REVIEW: Again Again by E. Lockhart

by |June 25, 2020
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Again Again takes a really intriguing theory – multiple universes – and applies it to 17-year-old Adelaide Buchwald’s life. More about love than being in love, this is a bittersweet novel of possibility and connection. Plus, it features plenty of dogs!

E. Lockhart

E. Lockhart

It’s summer break and Adelaide Buchwald is unhappy. She is struggling to cope with a break up from her first love, her academic future is on the line, and she’s consumed with feelings about her brother, who is a recovering addict. On top of this, she’s experiencing the intensity of falling for someone new – in different ways, in different worlds. To say this is a lot to deal with is an understatement.

Again Again is built around the ‘what if?’ and ‘what could have been?’ times in life. Those moments where a decision made or a question asked could have an irreversible and transformative impact on your life. In Again Again, this concept is grounded in the multiverse theory, a hypothesised idea of infinite parallel worlds. E. Lockhart takes this deep, philosophical theory and uses it as a wonderfully inventive device to show all the potential paths a moment can send you on and the effects it can have on a relationship. In these parallel worlds, we see the same interactions played out between characters, with different results – failing to build a connection, suffering through miscommunication, or even thriving in honesty. This idea of endless possibility is such a fantastic concept, and it manages to kindle the sensation of hope that human nature craves.

Underlying the romantic pursuits, however, is the portrayal of addiction. Lockhart’s depiction of addiction and the struggles it casts on the whole family is devastatingly beautiful. For Adelaide, her thoughts are constantly preoccupied with her brother Toby and an overbearing worry for him. She is shrouded in sadness, which lifts when that connection begins to be restored. Personally, I found this to be a poignant story that was handled with care and heart.

Again Again is more than a young adult romance novel. It’s a portrait of complex emotion and the lasting effects of being consumed by love, grief, anger, and forgiveness, and the frightening and exhilarating range of possibilities that life can give us.

Again Again by E. Lockhart (Allen & Unwin) is out now.

Again Againby E. Lockhart

Again Again

by E. Lockhart

If you could live your life again and again, what would you do differently?

After a near-fatal family catastrophe and an unexpected romantic upheaval, Adelaide Buchwald finds herself catapulted into a summer of wild possibility, during which she will fall in and out of love a thousand times - while finally confronting the secrets she keeps, her ideas about love, and the weird grandiosity of the human mind...

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