Again Again

 Again Again
E. Lockhart
Delacorte, 2020 304 pages
Grades 9-Up
Realistic Fiction

It is the summer before Adelaide's senior year. She was supposed to spend it with her serious boyfriend, but he dumped her at the end of the term and escaped to Puerto Rico. Now Adelaide is walking faculty dogs at her boarding school campus where she lives with her teacher father. At the local dog park she meets a new boy, Jack, and a possible romance blossoms. Meanwhile, she is in danger of flunking out of school and must complete a set-design project that she just can't seem to get into. Adelaide is clearly suffering from depression and eventually we see it stems from her mother and brother living in a different state to help younger brother Toby fight his opioid addiction, a situation riddled with anger and guilt. A philosophy conference at the school exposes Adelaide to the concept of "Multiverses", where different scenarios can play-out in many different ways simultaneously and Lockhart plays upon this concept. We see Adelaide's choices and conversations going in different ways as she navigates a difficult summer and balances her tricky relationships.

I have been a fan of E. Lockhart for a very long time. She has matured as an author from light romances to complicated thrillers. Now she is turning her hand at crafting an experimental philosophical novel. I appreciate the effort and enjoyed the different format. Multiverses is such an interesting concept and it was fascinating to see it played out. Will teen readers appreciate this? Hard to say, but it was fun for me just the same. Adelaide, despite her awesome name, is an unlikable character. She is constantly mopey (although had good reasons) and I found her frustrating (just finish the project already!), but possibly young readers will be more tolerant. I did appreciate the treatment of addiction's effects on a family and the fact that it can happen to young people and is not just for weird uncles. Readers are privy to what is in the dog's heads, which was fun. Those bits lightened up the story, although I got upset when Adelaide was severely bitten and chose to keep the dog. I thought it was strange that Adelaide never receives professional help for her depression, though her parents are in similar boats and may not be functional enough to address this. An interesting concept and format with some important things to say, readers will wish to be transported to a different multiverse without the current pandemic. I want to be the first to sign up!