I just don't think E. Lockhart is the author for me.
This is the second book I have tried to read by this author and alas I have yet to like any of their works. The writing reads really young in my opinion and I just cant stand it.

I like what E. Lockhart does with memory tricks and themes of what could be. However, this book was not captivating enough in the beginning for me to commit to for a full read. This one was a do not finish, but I look forward to others from this author in the future.

Really enjoyed Again Again! Thought provoking, hopeful, family, humor, poignant….etc. Def recommend!
Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this gem.

DNF - Did not finish. I struggled to read and connect with this novel. Thank you Netgalley and publisher for this early copy!

AGAIN AGAIN is an intriguing YA contemporary that tells the story of Adelaide's summer. Adelaide is still reeling from her brother's addiction and rehab stays as well as her boyfriend who told her he loved her and then said he had lied when he unexpectedly dumped her. The first part tells the story of how she meets Jack, a boy that had written her a poem long before this all happened, but who never followed up with a phone call. The story is woven with possible other dimensions/universes where similar situations happen but in a different way.

The second part becomes deeper as we learn more about her brother, her grief, and the difficulty in their relationship, which largely stems from addiction. The parts after this become something even deeper, as we begin to see Adelaide embrace herself, decide how to relate with her family, and resolve the major issues seen earlier.

What I loved: The later parts make this an emotional and touching read, and I particularly appreciated the scenes with Adelaide's brother. This theme of addiction, grief, and family was really strong, and I appreciated the emotion and potency of it. The possible deviations from key moments really worked here, and I found this to be particularly unique and fascinating in these scenarios. The romantic relationships evolved in a way that I found interesting, but the earlier sections were more challenging to get into.

What left me wanting more: The first part of the book was particularly difficult to read, as the scenarios became confusing, and it was not really clear what was happening. It took some extra time to try to understand, and the payoff was not really there, as the plots felt somewhat random. This did become more clear with the later situations.

Final verdict: AGAIN AGAIN is an intriguing YA contemporary about family, grief, love, and addiction.

I’m going to start off this review with a bit of a disclaimer. I rated this book 4 stars because I have no idea how to rate this book. When I finished it, I had so many overwhelming and conflicting feelings that I didn’t even understand how to feel about it. Now that a few hours have passed since then, I still don’t know. And I kind of think that might actually be the point.

Again Again is written in such a unique way that it begs the reader to think deeply about it’s trying to say. The overall plot follows Adelaide as she struggles to cope with her recent breakup and her brother’s illness, but throughout the novel, there are several bolded sections that (to my understanding) indicate what could have happened/did happen in an alternate timeline.

As a result, you find yourself reading very similar passages 2-4 times in a row, where the characters reactions are altered only very slightly but will result in an entirely new story. In one version you might watch as two characters share a few lines of dialogue and begin falling in love; in another, you might see the same two characters exchanging similar lines of dialogue but growing apart instead. The overall effect is both amazing and disillusioning at the same time.

When I read through the first sections featuring alternate universes, I was apprehensive at how it was going to work, but it actually grew on me very quickly. It’s never quite explained what these passages mean/are, but once again, I think that was kind of the point. The story is both written concretely, and extremely open at the same time . In fact, there was somehow both an ending and not an ending at all. I even managed to both hate and like the characters at the same time (tbqh I think Adelaide needs some serious therapy). Maybe now you see a bit of why I’m so conflicted with how I feel about it?

I definitely think that Again Again is a book that deserves to be read more than once. There are so many things going on that it can be difficult (or maybe impossible) to figure it all out with one reading. What was the book trying to tell me? It feels like something really big, but I’m not sure I’ve yet to pin it down. Maybe I’m not meant to.

3.5 ⭐

From the New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud comes a complex novel about acceptance, forgiveness, self-discovery, and possibility, as a teenage girl attempts to regain some sense of normalcy in her life after a family crisis and a broken heart.

Again Again is a complex story about love, life, loss and what ifs!!! The story was really unique and different, and really fresh!
When I started it, I thought it would be sad and depressing but actually it's quite promising and thought provoking.
I have never read anything like this and I love how very realistic it was!

This book wasn't a perfect read but it was imperfectly refreshing and beautiful! I'm still confused about how to rate this book, but if you like reading something new and YA contemporary, I would definitely recommend this book.

This is the first novel I have ever read by E. Lockhart and I was very pleased with this book. It does take you a moment to get used to the prose and how the story develops but after that it is smooth sailing and the book absolutely engulfs you. Adelaide isn’t the perfect MC by any means, but this did allow me to relate to Adelaide more in terms of how she dealt with school and her relationships. Her journey is not straight forward and you will continuously question which parts of the story are cannon and which aren’t. And honestly, you may never know. Trying to figure out which of Adelaide’s ‘realities’ was the real one was fun and challenging and while I have no way of knowing which one is real, the journey was still fulfilling nonetheless.

I don’t want to give away too much because I think this story is best enjoyed knowing absolutely nothing about the plot. But, I will say that this story will make you feel things, good and bad. There is grief, hope, sadness, and happiness wrapped up in this book-shaped package we got with this story.

