Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds - Book Review ⋆ Wonderfully Bookish

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.

Title: Opposite of Always
Author: Justin A. Reynolds
Publisher: Harper Collins
Date Published: March 5, 2019
Genre: YA Contemporary, Romance, Time Travel

Date Read: April 29, 2020
Format: Audiobook

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Opposite of Always – Review

Review at a Glance:

I enjoyed this book – I didn’t completely love it because there were a few unexplained elements regarding time travel that I have liked more of an explanation for, but it was fun and had a good message!

In More Detail:

The beginning was intriguing and had me hooked straight away. The premise of someone being stuck in a time loop until he saves the person he loves was interesting, and I actually had no idea what the book was about when I went into it, so I was surprised. I thought it was going to be a standard contemporary, so I was surprised when it turned out to be something that I didn’t expect at all!

Despite the interesting premise, the time travel thing was a bit weird and I kind of wish it had more rules or more of an explanation. It just seemed to happen and there was no explanation why. It just… happened. I liked it and it was unique, and even though I’m usually very willing to suspend disbelief when it comes to things like this (I loved Last Bus to Everland by Sophie Cameron and that doesn’t have much of an explanation either), there was something about this one where I kind of wished it was explained a bit more. Is it because I knew Last Bus to Everland was magical realism before I started it, so I was ready to suspend disbelief? Maybe.

(It made me think of the episode of Community where they roll the dice to decide who gets the pizza, and Abed talks about how they’re creating 6 different timelines. What happened to the rest of the timelines? Surely living the same loop over and over would have some sort of consequence in the fabric of time?)

But despite that, I enjoyed the story. I loved the friendships and the way Jack’s parents treated his best friend Franny like a son of their own. Good family dynamics are my jam, so I loved that element of it. I think it also dealt with the topic of sickle cell disease well and I learned a lot about it that I didn’t know before.

Opposite of Always gives us some good life messages. One: that we should be careful of the decisions we make because they can come back to affect us later down the line. And two: life is incredibly important and should be lived to its fullest potential where possible, because you never know what’s around the corner.

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