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As a child, Alfie learns he has a magical ability: to go back and repeat an event a second time. He just has to think or say “twice” and think about when he wants to go back to. But he can’t repeat any more than once, and he can’t change someone’s death.
This definitely is useful as a teenager — wouldn’t we all want to be able to fix the dumb things we said or did at that age? Alfie even does some extremely risky things to feel what it’s like to face death and then redoes those events to not be hurt.
What really affects his life the most is how he approaches love. When he happens to meet up as a young adult with the girl who was his best friend as a child, Alfie uses his ability to maneuver things just so with her. He’s warned by someone who knows not to mess around with love too much, or he’ll face dire consequences, so he tries to minimize how he changes their life together. But he makes a stupid decision that does change his life forever.
Years later, Alfie is brought in to a police station for questioning after he sat at a roulette table and won three times in a row on a roulette wheel, bringing in a lot of money. A detective listens to Alfie’s story, learning all about his life and the magical ability that has brought him to this exact point. The detective obviously doesn’t believe in magic, but he continues to get drawn in to Alfie’s tale.
It all comes to a head at the end of the book: will the detective finally believe Alfie? Is there any redemption for a man who lost two chances on the most important decisions of his life?
Twice is in part a love story, a cautionary tale, and a kind of fable to ponder on. Every reader will undoubtedly think about how they would use this gift, for better or worse. It’s short and sweet and an easy read. I didn’t love it but I enjoyed it well enough.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes a few instances of moderate profanity, about 15 uses of mild language, and 15 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes a brief scene with very limited detail and some other off-screen references. A shooting leads to an injury with mention of blood.
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