Again Again was a wonderful contemporary book and unlike other books that Lockhart has written before but just as good, if not better. The day I finished We Were Liars, I knew I wanted to read more by E. Lockhart. I didn’t love We were liars but I liked the writing style because it was incredibly unique, the plot was interesting and the twist at the end caught me by surprise. However, I didn’t like most of the characters and some other parts of the book but the good outweighed the bad and I wanted to read more by her.

In the beginning of the story, we follow Adelaide in the aftermath of a break-up and her feelings towards her brother and his drug addiction while also falling in love with someone new. At the time that we see this plot unfold, we also see Adelaide’s story in different universes of things that never happened, or could have happened, if she choose differently in life. If she made different choices. I wasn’t sure I’d like it, but nonetheless I was hooked and had to know what happens and I did start to love it as the story progressed.

I’m not a sad or depressed person by nature and in real life, it would take a lot to make me sad but there’s just something in books, maybe I feel more, that it’s quite easy to make me sad over something especially when its about love and relationships (romantic and non-romantic) and the fact that we watched how different things would’ve played out, for better or worse, in different universes if only Adelaide had chosen differently than she did, made me feel incredibly sad and REALLY think.

The whole story is about accepting the good and the bad in life because no matter the decisions you make, they go hand-in-hand and you can’t ever know the outcome of your choices and what could’ve been if you’d made a different one (although we find out because of the multiple universes) and about what its like to love someone. I heard a lot of people say that this book isn’t a romance and I’d have to say I agree with them. The book does have romance but the romance isn’t what its about. Its about accepting the good and the bad, the pain that might come with loving someone so deeply and yet still doing it.

I don’t know how to really explain this book fully and the impact it leaves on you, you’ll have to read it yourself to find out but I have to say this: I truly think this book is worth reading at least once, if not more.

I like this book - a lot! In the beginning, it took me some time to get familiar with the way this story was told. However, after a few pages, I got used to it and actually really enjoyed my time diving into Addie's story.

The writing style is so unique. It's something that you won't come across in any other book. For me, it feels like reading poetry without "flowery" words. There's some kind of peculiar feeling in this story. It has some kind of multiverse theory where certain events happened several times but with different outcomes.

This book is so simple yet so complex at the same time. Maybe you might feel confused with the "weirdness" especially in the beginning, but somehow it's also captivating! It isn't just a romance book. It delivers much more than that. It's about love itself.

Again and Again, hit all the right spots that I was wanting to. It had all the things I would expect from an E. Lockhart book- beautiful writing, really well-fleshed out and raw characters, and an exploration of themes in a most unique way.

I honestly read this book in a single sitting because I was not able to put it down. It took 2 or 3 hours for me to finish this book, with a little break, and it’s not super long.

WRITING- E. Lockhart takes a very different approach to the things she wants to convey through her story. And sometimes it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. For example, her writing is very beautiful and metaphorical and might lean the slightest bit into purple prose.
If you’re someone who has read We Were Liars, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Even though I really enjoyed it, not necessarily everyone will. Something I picked up by going through a few reviews on Goodreads, I saw that the writing was frustrating for a lot of people and I think it’s completely okay if you don’t prefer that style of writing; but I still feel that even if you didn’t enjoy that aspect of the book in We Were Liars, the writing is quite toned down and a lot of sharper in Again and Again, so there’s a good chance that you’ll like this book.


I think the plot is a little hard to talk about without giving any spoilers, but I’ll try. As far as the synopsis of the book goes, I think the Goodreads summary already does a good job of that, but I’ll still explain it a little bit.
So follow around this girl, Addie as she moves into a new school and a new city with her dad, but it’s not so simple.
We don’t just follow Addie in that one reality, but we see all the different versions of her in many different realities where even the littlest and biggest decisions seem to lead her to very different fates.
What if a certain thing hadn’t happened? What if someone had said this instead of this? A situation could completely change how the rest of can go based on how may reply to a question or carry a conversation.

It‘s a simultaneously beautiful and terrifying thing to explore.

CHARACTERS- Addy is an exceptionally well-done character because she is so nuanced and raw and honest.
She is not perfect. She makes mistakes and a ton of bad decisions, but she is ultimately a sweet soul who is such fun to discover and peel the back layers off.
Even the side characters felt like they could have their own book. My personal favorite was Addie’s brother.

THEMES- This story is more like a character examination, but it’s also really intrinsic and sensitive to some of the really heavy topics it talks about. It talks about grief, resentment, the bitterness that cultivates side by side with the love. It is about heartbreak, self-love.
It talks about addiction, substance abuse, and the stigma that recovery always carries with itself. It’s about one of the most gut-wrenching yet heart-warming sibling relationships that I have ever read about. It made me want to laugh and put the ph

I have heard a lot about E. Lockhart but actually never got any chance to read her books. This was the first time I read her book and I kind of loved the story. If you love reading Young adult fiction, you should definitely read this book. There are a couple of things I loved about this book. First and foremost being the characters. I loved the character of Adelaide and almost all the other characters, especially the dogs. I also felt that the book was weird in a way but at the same time loved how the story went on.

