I've never read We were liars, but when I read the blurb of this book I knew I had to read it! This was lovely, sad, and amazing! I enjoyed every word and I wish I could read this book for the first time again!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I don’t even know where to start with this book. Honestly, I should have gone with my gut not to request it, but the synopsis looked interesting. My first worry was that this book was going to be similar to Again, but better, but it wasn’t at all. Just to ease everyone’s mind that also had the same thought. My second thought was that I don’t trust this author, and bingo, shouldn’t have. I’ll get more into that later.

We follow Adelaide in this multiverse story. There was the first interaction Adelaide has with a new potential beau, but then there could be 2-4 different ways the encounter turned out in the multiverse. I thought I’d be confused, but I wasn’t. I actually liked reading how a certain event could turn out. But 15 minutes or so left of the book we have a twist that left me very unhappy.

Back on topic of my trust issues with Lockhart. The first book I read of hers was We Were Liars. I am pretty sure that I devoured that book in one sitting. I absolutely loved it… until the end. About 15 minutes before the end, the plot twist ruined me. It shattered my hopes and dreams, and then it broke my heart. Now, I have had my heart broken many times in books, but this was a feeling I’ve never felt. Betrayal towards the author. True and serious Betrayal.

Anyways, when Genuine Fraud came out the synopsis interested me so I decided to give Lockhart another chance. The book just wasn’t for me.

Again Again made me feel that same betrayal as We Were Liars did. Not as strong because I didn’t connect to these characters as much. But it was still there. I stayed up all night reading this book, literally, till 3 in the morning, just to have my world shattered again.

I do recommend this book to people who enjoy this feeling. And I know people are out there, I love being depressed and sad when reading books. I also at times like unhappy endings. This trumps them though. So just be ready for it and maybe it won’t be so bad. I will most likely read whatever book Lockhart comes out with next because I do love her writing, and honestly, I haven’t learned my lesson.

I could not click with this protagonist at all. The themes touched on in this story were important and I'm glad YA is branching out into talking about things like having a loved one who struggles with addiction, but this one just didn't do it for me.

I had difficulties getting into this one. I may not be the best reader in the world, but I consider myself rather proficient in this area. I love We Were Liars and was excited to see a new title by E. Lockhart, and was truly looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately, I was met with frustration instead of the beautiful story telling that I had hoped for. I began reading the E-ARC and ended up confused. I found that I couldn't' differentiate between the scenes in italics and the ones that weren't. I was left wondering at the purpose of the mirrored situations and frustrated because I couldn't follow what was going on. I do think that the issue was more with the text being on my e-reader, rather than with the writing itself. I feel like it is important with this kind of text to be able to flip through with ease to get a bead on just what is going on. Because of this, I will hold back on judging the book until I can get my hands on a paper copy. I am extremely grateful for being gifted the opportunity to read this early, and to be clear, I LOVE reading on my E-reader. I just this this is one of the few books out there that needs to be in your hands to fully understand the novel.

2.5/5 stars for Again Again. I went into this book with mixed expectations because I tend to not enjoy E. Lockhart’s writing style, but ultimately love the plot. Unfortunately, I found this book lacking that moment that makes everything I’m only tolerating up until that point, better.

The plot and the main characters were okay, but couldn’t get past the writing style. At times it was very choppy, like an attempt at being poetic, and that’s not my cup of tea. The alternate scenarios were the highlight of this book, as I found them very unique and interesting, but everything else was sadly lackluster. The dogs were cute though.

Adelaide Buchwald has a summer job on campus walking dogs, and she’s just been dumped by her boyfriend. She’s also struggling with her younger brother’s addiction recovery and failing some of her classes. The summer is an opportunity for her to turn things around, and a chance encounter at the dog park sparks a new romance (or two). Yet each new choice she makes splits into a different universe, one where she made a different decision that sometimes subtly, sometimes radically, changes the course of her life. Again Again is a peek into multiple worlds and finding the best ending. Spoilers are under the cut. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Random House/Delacorte Press. Trigger warnings: overdose/near-death experience, injury, addiction, depression, grief, some ableism (countered on-page).

This is a strange, interesting little novel, but it’s not quite as good in execution as it is in theory. Perhaps it’s because I’m an adult reader with a YA novel, but I never felt like it delved far enough into its premise to really be satisfying. As an introduction to multiple worlds theory, it’s fine, but it doesn’t do as much with that concept as I’d hoped. It never really feels deep or insightful so much as mildly interesting, and I didn’t care for the direction it takes near the end of the book. I did like the commentary about how feeling connected to people we’ve only just met could be residual effects from other universes, where we do know and love those people, but again, it mostly only scratches the surface of these ideas.

