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kghill002's review against another edition
5.0
ALL THE FEELS. EVERYTHING.
It was laugh-out-loud funny. It was heartbreakingly sad. It was singing-as-loud-as-you-can happy. It was punch-the-wall infuriating.
ah, this was such a good story. truly inspiring, beautifully written, leaving me in awestruck wonder.
It was laugh-out-loud funny. It was heartbreakingly sad. It was singing-as-loud-as-you-can happy. It was punch-the-wall infuriating.
ah, this was such a good story. truly inspiring, beautifully written, leaving me in awestruck wonder.
xavierprice's review against another edition
2.0
Opposite of Always focuses far too heavily on the insta-romance resulting in a narrative that despite its moment of brilliance fails to connect with the reader.
ragonmoss's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this love story. And as much as it's about first love, it's also about friendship and family. It's really sweet and I love the banter!
toreyramos's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
• Jack & Kate
• Library book! 📚
This was my first time reading a book utilizing a time loop and I do not think I am a fan of this trope.
I liked Kate a lot, and I appreciated the growth Jack did during the book, but I really would have liked there to be some explanation of WHY/HOW Jake ended up in this time loop.
• Library book! 📚
This was my first time reading a book utilizing a time loop and I do not think I am a fan of this trope.
I liked Kate a lot, and I appreciated the growth Jack did during the book, but I really would have liked there to be some explanation of WHY/HOW Jake ended up in this time loop.
gileslibrarian6's review against another edition
3.0
Jack has lived a life of almosts and he’s pretty okay with that until he meets Kate on the stairs of a party at Whittier-the college he wants to attend in the fall. They fall madly in love and then she is suddenly hospitalized; Jack, madly running through the house to get to her at the hospital falls and breaks his neck except instead of dying, he ends up back at the Whittier party from four months ago where he first lays eyes on Kate getting a second chance to try and save her; and a third, and a fourth. Every reset some things change-simple changes or more drastic ones-while others stay the same. Will Jack get it right and save the girl or is Kate’s death inevitable?
Great couple of supporting characters in Jack’s best friends Jillian and Franny add to the story.
Great couple of supporting characters in Jack’s best friends Jillian and Franny add to the story.
bybekah0203's review against another edition
4.0
I was really excited to read this book. I don’t know why but it just sounded very interesting to me no it was. Jack and Kate are a very cute couple and reminded me of my own writing style. It did get a little tedious however. Of course I should have expected that when the book is about a time loop. The ending was alright but kind of unsatisfying after all we go through throughout the book. I at least expected to get some answers especially since it was built up so much but we don’t get any information at the end. Also how he saved Kate at the end just felt way too easy like he could have done that way earlier. But overall I enjoyed it and Kate and Jack’s relationship was my favourite part.
kmccauliff's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
I love a good time travel, ground hogs day love story. Loved the character development and the cause and effect of actions. The end was an abrupt halt, but enjoyed the book!
islagracedavies's review against another edition
3.0
Thank you to Macmillan Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book :)
"You know the saying “Time is undefeated”? This is a story about the time that Time lost."
Justin A. Reynolds’ debut novel, Opposite of Always, is a romantic time travel flick packed with cereal and feel-good moments. Jack King, our protagonist and our narrator, is the kind of awkward you can’t help but love, but his thoughts hit home at the most unexpected moments. The gut-punches in this novel don’t come from where you think they will, but once they hit, you’ll never doubt that Reynold’s knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote the scenes.
The premise of time travel to redo a relationship is an intriguing one and, like many others, is the reason why I was interested in reading Opposite of Always in the first place. But, if you’re like me and you look for detailed sci-fi, you’re going to be a little disappointed when you read this novel. There’s no explanation for the time travel, and there are a few inconsistencies in the plot related to the whole time travel aspect, but if you’re not too bothered about unexplained phenomenons, this shouldn’t bother you at all!
There is no doubt in my mind that this novel has been written with the intent of it becoming a movie. Some scenes feel so shot-for-shot that it’s almost as if I were reading a screenplay and not a book. This doesn’t exactly leave a great taste in my mouth, because I believe you should write a novel for the sake of writing a novel, not for it to be turned into a massive blockbuster (which is an added bonus, I guess).
Kate, Jack’s love interest, seemed a little too manic pixie dream girl for me, with some lines being so unpleasantly quirky and overtly flowery that she seemed too good to be true. It’s pretty evident where the “quotable” lines have been inserted in, and they don’t particularly gel very well with the rest of the book. Opposite of Always would probably have gotten a higher score from me if it weren’t for Kate and her bizarre way of speaking, which totally threw me off and felt like I was reading a John Green fanfiction, but Reynolds can write likeable and believable characters. Exhibit A, as mentioned before, is Jack, who is just the right level of awkward where it feels real.
At the end of the day, Opposite of Always is a touching, relatable, sometimes painful, depiction of first love. We know the basic premise of the ending when we start the novel because Jack straight-up tells us, but it doesn’t make the novel any less gripping. There are a lot of books that I can’t put down, but there aren’t that many that I’ll read in a busy cafeteria full of shrieking kids. Yet there I was, headphones blasting as loud as they could go, clutching my kindle with white-knuckles, needing to know what was going to happen to Jack and Kate.
"You know the saying “Time is undefeated”? This is a story about the time that Time lost."
Justin A. Reynolds’ debut novel, Opposite of Always, is a romantic time travel flick packed with cereal and feel-good moments. Jack King, our protagonist and our narrator, is the kind of awkward you can’t help but love, but his thoughts hit home at the most unexpected moments. The gut-punches in this novel don’t come from where you think they will, but once they hit, you’ll never doubt that Reynold’s knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote the scenes.
The premise of time travel to redo a relationship is an intriguing one and, like many others, is the reason why I was interested in reading Opposite of Always in the first place. But, if you’re like me and you look for detailed sci-fi, you’re going to be a little disappointed when you read this novel. There’s no explanation for the time travel, and there are a few inconsistencies in the plot related to the whole time travel aspect, but if you’re not too bothered about unexplained phenomenons, this shouldn’t bother you at all!
There is no doubt in my mind that this novel has been written with the intent of it becoming a movie. Some scenes feel so shot-for-shot that it’s almost as if I were reading a screenplay and not a book. This doesn’t exactly leave a great taste in my mouth, because I believe you should write a novel for the sake of writing a novel, not for it to be turned into a massive blockbuster (which is an added bonus, I guess).
Kate, Jack’s love interest, seemed a little too manic pixie dream girl for me, with some lines being so unpleasantly quirky and overtly flowery that she seemed too good to be true. It’s pretty evident where the “quotable” lines have been inserted in, and they don’t particularly gel very well with the rest of the book. Opposite of Always would probably have gotten a higher score from me if it weren’t for Kate and her bizarre way of speaking, which totally threw me off and felt like I was reading a John Green fanfiction, but Reynolds can write likeable and believable characters. Exhibit A, as mentioned before, is Jack, who is just the right level of awkward where it feels real.
At the end of the day, Opposite of Always is a touching, relatable, sometimes painful, depiction of first love. We know the basic premise of the ending when we start the novel because Jack straight-up tells us, but it doesn’t make the novel any less gripping. There are a lot of books that I can’t put down, but there aren’t that many that I’ll read in a busy cafeteria full of shrieking kids. Yet there I was, headphones blasting as loud as they could go, clutching my kindle with white-knuckles, needing to know what was going to happen to Jack and Kate.