It was very easy to get into the story. Sometimes, I find it difficult to get into a particular story but that's not the case with this book. The writing style was amazing and on the whole I loved the story. I am looking forward to reading more books by this author.

It's been a few days since I finished Again Again and to be honest I'm still not completely sure what it is that I read. How this book is told was definitely interesting. It took me a bit to really get into this story, but as soon I understood how it was set up I flew through this book. E. Lockhart had an interesting way to tell Adelaide's story and what could've happened in different possible universes.

I love how the author tackled the more difficult subjects of what can happen when a family member is addicted to drugs. It was really interesting to read how she felt about it and how her relationship with her brother changed and started to heal again. I think those were my favorite parts of the books. The romance kind of distracted me from that and didn't really fit the story for me.

I have a feeling Again Again will be a story I read again, because I'm sure I'll see different details than I did the first time around. Again Again really isn't like anything I've read before. I don't think I'll forget this one anytime soon.

I love E Lockhart in general, but this redo/repeat in time was annoying to me. The dogwalker piece has appeal for teens, I don't know how well the time repeat will fly with them.

3.5 stars
This is a heartbreaking and beautiful story of love in many forms, growth, and the concept of forgiveness. It's got a very interesting concept, with the story or snippets of it taking place in different multiverses. I was definitely unsure about the concept at first. But it made me feel a lot. The ending made me unsure of which storyline was the "true" story, but I really liked it. It's definitely about love, but I wouldn't call it a romance It feels more like an exploration of love in its different forms. We get romantic love, family love, and self-love. I really enjoyed the aspects of Adelaide discovering more about herself and working through what was going on in her head. She felt like a real, raw teenage girl going through a lot of hardship. My absolute favorite part of the story was her rebuilding the relationship with her brother. And while I'm still not sure which storyline is the real one, I did like the way it all turned out, and that her relationship with her brother was being worked on in all of them. I liked the layers of this story and how it's written. It's a mix of verse and I found that to work really well with the concept. I like how E. Lockhart explored grief and loss as it relates to both relationships and addiction. I think it was a great portrayal of how grief and loss affect everyone differently, and that grief doesn't only come after death.
Overall, this was a really solid book. If you can handle the concept of a book told in multiverses and random breaks of verse, I think there are some great things here. It didn't leave me completely satisfied, and I had to sit with it for a while to decide if I actually enjoyed it or not. And while I came to the conclusion that I did, I definitely think this book will leave people with a lot of mixed feelings. So I'd say, if it intrigues you, go for it. There are some really good parts and valuable representations of grief and addiction, as well as a lot of heart.

I really wanted to like this book, but I was bothered by the character's voices and style of speaking. I did not finish this book because I was too distracted by the language and writing style. I think it would be good for a lot of readers and we did purchase it for our library, it just wasn't my style. I did like the premise of starting time over and retrying romance situations and I think that will resonate with teens.

This book is such a heart felt story. I loved this book of deep love and longing and it’s such a bittersweet and beautiful story. This novel will definitely stay with me for a long time and these characters haven’t left my thoughts since I finished reading.

Unfortunately I DNF'd this at 17%. I wanted to give E Lockhart's writing style another chance. But it seems it is not a writing style I mess with well. Disappointing since I know so many people lover their writing. The positives, so many dogs!

Again Again was definitely an interesting book. There were parts I really liked and parts that weren't my favorite and parts I appreciated for what they were even though I didn't enjoy them. Let's start out by talking about 5 reasons why I think you should read Again Again:

1)The near-fatal family catastrophe: this "catastrophe" is Adelaide's younger brother overdosing twice and I think the way that aspect of the story was told and the way it impact Adelaide and her parents and even her brother was so well written and honestly, that relationship was my favorite aspect of the book. </li>
2)The way the book was written: the way the book was written with differing timelines based on the different choices that Adelaide made for the first 3/4 of the book and then the last 1/4 of the book reading like a real book was a super interesting and different artistic choice. While it wasn't my favorite choice, I could definitely appreciate it.
3) The last 1/4 of the book: after reading the first 3/4 of the book, the last 1/4 of the book seemed even better than expected, because the format was more linear, so it was super satisfying.
4) The dogs: Adelaide is a dog walker during the summer months for 4 dogs and I thought it was super cute that she could "communicate" with them and they talked to her.
5) Adelaide's dad: I really liked the relationship that Adelaide had with her father (and then the way that her relationship with the rest of her family ended up growing)- I'm a sucker for good familial relationships!

Overall, Again Again was an interesting book that was really different from anything else I've ever read. While the writing style and the extremely character driven-ness of the book didn't always resonate with me (I'm a plot driven girl myself), I know there are lots of people who would love the way this book explores Adelaide as a person and the way she interacts with others. I'd definitely recommend checking it out!

The multiverse theme in this book was a little distracting, I didn’t know what to believe and I came to see that was part of the point. Every situation has so many possible outcomes. However the themes of finding oneself, grief, depression, and most of all the effects of addiction run straight and true through tall the possible scenarios. Well written, it made me think.