I loved this story, but not the telling. Adelaide is struggling through her life and thinking of all the "might have beens" and "might still bes" following a near tragedy.

She finds herself being what she thinks people want her to be on the outside while struggling on the inside. Trying to forge new relationships and find a love that makes her feel safe, she puts on a facade that sadly fools people into thinking she is okay when in reality, she is struggling both academically and personally.

Adelaide both wants and fears a relationship with the one person who let her down the most: her brother.

It is a great story but the telling felt fractured, maybe it would have worked as a series of short stories, all telling the same story but following a different arc each time . I love E. Lockhart's other books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is not a love story, or, at least, not a romantic love story.

I feel like that’s what the cover might suggest and what you could interpret the blurb to be, but it’s not. Maybe it is part of why I went into this book with a sort of wrong idea, but then, I learned a long time ago to never truly expect E. Lockhart’s books to be any specific way to begin with. I quite enjoyed her earlier chick-lit-esque work (for those of you who followed her career and are fans of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, you’ll get a fun little easter egg) but was truly the most enamored with We Were Liars, which was what I would consider more in the mystery genre. Now, Again Again, doesn’t really fit into either category and proves once again that E. Lockhart won’t be confined to any genre.

Again Again is partially written in verse and takes place in a multitude of universes, although mainly two. I think this approach could go over either way with the reader. Sometimes it felt repetitive in a tiresome way, other times it showed you how one moment can unfold in such vastly different ways that you yearn for a different outcome. It definitely takes time to get used to this unconventional style of storytelling, although I think the visual formatting helped get the point across. Still, I’m really torn on this matter myself, because I would be lying if I told you that the final universe wasn’t my favourite and I was so very relieved that it existed – imperfections and everything.

As far as the characters go, I found it a bit difficult to really fall for Adelaide. She was putting on this bubbly front of happiness, which didn’t reflect her inner sadness and turmoil at all, bordering on obsession in so many departments of her life. Her erratic behaviour made me dislike her sometimes, especially when she was impulsive and neurotic about boys that were only an escape, but not a solution. I understood why she acted the way she did.
Grieving for someone, even if it wasn’t the kind of grief related to death, and being burdened by constant worry will change you. It makes you act strange and impassive and everyone deals differently, but even though I got that on some level, it didn’t prevent me from getting frustrated with her sometimes. I appreciated the realness of her brokenness, while also resenting it. I am contradictory that way.
I did really like her creative side though! I would love to see some of the stuff she made in this book in real life!

However, as I said at the very beginning of this review, this is not a romantic love story, because all these boys (which were really only three) couldn’t have been more inconsequential, if I’m being completely honest. The most important relationship in this book, at least in my eyes, is the one between Adelaide and her brother Toby. Theirs is a love story of a different kind, because loving a family member can be just as hard and disappointing and necessary. Them finding their way back to each other was the only thing that really mattered to me.

Lastly, I just want to mention that I always love it when dogs are in the mix! I want to warn all of you that a dog gets punched in the face in this book (out of defense), but that they also seem to be able to talk to the main character in a way and that was surprising and quirky and I still don’t know what to make of it.

Fazit: 3.5/5 stars! Hit and miss in a lot of ways.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of "Again Again" by E. Lockhart. This book was so different and I really enjoyed the "multiverse" approach to a YA romance. I loved how the author weaved some verse into the prose and the alternative universe versions of many of the scenes were so interesting. It always kept me in suspense about what was going to happen in the "real" one.
SPOILERS: The author really put into question which version was the "real" one and kind of left that up to your interpretation as a reader by throwing basically an entire alternate book at the end. I might actually lean toward giving this a 4.5 stars rather than the full 5 (I always round up my ratings though), just because I was disappointed that we didn't go back to the "real" timeline at the end and see how things worked out in the version I'd been invested in for the whole first two-thirds of the book. I wanted to be able to see that. But, I realize that would have been kind of contrary to the whole point.
I just loved this different approach to storytelling that I've personally never seen before. I also loved the theme of it, that when we're young we fall in love over and over, learning more about ourselves and how to love each time, growing and hurting ourselves and others and figuring it out as we go. It showed how we each have our own baggage we take to each relationship, especially as conflicted, emotionally immature teenagers, and especially when you're so young and have so much of your life to figure out and create ahead of you. It showed how relationships as a teen aren't supposed to be forever—not that they never are, but often they aren't. It just felt real and I could see and feel some of my own life experiences on the page, and I think that's what good literature is all about.
Finally, there was also a subplot about the MC's brother recovering from an opioid addiction that was really well done and added a great level to what this girl brought to her romantic relationships because of all that was going on with her family. It showed how much our relationships affect each other and showed the different aspects of all sorts of relationships in our lives.
In summary, I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. I'd definitely recommend it.

Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to read a new e. Lockhart book? I certainly jumped, and I’m glad I received an egalley to read! As always, a fun and romantic story with lots of adventure and character.

I am a huge fan of E. Lockhart. Her books, such as We Were Liars, and Genuine Fraud, are unusual and creative. Her newest novel, Again, Again, is equally creative and moved in unexpected directions. I loved it.

What I Liked:
Format:

The novel moves between several alternate universes. We see many difference scenarios played out as Adelaide makes small choices that affect the outcome of each story. This format was unexpected and a delight.

Characters:

Through all the different storylines, the two people who are consistently in all are Adelaide and her brother, Toby. Their relationship underpins each story. What makes their situation complicated is that Toby, two years younger than Adelaide, is a drug addict. This is heartbreaking, as he is only fourteen years old. There are varying degrees of anger, guilt, and concern between the two siblings. I was rooting for them to repair their relationship.

Story Themes:

This seemed, at first, to be a typical YA RomCom. Girl (on the rebound from her first boyfriend) meets Boy. Will they stay together? But, with E. Lockhart at the helm, the story becomes one that challenges YA romance tropes, and shows a much more realistic presentation of teen love lives. Most YA books have teens meeting the love of their lives in high school! How often does this actually happen? Most teens navigate through a series of crushes, dating, and short-term relationships, as they work out who they are and who they want to love.

I also love the emphasis on Adelaide's experiences with her family. Again, YA often presents only a teen's social relationships, without the context of one's family life. But what is happening in one's family has a direct effect on how we interact socially. I loved that the author recognizes how both family, and friends, influence young people.

All of these come together to show how they affect a teen's academic life. Adelaide is also dealing with possibly failing a class, which could affect her future college prospects. School is also a huge factor in how a student feels about themselves. Doing well, there is pride (and pressure to keep up your performance). But if you're struggling, it can be seriously damaging to your self-confidence. Adelaide feels guilty for failing, but reasons that her social and family dramas are good excuses for her difficulty in getting assignments done. This is true to life, and a huge influence on the experience of life as a teen, now.

If you're a YA fan, you probably already love E. Lockhart. Her books are so fun and so unexpected, perfect for summer. Her most recent two are more thriller than anything else, though, and Again Again is almost the exact opposite of that..

This book is an absolute risk. She trusts the reader to be able to navigate multiple timelines (although she makes it as easy as possible and if you pay attention, you're likely going to be absolutely fine with keeping track of everything) and scenarios. Also, the text goes from prose to verse with the occasional text thread thrown in. It's bold but it works.

The only real constant is Adelaide, and I think everyone's enjoyment will center around how you feel about her. I adored her (and basically everyone else in this book, humans and dogs alike) and I would be happy if this book gets a sequel.

This is so different from everything she's written before, but it now tops We Were Liars as my favorite book of hers.

This is just a really fun but thought-provoking book. And parts made me cry, so be warned going in---it's not all fun. Highly recommended.