I enjoy Lockhart’s writing style though, and so the book never really lagged for me. Her terse sentences have a kind of poetry to them, and she sometimes looks at everyday things in a way I’d never considered. Despite lacking some depth, I also enjoyed seeing the different outcomes of Adelaide’s choices in alternate universes–one where she isn’t over her ex and doesn’t pursue Jack, one where he has a girlfriend and doesn’t pursue Adelaide, etc. In spite of the splits, it’s not an overly complicated structure, and I never had trouble following Adelaide’s current universe. As in Lockhart’s other novels, there are some odd styling choices, like words stacked on each other rather than in paragraphs. It seems to happen when Adelaide is most emotional, but I’d need a second read to confirm that.

Adelaide is dramatic and has a habit of overly romanticizing her love interests, but she’s also dealing with some extremely heavy family issues and trying to cover her own depression with talking and sparkle. Her romance with Jack is pure insta-love, but based on the premise, it kind of makes sense. Naturally, I was way more interested in Adelaide’s relationship with her brother and the history of his recovery. If there’s a point where it seems like the novel really works, it’s there. Their relationship is complex and full of bad feelings on both sides, and those are some of the best things to work through in fiction. The novel as a whole is sadder than I thought it would be, definitely more romantic drama than comedy, but it’s also realistic and ultimately hopeful.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. TURN BACK BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.

The ending bumped this down an entire star for me, much as I tried to logic my way out of my feelings about that. Up until then, the narrative more or less follows Adelaide in the same universe, with detours to others but always circling back to the main one. However, the last 15-20% (true to title) begins again in a universe where Adelaide doesn’t fall in love with Jack, but his friend Oscar. I actually liked this one a bit more, but I’m not sure what to make of it because it never circles back to Adelaide’s original universe. We have no idea how the story we’ve been reading all this time ends. I suppose it’s possible to interpret, since the universes tend to go similarly with only small changes, but it ended up feeling unfinished to me. It’s an interesting experiment; I’m not quite sure it works.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

E. Lockhart is one of my favorite FAVORITE authors and I was beyond thrilled to be able to read this.
Her last two novels (We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud) were a little heavy. Fantastic but heavy. This was a breath of fresh air with a twist and I loved it. The whole idea of being about to do your life over again,

Its not a love story. It really isn't. But its about acceptance. I love that we get different possibilities of events and it made me do a lot of thinking about my own life and how different decisions would have affected where I am now in my life.

Like I said, it was very different then We were Liars and especially Genuine Fraud, but I still fell in love with it and that is what the book is all about. Love. Not the romantic love but love of family, love of friends and even the love of those we lose.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, E. Lockhart and the publisher for the arc.

A more modern Groundhog Day concept. Such a cute read. The romance and the mystery of where the author was going to take this book made it bingeworthy.

I sat on this for awhile before writing anything, because I'm still trying to decide what my overall thoughts are. First things first, I loved loved loved the previous E. Lockhart book We Were Liars. This is super different, but not in a bad way.

I love how Lockhart writes, and I love the idea of this story about parallel universes. (You should know going in... there are parallel universes. Otherwise you might be extremely confused.) This story is about all sorts of different ways the main character meets a boy, and how things unfold from there. In some worlds, they date, in some worlds, they are like ships passing in the night, and it's all about how things could end up so differently just because of a small thing - how a dog reacts to a biscuit, whether you blurt something out before you think about it, whether you respond immediately to that text. I love this whole idea.

However, I wish the book had focused less on the romance. There are so many awesome ideas floating around here, including the main character's relationship with her brother and his situation, her schoolwork, getting over an ex, etc. There is so much here! But really, the parallel universes focus too much on this one relationship for my taste. I suppose how EVERYTHING could have turned out differently in the different worlds would have been way too much for a single slim tome, but I wish Lockhart had played more with some of the different story lines.

But SUCH A COOL IDEA, and I definitely want to read more like this. Lockhart is brilliant with a pen.

e. lockhart is back and with a bang, weaving together the signature quirkiness from her ruby oliver days with the somber explorations of her recent thrillers to present "again again," a speculative ya slice-of-life from the multiverse.

"again again" eschews action in favor of inter- and intra-personal character development. the tenderest moments take the form of messages sent between protagonist adelaide and her semi-estranged younger brother toby as adelaide reconciles with herself to let go of her resentments and rebuild their relationship.

the simplistic prose combined with typeface changes allow for seamless transitions between scenes repeated in alternate universes. this stylistic choice grants the reader further insight into side characters while also indulging the ever-present "what if?" that dogs the mind of the unhappy. with that in mind, i am curious how the audiobook distinguishes between the different universes without utterly confusing the listener.

adelaide is consumed with thoughts of romance, yet "again again" is not a romance. it is instead a story of depression and hope, vulnerability and steadfastness, escapism and self-discovery, grief and love.

thank you to netgalley and random house children’s/delacourt press for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I am very conflicted about this one.

