Marissa D’Angelo’s Chasing Time is a Beautiful And True Story Worth the Read

I am going to be completely honest here. I don’t read as many memoirs as I should, although I do anticipate on reading a few on audiobook before the end of the year.

Recently, I picked up Chasing Time by Marissa D’Angelo. D’Angelo is a friend of mine, and has self-published a few books on Amazon, including last year’s fantasy, Presence. Chasing Time is her first memoir and is definitely way more personal and raw than her previous efforts.

Chasing Time is the story of D’Angelo’s life. It tells the story of her going to therapy, and being given a journal in which she writes about her experiences in her childhood and early twenties. At the beginning of the novel, it features warm and light hearted memories of her with her grandparents and her father. Towards the end of the book, the story changes. It begins to dive into her traumas with grief, abuse, and bullying.

While the topics remain heavy, D’Angelo’s voice shines through the 152 pages. Since I know her personally, I can definitely tell that is her telling the story. That is something that I really enjoy when reading memoirs, as it feels like they are using an open dialogue to tell their own story.

That said, I also really enjoyed how hard hitting and personal these stories were because it brings some discussion of certain topics to the table that previously were hard to talk about. I think that many of these stories are things that people can relate to, and by reading this book, it definitely is a way of showing them that they are not alone. For example, there is a story about Marissa in high school going through alienation and bullying with someone who she thought was her friend. That is something that many of us can relate to.  Furthermore, it does bring to light many of other topics that are not as frequently discussed. Therefore, I think it’s also important to mention that while this was a quick read, this was an important one as well.

In addition, I also really enjoyed the ending and how D’Angelo ended it in a way that tied up these stories with a positive outlook to her future. I don’t want to give too much away, but I wanted to note that this was a really nice touch.

However, I would like to bring to light one thing about the story that I wished I saw more. There were a lot of time lapses and things that she briefly touched upon, but never went into further detail about, such as her college relationship, and how her current one is now. She had written about a few experiences with her current boyfriend, but I would have liked to see what is going on in present day. While they really weren’t crucial, as a reader I was left wondering about it.

Furthermore, I also would have liked to know more about D’Angelo’s current status with therapy. At the end of the book, especially since it was a crucial part of the story, I was actually left wondering is she still attended sessions, especially since she discussed the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overall, I highly recommend checking out Chasing Time. It is available on Amazon and Kindle, and is such a quick and incredible resource to both teenagers and young adults. On Goodreads, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars and that is the rating that I will also give here due to its interesting stories, and the authentic way the author discussed her traumas and experiences. That said, I hope to see more stories in this format from her as this premise was such a great format that isn’t done that much – well at least in my reading experience.

Please note, if you are interested in reading Chasing Time, please note that there are several trigger warnings, including: lose of a parent, rape, abuse, drug abuse, cutting, and bullying.