E. Lockhart AMAZES me! I love that her writing always continues to evolve and she's not afraid to take risks. Between the sweet Ruby Oliver books, to a dark mystery in "When We Were Liars," to this absolutely wonderful story that uses multiverse theory to explore the paths our lives can take based on the decisions we do and do not make. How for every chance you don't take, there's always another you did. That we have to accept the good and the bad for every choice we make. It's these questions and more that make this a truly thought provoking read as readers see, through Adelaide's eyes, all of the different outcomes a life can have based on decisions made in each universe.

Additionally, while there is romance, this book doesn't necessarily feel romantic, but rather a story about love and being loved and what that means when it's entangled with other feelings, like grief, and anger, and self-doubt, and addiction. There is a lot going on here in terms of complicated feelings, but for something so complex, Lockhart does an extraordinary job of exploring it all in a way that is sensitive, thoughtful, and accessible.

I definitely think this is a must-have for all YA collections and would make an excellent choice for teen book clubs. I think teens will have a lot to say about this book and presents an opportunity for an interesting discussion and exploration into their own alternate selves. Overall, a gorgeously written novel, that will have you thinking long after you've turned the last page.

I tried reading this book but sadly I didn't make it very far while reading this book. I think that the different point of views made it a bit difficult to understand . I usually love this author's books and I hoped that this one would work out for me.

“Or maybe our encounter was in another possible world. That is, in one of the countless other versions of this universe, the worlds running parallel to this one, we are already in love.”

I don’t really know how I feel about this book. I absolutely loved the author’s book We Were Liars, and internally screamed when I was approved for an eARC, but I just don’t really know what I read. I enjoyed some aspects of this book, but for the most part I didn’t really like how it was written.

We follow Adelaide who is staying on campus for the summer, and is a dog walker of five dogs. Her relationship with her boyfriend has just ended abruptly and she is heartbroken. Her brother is a recovering addict and she has a lot of emotions about everything, but puts on a happy face and never really brings up those emotions. This book explores alternate realties and the, “what ifs” that we all face in life. We see multiple ways a moment in her life is going to go, but then we see how it actually played out.

I went into this thinking it was going to be a unique look at love and have some form of alternate reality with it. After reading it, I think my least favorite part was the love component. I found Adelaide quite annoying with her love life, and she was kind of crazy with all of her boyfriends. I would have much rather read more about Toby, her brother and their relationship. How the author puts in those gut-wrenching moments of what addiction is like made my heart hurt. I loved reading the horrible honest truth of addiction. I really appreciated how Adelaide dealt with her brother and their relationship meant the most to me in this book.

All in all, I still don’t really know what the author wanted to convey with readers, and it saddens me that I didn’t like this book. I just felt that the plot was bizarre, don’t get me wrong I love when authors experiment with unique story lines, but this one didn’t seem to have a main point. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and it just fell flat for me.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review. I was approved just before the book release date, so I decided to start it as soon as I finished my last book. I've read a couple of Lockhart's books (We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud) and while Again, Again is completely different, I enjoyed it.

Adelaide Buchwald is a 17 year old girl whose younger brother is a recovering addict; she is attending a prep school where her dad teaches now, while her mother tends to her brother & her untreated sciatica. Her 1st boyfriend has just dumped her and she's having an egg yolk of misery summer. Adelaide is clever and puts on a (fake) happy personality, which she just can't fake anymore. She just wants to be seen. This book reminded me of Choose Your own adventure, but Adelaide is imagining different outcomes. You are never quite sure at the end which universe Adelaide existed in, but we can all relate to imagining different outcomes. Imagine how different something would turn out based on 1 small change, some if which is entirely out of her control. I felt Adelaide's heartache. The dog walking she does & giving the dogs their own point of view was cute. I enjoyed the book and would recommend reading it.

At one point, Adelaide said she is filled with love and sadness. It seemed like a great overview for the book. The relationships with the boys seem so realistic for her age. You have the teen love of Mike Double L that turns into a slight infatuation with Jack and then something deeper and real the third time around. I loved the story of Toby. It seems like such a crazy story for someone so young and I can’t imagine the impact it would have on a family.

