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After pining for four years for his best friend, Jillian (who’s dating his other best friend, Francisco), high school senior Jack falls for someone else. At a party at the college Jack is touring, he and freshman Kate strike up a conversation, and they stay up all night talking and joking. Even though she’s a year older and in college, and that college is a 90-minute drive from his home, Jack knows they will be — must be — together. And he manages to win her over, introducing her to Jill and Franny and enjoying seeing them all get along wonderfully. But four months after they meet, Kate dies.
Somehow, completely inexplicably, Jack gets sent that horrible night back to that fateful night when they met. And while he has no idea why or how he’s four months in the past, Jack soon resolves to find a way to keep Kate alive this time around.
This story is a teen romance version of “Groundhog Day,” which, not quite so incidentally, I read on Groundhog Day. Jack goes back in time to relive four important months countless times, and each time he makes some different choices. Some of his choices damage his friendships with Jill and Franny, some in far worse ways than others. None of those outcomes are ones he wants because he values his friends so deeply. But it’s difficult to weigh all the different choices with the different consequences they have, as strongly as he feels about Kate, even as new as she is in his life. Over and over, Jack gets to spend more time with Kate, but will he ever get to keep her past that heartbreaking day at the hospital?
Opposite of Always uses a familiar plot device to explore universal themes of romantic love and friendship, but it works. The characters are ones you want to spend more time with, and the dialogue is fantastic: witty and clever and natural. When the writing is this good, I don’t really mind where the author goes because it’s just fun to be along for the ride. Justin A. Reynolds’ debut novel is a strong entry.
Rated: High, for about 7 to 8 instances of strong language, around 40 instances of moderate profanity, and 20 to 30 uses of mild language. Sexual content is limited to kissing. Violence includes one character being shot.
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