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.

So I have to admit I have a love/hate relationship with E. Lockhart books. I really didn't like We Were Liars, man I was so mad at the end of that book! But I did feel like it hooked me and it had really great writing.
I did really enjoy this book. It was a little confusing at points with it being a multi-layered novel. But I think that how it is told from a different perspective really draws you in. A thoughtful book about longing, forgiveness, and family, while trying to find love. It was a quick read that I think a bunch of my teens will like.

Well, I have so many feelings! For the beginning few chapters, I found myself very confused. There were things I loved, and there were things I didn't enjoy about this book. This review will contain spoilers!

I loved the ending - with the lack of multiverses throughout, it was more fun to read. It was a little jarring to all of a sudden have a whole new version at the end, but I enjoyed the characters so much during the final storyline. I think I would've preferred reading different versions of the whole story like that then in bits and pieces.

I also loved her brother. He felt like the only believable character. I kind of wish I could just read a book about him. He had genuine emotions and feelings, and her responses were lame (I know she explains this, but still).

I couldn't handle the text messages. Hopefully it was just because it is an uncorrected proof, but wow that format was confusing.

Overall, I think this book will appeal to a specific group of readers - people who like books that make you think and are different than the norm.

A sort of alternate, somewhat less expansive/extensive with possibilities, but also tighter and more personal Jane, Unlimited. There are also certain similarities to The Last True Poets of the Sea. I like all of these books for their inventiveness and riskiness, each in their own way, with the tried-and-tested "young-adult romance" genre—though each also has its own unique weaknesses.

I couldn't put this book down and read it in one sitting, but was left a little underwhelmed. I've never read a book in this style before, and was really intrigued by it.

I really enjoyed this book. I was afraid it was going to be confusing with all the alternate possibilities/conversations, but I was able to follow the story well. I felt like I really got to know Adelaide and deeply felt her fears and frustrations with her brother. This is the first YA books I've read that dealt with opioid addiction. It's an extremely timely and important topic to address.

E. you have got to stop doing this to me!

I only have the one heart! You can only fill it to the brim and then break it so many times before I drop dead!

The concept of the multiverse is a very, very hard one to nail in fiction.

(Please see my review of Blake Crouch's enormously awful attempt in "Dark Matter" for more on how easy it is to screw this up).

It turns out simplicity and truth are the key.

Adelaide is a teenage girl about to start her senior year at a pretty prestigious private school that she attends because her dad is the new English literature teacher there. Well, she'll be starting her senior year if she doesn't flunk out. As the book, and her summer, begin she's got one chance left to create a set model for her theater design class in order to pass or she'll be looking for a new school come fall. To add insult to injury her boyfriend has just broken up with her and later dayed it out to Peurto Rico. Then there's the matter of her brother who is battling an incredibly serious illness.

Adelaide has a lot on her plate in other words and any number of things could happen to disrupt the tenuous, taught tight rope she's currently walking on.

What better subject then a teenage girl to explore the endless possibilities of the multi-verse with? Its that time in your life when all you do is consider the possibilities, what will happen if you do or don't talk to that boy, finish that project, say what you really mean when your mom asks how you are? Everything that happens to you is the most heart breaking, monumental, earth shattering, life changing thing that has ever happened in the whole history of the universe.

E. Lockhart is also the perfect author to take on this kind of story. She is an absolute master of what I'm coming to think of as "a touch of strange." Her stories are incredibly grounded, her characters are very real people. But she manages to infuse her world's with just a bit of magic, enough to make it seem like it could be real. She takes Adelaides moments of indecision or tragedy or romantic hope and branches them out to give the reader multiple stories that somehow blend seamless together into one larger one.

This isn't some hamhanded soap opera where you're constantly re-reading the same scenes over and over again. Its more like watching the waves come in while you sit on the beach. This wave comes up high enough to wipe away your sand castle, this one doesn't, this one comes all the way up and soaks your towel. Adelaide texts with a boy she likes and we see three quick versions of the conversation, each one totally believable and likely. She tries to show her project to her teacher, three different teachers respond to it in three different, totally viable ways. There's no transition between moments but it never feels stilted or stumbly.

You start to realize how even the smallest of changes completing reframes the story but its hard to pinpoint exactly what happens to make things turn out differently becomes Adelaide herself stays fundamentally the same. She comes to certain realizations at different times but grows in the same organic, believable way. In some versions of her story she's a bit more sympathetic, more likable. In some she's clingy and insecure and harder to like.

I wish books like this had been around when I was a green girl with so many feelings and hopes and needs and angry neediness. This is a total treasure, as I'm beginning to realize all E. Lockhart's books are.