It is definitely written in an interesting way. It was a little distracting the first time until I figured it out. Then it felt like the conversations you have in your head.

The only other book I have read by her is We Were Liars. This was such a departure to it but I really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed reading Again Again. Set at a prep school in Northern Massachusetts, the novel follows Adelaide, a girl who desperately wants to love and be loved in return, over the course of one summer and across multiple dimensions. Though I wasn't sure at first about the use of different universes, I warmed up to it over the course of the book and loved watching Adelaide fall in and out of love in multiple different worlds. I was rooting for her the whole time, and I loved how deeply her character was explored. I feel like what set the book apart was how well-developed she was. She had a complex relationship with her brother, had just had her heart broken, and was trying desperately to find someone she could share the ugliest parts of herself with. Character development was A+. One of my only critiques would be the end of the book. Without spoilers, I didn't love how the last part of the book explored a completely new reality. However, I loved the message and the journey so much that I was happy to watch Adelaide in every world.

I just finished and honestly have no idea what I just read. None of it made sense! I liked the idea of the book, but had a lot of trouble connecting. Because of all the different alternate universe offshoots, I had trouble knowing who or what I should care about. The writing was scattered and disjointed and I didn’t like Adelaide at all from the get go.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars

I liked the idea of the book, but I just had trouble connecting to much of anything. Because of all the different alternate universe offshoots, I had trouble knowing who I should care about.

I did enjoy the brother/sister relationship and the way it progressed throughout the story.

It was a refreshing change of format for a contemporary novel, but confused me more than it drew me in. And I don't want to spoil the end, but I felt frustrated at the change of character focus after the rest of the book was spent building up a different character in the spotlight.

So, while I enjoyed this a bit, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to read it or a book like it again.

This is not a starter e. lockhart novel. Pick up We Were Liars, devour it, and then come back to this for dessert.

In short, I loved this book.

In long, this book follows Adelaide. In fact, it follows multiple Adelaides.
Adelaides that are honest with their hurt, Adelaides' that lie, Adelaides that love ideas of people but not people themselves, and Adelaides that get bit by dogs but still love them in-spite of it.
This book tackles the topic of love (how we fall into it, fall out of it, are crushed by it, reborn by it) and addiction, though the second topic is observed by the Adelaides (they themselves are not the addict).
This secondary topic was very hard for me to read about.
One, I was completely surprised by it. No where does this book advertise that it talks about addiction. Two, as someone that has family members that are addicts, and wishes every day that they might find the strength to break away from their addiction, it was hard to see my own thoughts about my family on the page, a description of what the Adelaides felt.
I'd like to think I would have picked up this book knowing that it had this subplot, but I'm not sure I would have. I cried (like ugly cried) reading this. It opened some wounds for me. While I found the ending itself very satisfying, I definitely spiraled for a good portion of this book.

<--Be warned- if you or a family member or a friend close to you is an active addict, this might be a dangerous book for you to read. If you're in the headspace to be able to read about topics like that and remain sane and healthy, don't sit on this book. -->

I don't really know why I, yet again, picked up an E. Lockhart book because I keep getting dissapointed by them time and time again. The concept of this one sounded really cool but it all ended up being a bit dissapointing. The story had such an unsatisfying ending. The writting also just didn't mash well with me. It attempted to be very poetic but instead just came off as very simple and quite annoying at times. With the previous two books I read by E. Lockhart I was also dissapointed by the story but the writting was amazing. In this book the writting was just lackluster. I actually found myself enjoying the story quite a bit until the ending. Even though I was enjoying the story for the most part it also wasn't anything new or special.

Adelaine is learning what it means to fall and be in love with someone and how to work through issues in her family. While trying to finish a school project so she doesn't fail a class, walking dogs for professors all summer and trying to figure out her relationship with her brother who is a narcotic addict. She learns what a real connection with someone is and that people in life change as well as their relationships do. Really enjoyed reading this book!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a DRC of this title for review. All opinions are my own.

