Life in Reverse

So I found a different book to read but I plan on picking up Master & Commander at a later date. This book was actually found on a bookshelf in my house when I was taking a picture of the bookcase for photography class! The book is called Turnabout by Margaret Peterson Haddix. 

The book has two main characters, Amelia Hazelwood and Anny Beth Flix. In 2001, they are 101 and 103 years old and live in the nursing home. They then are selected to become part of the secret Turnabout Project which includes 50 men and women from the nursing home. Basically, this project reverses the aging process. In the year 2085, they are 16 and 18 years old, again. Obviously, the experiment succeeded with unaging the people. The side-effects that are discovered include for every year de-aged, they lose the memory of when they were that age the first time around (like previously 100, then 99 and so forth), possible death if the unaging process is stopped resulting in continuous unaging, no contact with families and friends, who believed they were dead, and the usual issues with age such as you must attend school when young or not being old enough to drive.

This book reminds me of the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  In the movie, Benjamin Button is born as a really old person in the shape of a baby and then grows younger through middle age and dies as an infant. The difference is that Anny Beth and Amelia lived a normal life before Project Turnabout and then lives a "normal" life in reverse.

The challenge with this book is that it is written in a timeline of dates, switching between 2001 and 2085. It does not matter too greatly if you do not pay attention to the dates because the word choice is a little different between the years. For example, Anny Beth is referred to as Mrs. Flix in 2001 and Amelia is referred to as Melly in 2085. 

This book definitely makes me wonder what life would be like in reverse. Is it like a redo button? Could people really control the aging process? I doubt these questions will be answered during my lifetime, but it's still interesting to think about.