a chance I may come back to it someday but I think those chances are slim. 
 I mostly decided to put it down because as I ask myself with all DNFs, "Do I care what really happens in the end?" Obviously I don't know the end to the series but I'm betting she saves her mother and falls in love with a guy. It seems a bit predictable and that the twists and loops that may happen along the way aren't quite large enough to make me question or suspect or keep flipping those pages.