OK, I went into this expecting Genuine Fraud and I got some sort of overworked, fraught, attempting to be "oh so literary" contemporary story about a girl I'm not sure I liked, with other characters I'm not even sure she likes. While it tried to be a multiverse story about the various possible outcomes of the different situations we find ourselves every day. So, after reading that paragraph, you might be wondering why I went with as high of rating as I did. I wasn't sure either, but I couldn't put this down. As much as it bothered me, when I got to the end, I wondered if that was the point of it. If I was supposed to be uncomfortable, if I was supposed to wonder what it all meant. So, for that reason, I gave it a 3.

But, don't go in to this with expectations of some of Lockhart's earlier works. This is not the next compulsive "must-read" like We Were Liars . I'm not sure what it is, but it definitely isn't that.

I read or attempted to read We Were Liars a few years back and honestly, I thought it was overhyped. This book premise sounded very interesting and I was excited to see different summer romances play out, however, the writing style made it hard for me to get into. This was the second chance I was giving E. Lockhart and while many people love her writing style, it's just not for me. I find the structure to be choppy and it tends to take me out of the story itself.

My head is spinning so fast and I’m truly seeing the stars. I think I start singing “Swinging on a star” right now. ( Which reminded me the heist scene of Bruce Willis’ Hudson Hawk movie. See I’m already thought hungover after reading the book!)

Sometimes if we have second or third chances to do something differently and even though we choose the different paths at the end each path may drag us into the same consequence. Maybe we cannot prevent the inevitable, maybe we’re just puppets who think we can control our own strings which we called them freewill and beat the master to perform our own life plays.

“Again again” is a complex story makes you think “what ifs” of your life, your regrets, your wishes to redoing something, changing your life. What if there are parallel universes and different version of ourselves act different, talk different and show different reactions to the same curveball life throws you. Could you be braver, happier, lonelier, more determined, more devastated, more regretful? Yes, this book opens up can of worms and make you question everything in your life, confusing the hell of you, frying your brain cells, pushing you out of the comfort zone but eventually it helps you to accept things you cannot change and hidden message is forgiving yourself and approving your choices you made, the actions you took, and the words came out of your mouth.

This story is so unique, thought-provoking, remarkable and exhausting. You may give your full concentration because you read alternated versions of the same events between the characters at the same time and sometimes you can ask yourself: “What”, “Ha!”, “ Wait a minute, come again!” and you turn back to reread to make sure you understand everything correctly.

Our heroine Adelaide is sad, heart- broken, suffers from egg yolk of misery( her definition of depression in her own words). She tries to look vivid, happy, strong but she cannot act anymore: she misses her unique relationship with her brother who is an addict and she is so scared he’s going to relapse again. She wants to take care of him, playing weird vegetable attack games, sharing her secrets and gossiping about parents’ over protective attitudes.

She also wants to be loved; but her boyfriend ended her 8 month relationship and now she meets with Jack when she’s dog-walking and she remembers him wrote a poem for her during their first meeting at a party in Boston two years ago (She still keeps the poem inside her wallet). She starts to think she might be the one. So she has so many alternated versions of her own story to prove herself that her guts tell her the truth or she cannot be so wrong!

Overall; this is quiet fascinating story about the loss (not as a grief but connection loss with the loved ones you shared important parts of your life), siblings, addiction, family, love, future plans, regrets, choices. I loved Adelaide’s profession choice and the ideas she brought out when she was designing theater set of “Fool for Love”. That design was also the reflection of her family’s skeletons in the closet and unhealthy relationship patterns she has.

It might look like sad, depressing, mind-bending story but when you finish it, you realize you read something surprisingly promising, hopeful and refreshing and you start smiling, taking a deep breath and keep on thinking your other version of yourself and what would you do if you more chances to do over things!

Yes, I loved this promising premise. I enjoyed Adelaide’s story and I loved the book’s approach to help me get a closer look to my own life. Full, well-deserved, complex but also entertaining stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press fro sharing this unique ARC with me in exchange my honest review.