Book review - Again Again

Title: Again Again
Author: e. lockhart
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
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Rating:

"best book ever"

Summary (provided by publisher): If you could live your life 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.
A raw, funny story that will surprise you over and over, Again Again gives us an indelible heroine grappling with the terrible and wonderful problem of loving other people.
 
My opinion: When I finished reading this book, the very first thing I wanted was to make someone else read it so I would have someone to discuss it with. I genuinely believe this is Lockhart's best, most innovative book. I reached the end and realized I didn't know which version of events had actually happened. I was expecting something like Groundhog Day, repeating events until you get it "right". The kind of story we see often.  This book, instead, gives us several versions of events, some subtly different, others vastly so. Each variation affects the rest of the narrative. And as we read the different versions we begin to see the difference between the happiest version and the one we most want, the one that feels most realistic. It's also noteworthy that most of the variations end less than perfectly There is no perfection, just experience that inform Adelaide's future choices, that open her up to other possibilities. As I finished the book I was asking which version of reality actually happened. And then I realized that it didn't matter. That the questions it prompted me to ask were the point. A must read and an excellent selection for book clubs.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley