Justin A. Reynolds - Opposite of Always

When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack.
But then Kate dies. And their story should end there.
Yet Kate’s death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever. Jack isn’t sure if he’s losing his mind.
Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate’s death, he’ll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And when one choice turns deadly for someone else close to him, he has to figure out what he’s willing to do to save the people he loves.

Comment: This is another book I got at the library the last time I went there. I didn't pay enough attention to the blurb, I was only focused on the hint at romance it implied, and didn't even notice this was YA. Well, it wasn't a bad story but it wasn't great either to make me change my (usual) idea of YA books...

In this story we meet Jack, as he and his friend Jillian are visiting a college and on the final day they attend a party. That is where he meets Kate, one year older but someone with whom he has an instantaneous connection, and he starts doing his best to be able to spend time  with her, as well as maintaining his previous occupations. However, once Kate accepts to go with him to prom, he is ecstatic, but she fails to show up and when he looks for her, he learns she is ill and soon after, dies. The shock is immense, but even weirder is that something happens to him too and somehow, suddenly, he is back to the day he met Kate. Does this mean he has a chance to save her? But at what cost, if he changes his decisions to help Kate while not being there for others?

At some point during the story Jack makes a reference to the movie Groundhog Day, and I remember having watched that movie, thus why this immediately came to mind when I was reading this book. The plot of this book is pretty much the same as the movie: the protagonist relives the same day many times while trying to do something to stop it and, in this case, to help another person. The idea is clearly interesting, whether altruist only or as a means to goal, in the sense that the repetition seems to suggest something needs to be done.

Portuguese cover

As I've said, YA is not my preferable genre these days, especially when it has romance, because I prefer to think the romance has a base to last, even after I turn the last page, and I just can't seem to relax enough to assume young kids or teenagers are mature enough or are established enough to be with someone forever (which could happen, only not likely). Therefore, my enjoyment of an YA story often tens to not last, but if the story is not focused on romance, perhaps it's easier... in this case I did think there was romance, but that it was an adult one - I can't say why I missed the cover models.

These things said, between the young kids not being only developed due to a romance and the interesting premise - time loops - I was still determined to try this book and I wanted to like it. I think the main idea was quite good and I did like the very informal and almost colloquial way the text was written, as if Jack was actually describing things to his friends, as opposed to a text meant to be only correct. I did like Jack and his way of seeing things, I loved his parents and a few other characters, but I cannot say I was overly impressed with the narrative choices.

The big thing about these types of books (the ones with time loops instead of time travel, let's say) is that a lot is set on how successfully the idea is presented. In the movie referenced, things work because there are ways to see the constant attempts the main character tries to change things or, at some point, to simply go with the flow and enjoy the experience, sometimes even doing crazy things. In this book, it's not as easy because we need to have a written sequence of the attempts, and the author chose to include three attempts, if I remember correctly, where we can follow Jack as he goes on about the day while trying do help Kate.

As expected, each attempt has the same scenes happening but with variations. The problem for me is that while there's a lot to pack about these attempts - each one "teaches" Jack a different type of lesson - in terms of what it means for Jack and those around him, there isn't an obvious choice to make each attempt fully different or special enough that I could see the impact of it for others than Jack. Perhaps if this was told in third person, more could be shared... I don't know, but in the end I felt three attempts weren't enough, weren't that different to be meaningful and then, before the final chapters, Jack adds he had plenty more attempts but chose to share only these, etc. I felt a little disappointed, because while this makes sense for the type of plot, having it being presented this way felt limited. The best part would be, for me, to "see" Jack go through other attempts.

Anyway, I can also understand, perhaps it's a matter of page count, otherwise how big would be book need to be? Still, perhaps another method could have worked out better. Of course, a lot of the book's message is set on "doing the right thing" and that by doing this, that can happen and vice versa, and that life is not perfect, one needs to take the good and the bad and so on... which is to say, the goal is quite obvious and demonstrated in a very predictable way. This doesn't have to be a negative aspect, but I did expect the story to be a bit more special than what it turned out to be.

I think this might be the author's debut and thinking that alone, this wasn't too bad, no. I did like reading the book and the writing and Jack's "voice" made it captivating enough... only, it was not something I'd look for on purpose, to be honest. If the narrative had been told differently, perhaps I'd have enjoyed it more.

Grade: 6/10