I liked the ideas in this book, particularly the concept of alternative universes. However, I think that the way these alternative universes were communicated fell a little flat. It took me nearly half the book to finally grasp the concept and understand those parts of the novel.

Also, there were several instances of
this type
of writing where for
some unknown reason,
the sentence turns into
a billion tiny little
paragraphs
that make you want to
throw
hurl
smash
the book
against a wall.

It felt very Tahereh-Mafi-esque and I did not like it.

That being said, I think E. Lockhart did a pretty decent job of introducing some heavier themes, such as addiction, heartbreak, and forgiveness.

If you like this style of writing, I think you will probably enjoy it. It was a fast, easy read. Stylistically, it just wasn't for me.

I rarely label a book as do not finish. However at 25% of the way through, I wasn't liking it at all. The writing was poorly done, the plot was lacking, and it was very confusing attempting to keep the story lines straight. I snagged this one as I absolutely loved E. Lockhart's other book We Were Liars. Again again was an absolute miss for me. I'll still pick up future books by her as I really enjoyed the other I had read.

This was lovely, bittersweet, and melancholy - overall very different from E. Lockhart's previous books. I loved the complicate and real portrayal of grief and it's effects on families. The emotions are all complex and real - just like they are in life.
I usually love a novel in verse, but I found the places where the narration switched to verse a little distracting just because it would immediately pick back up in traditional narration. These switches happened frequently and, while they didn't take me out of the story, I found myself wanting more consistency.
The story resonated with me overall, and was a sweet look at an interesting narrative concept.

The book’s plot, as you guys can see, is really unique. I am always on the lookout for novels with un-cliched (is that a legit word?) storylines. Again Again completely ticked that box for me.

I think I spend a huge amount of my time thinking about second chances, or regretting not doing things differently in a situation. Our main character in Again Again, Adelaide gets to re-live her life, more than once, by making different choices. So, obviously, I was hooked from the very beginning of the story.

I thought this book would be a romance novel only, but I was so wrong. Again Again took me on a ride of Adelaide’s self discovery and her journey towards realizing her own worth. Adelaide’s relationship with the people around her became a very important part of the story as well and I really appreciated the author not centrally focusing on the romance all the time.

Now, about the writing style – I wasn’t impressed with it, honestly. Again Again is a very short book, but it took me around two days to finish it. I wanted to enjoy the book a lot more than I did, and I have to blame the writing style for that. 😦

Overall, this book was a really interesting read. It filled my heart with a lot of emotions, and kept me at the edge of my seat while I was reading the last few chapters. I loved how the story came together and some incidents connected at the end of the story.

If you are a fan of books with unique plotlines, definitely pick this up!

In this book we meet Adelaide, a teenager on the summer before her senior year, her summer job is dog walking (dream job, right?). Right at the beginning of the book we know that Adelaide and her boyfriend of always a year have broken up and she is pretty sad about. But, at the park with the dogs she meets a boy and the book takes off from there. Adelaide, plays a few scenarios of what could happen with this boy, if she talked to him or if she ignored him, or if an accident with the dogs happened and he helped her or if he just ignored her. The world could go a lot of different ways depending on how one conversation starts or doesn't start.

We also get to see Adelaide's relationship with her brother, which in my opinion is the most important and the main point in this book. Adelaide's brother has gone through something that changed their whole family, but especially change his and Adelaide's relationship and throughout the book we see what happened and how she can do to change their relationship to be the way they were before or leave how it is now or making worse. What will she do?

Again and again life can change and you make can the changes however you want, you just have to be careful how you do it. Right?

E. Lockhart writes in a way that makes you think about life...think twice before you speak, and never forget to forgive!

4 out of 5 stars

I found this book to be something different but a good different. It was told in a 'what if' kind of manner that had me questioning what really happened. I liked how there was no definite ending. I loved the relationships and the maybe relationships that could have happened. I just really enjoyed this book.

I loved this as much as _We Were Liars_ and that is saying a lot. Its a great story about rediscovering yourself and gave me lots to think about after finishing it.

After reading and enjoying “We Were Liars”, I was super excited to read the latest book by E. Lockhart. The blurb for “Again, Again” pulled me in almost immediately and I knew I had to read it. I really do not want to give too much about this book away. Read the blurb if you must but I love going into a book knowing as little as possible. The concept of this book was great and something that I was super excited about. The overall execution of it was just a little off in my opinion. I loved the characters. Overall, I enjoyed it this complex story and of course I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

This was a very unique reading experience. I was unsure what to expect with this E. Lockhart novel, but I really enjoyed it! It made me take several pauses and really think about what I was reading.

This was my first novel by this author and I think it was rather sweet. A sweet contemporary that is the type to get you out of a reading slump because the subject matter isn't too heavy. The tropes included helped balance out tragedy with love and it made it a well thought out story.