Book Review: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

April 10, 2026

I don’t care much for being talked to like I am less intelligent than someone, or having to look up words every single page, but for whatever reason, I still finished this book. Kaliane used so many words I had never heard of both because they’re lost in time and also because they just aren’t words used in common conversation. For this reason I’m glad I read it on my e reader because it was able to tell me what all these words meant but it took me out of the story over and over.

We follow the story of a young woman who accepts a job as a “bridge” for people being plucked out of time and brought to our current era. The ministry she is a part of, is running experiments on whether time travel is possible and what roles it takes on the body. By pulling people into this era, they are saving the people from their own death in the timeline they were in, and therefore making them almost disposable. Our leading lady doesn’t seem to have a huge problem with this but feels bad that she doesn’t. She’s assigned a man named Graham Gore who was plucked from Franklins lost expedition (in which not a single man survived) in 1845. Over time their friendship grows and blossoms into something a little more as they get to know each other and the other “expats” from throughout time. When things start crumbling around them, our leading lady struggles with friendship, love, heritage, and what it means to be a person.

I cannot say I recommend this strange book, but it did make me stop and think. It doesn’t fit any single genre or theme but a variety of both. I think there are a lot of people who would really enjoy this book I just am not sure I am in the right headspace for something like this at the moment.