Again, Again is written a little differently, sort of like Ground Hog Day in real time. Adelaide has the entire summer in front of her when she meets Jack, a boy she met two years ago and feels a real connection to. But when things happen that could go one way or another, Adelaide enters into alternate realities and lives out those realities until one of them 'sticks'. I'm not exactly sure if she's living in these other worlds or if it settles on the one that is the most realistic or what. But Adelaide tries to work through her feelings about Jack, Matt, the boyfriend who just broke up with her, and her relationship with her brother, who has been in and out of rehab for two years. I liked the concept, but I thought Adelaide just fell in and out of love way too quickly. She proclaims her love for Jack, someone she barely knows but has not been able to get out of her head for the past two years - so much so that she carries a poem in her wallet that he gave her when they met - and the moment Matt texts or calls she drops everything for him. I couldn't connect with her feelings. But I could connect with her love for her brother which was complicated. She's disappointed in him, she's scared for him, and she wants their relationship to be the way it was although she knows it never will be. But then at the end, the story completely changed, and a whole different relationship develops. It took some getting used to the writing style, but it's a book that will garner a lot of discussion.

I really enjoyed both of E. Lockhart's other books, We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud, but this book didn't hold the same appeal for me. The format is strange in that after every important scene or event, there are three other versions of the scene in parallel universes. Most of them are similar enough to the event in the main timeline that it feels like reading the same scene over three times, with very slight variations.
I did really like the concept of depicting parallel universes as extremely similar to the main timeline in most cases, and I liked the timelines that were drastically different, but I just didn't like reading the same scene over and over again.
Probably because of a lot of the book being repetitive, I also didn't develop much of an attachment to the characters. So much of Adelaide's perspective was repetitive, so I didn't really understand her as a character, although I did feel like her experiences and stream-of-consciousness thought process were very realistic to a sixteen-year-old girl.

I did enjoy reading this book! I think it was a little more YA than my college students would enjoy? But I enjoyed it. Interesting premise that plays out well. I really liked the bits about her relationship with her brother.

Not my favorite E. Lockhart book. Nicely written but overall underwhelming. Spent more time trying to figure out what was happening instead of connecting to main character.

again again was a beautiful read. i found it very confusing to read in the beginning. adelaide's struggles with her brother's addiction was real and i loved his character. e. lockhart, you are the best!

I had a love/irritated relationship with this book. I’ve read two of Lockhart’s books before and loved them...and once I got the hang of the unreliable narrative she would leave it before I got too irritated with it...but I didn’t see the bigger purpose or need for it. We all have “what if” or guessing scenarios before they happen with our interactions...but it didn’t play into the character like I think it could....which might have been the point when you think about what she said to her teacher...appreciate the art through the effort and eyes of the person creating the art instead of the expectation you have for it...but still...it didn’t go enough (I can’t think of a better word for wanting more depth) for me. I like the honesty about addiction and her relationship with her brother, that felt real...everything else felt less than.

This book was, like all of E Lockhart's books, a weird and wild ride. I think most readers either love or hate Lockhart's signature writing style, and I happen to fall on the love side (We Were Liars remains an all-time favorite of mine to this day). That being said, Again Again is totally new terrain for me. The multiverse narrative structure threw me for a loop at first but by the end I was sold! It's a fun way to tell a story and reminded me of Jane Unlimited by Kristen Cashore. At it's core AGAIN AGAIN is about Adelaide's relationship with her brother, and as a big sis myself I got very invested in their relationship. It kept me reading until the end just to see how it would play out. Oh, and bonus points for adorable geeky dog names.

As much as I wanted to love this book, I think I liked the concept more than the book itself. I was waiting for the kind of surprise found in We Were Liars or Genuine Fraud. Spoiler: there's not one. The idea of alternate timelines or living the same day or event again and again has been tackled better before.
I liked the dogs. I liked the relationship with Adelaide and her brother. But overall, this was kind of a "miss" for me.
I might hand it to a reader who is looking for a writing exercise as that is what is read like to me.

A new book from E Lockhart is always cause for celebration and, while this one didn’t do it for me quite as much as Genuine Fraud or Frankie Landau Banks, it is chock full of great writing and interesting ideas. For me, it had an interesting touch of A. S. King about it, with that mix of poetic reality and juxtaposed fantasy.

This much we know for sure about Adelaide Buchwald. She is in the summer between junior and senior year and is staying at her boarding school, Alabaster, along with her teacher dad for the summer. Her younger brother, Toby, is a recovering opioid addict who has already had one relapse and he is living with their mother in Baltimore as he goes through his recovery program. Just before the end of the school year, Adelaide was dumped by her boyfriend Mikey Lewis Lieu (aka Mikey Double L). She has spent the year failing her classes as Toby’s situation bored into her, but unwilling to show her sadness has developed a bright sparkly persona which seems to fool most people. The only way she can avoid flunking out is to create a model set for Sam Shepherd’s Fool for Love for her theater design class.

By the end of the summer she will have started coming to terms with all this.

But in the middle, there are many branches of the multiverse in which Adelaide experiences love, loss, grief, and the slow tendrils of recovery. She meets Jack and has a brief fling with him or Mikey Double L comes back or she has a relationship with Oliver. None of these relationships come to fruition because, despite wanting love, she is not ready for it until she can see herself clearly and she needs to repair her relationship with Toby.

Adelaide’s journey from broken to whole encompasses all of these. There is a main thread that runs through to the end and the different possible branches are indicated (at least in the ARC) by different fonts and bolding. Though Adelaide follows four different routes, they all lead to the same ending: A friendship and a restoration.

