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A Fine Line To Walk As A Writer
Reset follows a desperate man living in a society where, on your fiftyth birthday, you are returned to your 25-year-old self, and he has to choose what to do with this newly granted time. What first inspired the idea behind the Reset itself?
About 15 years ago I thought of the idea for RESET. I was past 40, my parents were now in their 60’s and the idea of aging was front and center. I had been through a divorce and remarried and thought about how my decisions when I was younger were not the best. As they say: the youth is wasted on the young. I thought about what I would do if I was young but had all my current knowledge. The idea for RESET came to me then.
Tom’s decision is understandable to some readers and deeply frustrating to others. How did you approach writing him?
The hardest thing with writing Tom was to make him a clearly selfish person but then to rebuild his character over time. How selfish to make him and how much he needed to do for readers to rethink their initial feelings on Tom was the hardest part of writing him. It was a fine line to walk as a writer and kept me up many nights trying to thread that needle.
The Awakeners emerge from fear and resentment. What role did contemporary society play in shaping that movement?
The current society has a huge generational divide, and a big part of The Awakeners was using the generational divide in the to gain power. It was very instrumental in shaping that narrative.
Given the opportunity, would you choose to Reset?
The simple answer is yes. However, there are scenarios where I would not Reset. Going into those may give away too much so I will leave it at that.
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“A very enjoyable novel that explores themes that resonate with today’s societal issues… I would definitely consider using it in one of my classes.” — Sander Lee, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, who teaches a class in science fiction novels.
Tom and Elena Miller built a beautiful life over nearly three decades of marriage. But as Tom approaches his fiftieth birthday, the crushing weight of his middle-aged responsibilities and a desperate desire for freedom drive a wedge between him and the people he loves most. He doesn’t just want a break; he wants a second chance at his twenties.
In a society defined by “The Reset”—a global anomaly where anyone turning fifty wakes up in their original, twenty-five-year-old body—Tom’s desire becomes a devastating reality. He chooses to undergo his Reset and leaves his forty-eight-year-old wife behind to live in a downtown bachelor pad, assuming he can just return to her when she finally Resets eighteen months later.
But his selfish “intermission” shatters his family. While Elena struggles to rebuild her life and identity without him, his oldest son, Jack, is driven into the arms of a radicalized movement determined to end the “Immortal Class” by any means necessary.
As Tom navigates the lonely, surreal reality of his new youth, he is about to discover that reversing the clock on his body might mean permanently running out of time to save his family.
RESET
Kevin Charles’s Reset is a big-idea speculative novel built around an irresistible question: What would happen if everyone, upon turning fifty, could wake up in the body they had at twenty-five? The transformation cures illnesses, restores old injuries, and offers decades of renewed physical life, but it leaves memories and emotional wounds untouched. Charles explores the premise through the Miller family in North Carolina, especially Tom, who treats his Reset as permission to step away from his marriage, and Elena, who must decide what renewal will mean on her own terms. Their children face a society where older generations keep their jobs, wealth, and influence, while a religious movement called the Awakeners turns resentment over the Reset into a political weapon.
The novel works best when it brings that extraordinary premise into ordinary rooms. Tom’s physical rejuvenation can’t relieve his guilt, repair his relationships, or tell him what to do with the extra time he’s received. Elena’s story is especially rewarding because her growth begins well before her body changes. She rediscovers her creativity, independence, and sense of possibility without waiting for youth to rescue her. The relationships among Tom, Elena, their children, and their friends give the story warmth, humor, and emotional weight. Walt’s experience with multiple sclerosis also adds a moving complication to the book’s central debate, since the Reset can be both a profound gift and the start of another difficult cycle.
As the story widens, Reset becomes part family drama, part political thriller, and part thought experiment. Charles considers crowded job markets, retirement, inherited wealth, marriage, faith, authoritarianism, overpopulation, and the temptation to impose supposedly moral choices on other people. The many chapters and shifting viewpoints allow the reader to see how the same event can look miraculous, selfish, terrifying, or sacred depending on who’s affected. At times, the characters explain their positions quite directly, but the brisk pacing keeps those debates tied to personal stakes. The later political conflict is large and dramatic, while the book’s most memorable moments remain intimate ones involving parents, children, spouses, aging bodies, and the fear of wasting whatever time remains.
I’d recommend Reset most to readers who enjoy accessible speculative fiction that uses one imaginative change to examine an entire society. It should particularly appeal to book clubs, since its questions about longevity, personal freedom, generational fairness, and family obligation invite plenty of disagreement. Readers of family sagas and socially minded thrillers will also find a lot to appreciate, especially if they like stories with a broad cast and a hopeful interest in people’s ability to grow. Beneath the science-fiction premise, this is a novel about learning that more time only becomes meaningful when people change how they live it.
Pages: 327 | ASIN : B0H4M5RB7P