As an added bonus, there are some fascinating descriptions of art pieces (apparently inspired by real life work) and their inspiration bleeds into Adelaide’s process of designing and creating her model set while reflecting her inner work in progress.

I think E. Lockhart is one of the most interesting authors working in fiction today. Her ambition and experimentation mean her novels really blur the line between YA and adult literary fiction, though their protagonists typically mean they are classified as teen reads. While Again Again was less successful for me than some of her other novels, I think those who loved We Were Liars will particularly enjoy it.

Thanks to Delacorte and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

4.5 stars. This book was weird but lovely. I really enjoyed E. Lockhart and I like that every book I've read from her is almost a different genre, or at least a different tone, and I have still enjoyed them all. I think I like that they are "romances" where the romance is so much less important than other things going on. This book was told in a slightly bizarre way, with some decisions branching off into other possibilities before returning to the main timeline. It was handled in a way that wasn't confusing after you catch on to what's happening, and I liked how some choices dramatically changed the outcome and sometimes the same choice resulted in a slightly different outcome based on something happening with other characters. It was sweet, sad and beautifully written.

This was really weird but I liked it a lot. I never know what to expect with E. Lockhart so I like to go in blind and I’m glad I did with this one.

Three stars

Lockhart does the fancy, prep school - teens who go to boarding school and know dogs with snazzy names and country club-filled jaunts - schtick really well. It was through a similar motif, in _The Disreputable History of Frankie Laundau Banks_, that I first came to really appreciate her work.

While the concept behind this latest iteration sounded really interesting to me, I could not get into it. At first, it's endearing to see the main character _Sliding Doors_ her way through experiences, but then it's just frustrating. For me, it was really hard to be interested in any romantic relationship the character had (or considered having. The relationship with her brother, Toby, is the most arresting part of the novel. His addiction and the way that their relationship evolves and unravels as a result are really fascinating focal points...until they also become exhausting and overly considered.

As much time as we spend in the m.c.'s head, it feels like we should really be rooting for her. But in the end, I just wanted her to accept her experiences and move forward. I found myself struggling to be invested in her from the start, and unfortunately, that never shifted for me.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

E. Lockhart has done it again! I will recommend this book to teen readers that are interested in multiple perspective, fantasy-type novels. The girls that can't stop reading "If I Stay" would eat this book right up.

Adelaide Buchwald appears to be your average, everyday teenage girl dealing with your average everyday teenage life (school, friends, family, love, etc.), but she lives some of her experiences over and over again. Unfortunately, the outcome doesn't seem to get any better for her, even though she has the opportunity to change the outcome. Adelaide is also rather unlucky in the "love department", but she manages to come out a stronger person and realizes she is resilient and able to be on her own. Adelaide is also grappling with how to deal with her brother, Toby's, drug addiction and the struggles her family is dealing with to keep him from relapsing and returning to rehab, again. She wants her brother to be the same as before his addiction but, eventually, Adelaide comes to realize that neither she or Toby will ever be the same as they were, they have to move forward.

I enjoyed Adelaide's personal growth in her relationships with her love interests, her brother, and her teachers. All-in-all an interesting read.

E. Lockhart does a insightful job of embracing the multiverse and looking at the trajectory of events that spiral from a single experience. We are forced to consider the feelings of all who are involved, which in times of extreme selfishness, Again, Again is a case for mindfulness and empathy that would fill a much-needed crack in our society. Tikkun Olam, perhaps? Adelaide's brother is an addict. Crisis mode means the family is uprooted, and then split apart. But each person is responsible for holding themselves together. Philosophy and art are provide the background music for what could have been just vignettes told with a tiny twist, but instead it asks the reader to listen to all the layers, focusing on what could be, by prompting us to follow a path that focuses on self reliance.

Most important (because it is the underlying theme): Addiction is a disease, and it is not easy to care for a person who is an addict. Addiction is even more difficult when the person suffering is, perhaps, the closest person in the world to you. It will challenge how you feel about everything. And if you are caring for a person who is an addict, you cannot allow the other people in you life to feel any less important or valued.

I’m ultimately underwhelmed by Again Again; although, the concept is interesting. We follow Adelaide’s life as conversations are played over and over with different scenarios and sometimes different outcomes. But the novel never goes anywhere with it. Like there was never a real point overall. On top of that, it’s one sad event after another for Adelaide. Her relationship with her brother was the only part that kept me interested. There will be a very niche audience for this book. I don’t see your most average teen sticking with this one.

I finished Again Again last night and I am still confused by this book. I loved We were liars and couldn't wait to read this one but I was disappointed by it. I have no idea what the plot was because I was lost through most of it. I skipped pages because it was the same story told over differently.

E. Lockhart is known for her twisty storytelling, and while this is not as dramatic as We Were Liars, she doesn't disappoint. In Again Again, we hear the story of one summer in Adelaide's life, told in multiple universes. She plays conversations over several times, letting readers see how different one life and one story might be with a small change. I thought this structure might be confusing or annoying-- but it really wasn't. I was able to stay with it and let the different versions of her life wash over me.

I liked that the author noted that she was inspired by some papers her students wrote, including one on the idea of monogamy in teen literature. It really made me think, and I could really appreciate the choices the author makes to challenge the status quo based upon that inspiration.

While I have not made this book sound exciting, it actually is a lovely, fun, and thoughtful book about a girl who is trying to hide her sadness with her sparkle.

I didn’t end up reading very much of this...the early Goodreads reviews weren’t strong and I wasn’t pulled in right away.