Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Opposite of Always

This is very well written, but I didn't like it as much as I'd wanted to. I'm not sure this is marketed quite right, since the emphasis is on the "groundhog day" trope and I don't think that trope is done well here. It's a new take on the trope, but I'm not sure the take adds anything necessarily worthwhile to the use of the trope itself. And there is acknowledgement of this within the text that feels like a cheap copout that I'd rather have been left out.

This also reads very young. The height of emotion and sense of stakes only works because this is a teenager's perspective, and even then it still strains belief. Ultimately I'm glad this book was published, but it's most definitely not for me.

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fromjuliereads's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really liked this book! There were so many laugh out loud scenes, moments that were so difficult to read. Great characters and fantastic writing!

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charlee92's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Cheesy YA romance. Cute ground hog day style story.

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effys's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely loved this book. It kept me curious the whole way through about what was going to happen next. The characters were so well written and all had their own flaws but that made them even more interesting to read about and how those flaws effected their stories.
Such a fantastically original story that was amazingly written

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oliviabrcka's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

All in all, Opposite of Always strikes me as a book that is just fine. There were definitely traits I loved, but overall, I just don’t ever enjoy time-traveling books and this was no exception.

The best, most standout part of this book was the writing. It reminds me of a Jenny Han novel in the sense that it is cinematic and charming. The visuals are vivid and incredible and I could quite literally eat a book like this for dessert because I love the writing so much. I can’t even describe what makes is different and amazing, it just is, and it is what kept me reading until the end. It is also why I can say that I will still likely read other books by Justin A. Reynolds in the future because his writing is *chef’s kiss*!

Other than the writing, I found the characters to be likeable and I personally have never read a book featuring a character with sickle cell disease, so I appreciated the insight into what life might look like as a person with it.

Unfortunately, I found the rest of the book to be pretty nondescript and uninspiring. I think what really killed it for me was the time travel aspect. I just have never enjoyed reading time travel books so this is largely a personal preference thing and I think a majority of people would enjoy this! I really only found the book to be forgettable and repetitive because of the time traveling, but if that does happen to be your jam, this is the book for you!

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reyastray's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

solid 4 stars!! i read this all in one day which is VERY fast for me at this time. i didn’t really like the writing style at first, i found it very stereotypical ya contemporary with too-funny (not funny, actually quite unrealistic) dialogue, pop culture references on every page, trying too hard to make the main character sound like a teenager and he ended up just not sounding like a real person. HOWEVER. this was only really an issue for the first bit of the book, and then i got used to it and the book was so much more than that. overall i enjoyed it!! it was really sweet and meaningful.

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willowbrii's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

With how chaotic the world is lately, I needed this fun and positive read. Which also included well-written Black main characters ♥♥♥♥!!! At first I wasn't sure if I'd like the time travel loops and the cheesy romance, but it was precious. It warmed my heart. I would've LOVED this as teen. I could totally see this as a movie too. I listened to the audio (which I recommend!) and Jack's character reminded me of Miles Morales' personality from Spiderverse.

Themes:
Time Travel, Friendship, Love.

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nickoliver's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Going into it, I was a bit cautious because I hadn't heard that many people rave about it, but the concept really intrigued me, so I still really wanted to read it. Unfortunately, though, it wasn't really for me.

I had issues with it from almost the beginning, which had mostly to do with Jack, the protagonist. Very early on, he said that he had a crush on his best friend Jillian and the only reason he didn't confess his love to her was because she was dating his best friend. Not even because she was in a relationship, but because she was in a relationship with someone he liked.

I don't have any close male friends and I'm also not straight, so maybe I don't know how relationships between straight girls and straight guys work, but guys who'd be perfectly willing to confess their love to their friend despite knowing that they weren't available don't seem like that good of guys to me to begin with.

Throughout the story, he just got worse. He treated his family and friends like shit, especially Franny (Jillian's boyfriend and his allegedly best friend), and it just got worse the more timelines happened. You'd think that after a few rounds of being stuck in Groundhog Day, he'd know how not to be an asshole to people he loved, but nope. He literally didn't learn a thing until almost the end and became a worse and worse friend as time went on.

Because of the way Jack acted, I found the romance to be very unrealistic and annoying. One of the things that bothered me the most was the fact that Kate always fell in love with Jack, regardless of his behaviour or the things he said to her. For example, the first time Jack landed back in time, he was understandably ecstatic to see Kate alive again and didn't realise that she didn't remember him, so he said some things to her that would only be alluring to someone who actually knew him. Seeing as Kate thought he was a stranger, though, all his talk about how awesome she was seemed extremely creepy; plus, he asked her to prom literally the day after they met and invited her to the woods shortly before that. And instead of being creeped out by this and slowly backing away, Kate ... liked it? And liked him?

And this happened so many times! No matter what Jack said or did, Kate always thought he was cute and wonderful and wanted to be with him. Add to that the fact that Kate was very underdeveloped and didn't really exist much outside of Jack - you do learn things about her, but a) not that many, b) mostly just things relevant to the plot, and c) things that make her alluring to Jack -, and you've got yourself a love interest that I didn't particularly care about.

She also made some infuriating choices, especially early in the book before you learn what would actually kill her eventually. Instead of telling Jack the truth, Kate drew that information out for waaaayyy too long; I was over halfway through the book and still had no idea. Like, one time Kate straight up preferred breaking up with Jack and getting back together with her ex instead of coming clean with him, which was just infuriating

Since Kate would die of a genetic disease and not, for example, from an accident, there wasn't that much that Jack should've been able to do to save her. I honestly would've preferred for Kate to die in a car accident or something, because I feel like you could've played more interesting scenarios with that? But because Reynolds went with a genetic disease, he kept delaying telling us, the readers, what she was suffering from, to make us stay intrigued and to have us stop asking questions he couldn't really answer.

There also wasn't that much chemistry between Jack and Kate to begin with. In total, Jack and Kate were together for four months, which I straight up didn't realise at first; I really thought they knew each other for a week, because they never seemed much like a couple to me. Since the entire story is based around this romance, it's kind of crucial to want them to be together. Which I didn't particularly want to.

Kate wasn't the only female character suffering from a lack of development. Jillian, too, wasn't much of a character to begin with. You actually learn even less about her than Kate, and those things were never really highlighted? She seemed to mostly exist for Jack and Franny and their development and less for herself. She barely had any personality, which just made me frustrated.

Apart from a missing character development, Reynolds also seemed like he tried too hard to make the characters ~weird~ and ~quirky~. Especially Jack and Kate kept talking about these funny little quirks they had and hahahaha, weren't they such weirdos? Honestly, they were, like, one step away from doing Jughead's 'In case you haven’t noticed, I'm weird. I’m a weirdo' speech.

The writing really emphasised this quirkiness in my opinion. I often felt like Jack and Kate didn't talk very ... authentically? Like, they'd use words no one their age would ever use unironically, and said things that just made me cringe. This was especially apparent in the emails they exchanged. The other characters were better, but Jack and Kate just really got on my nerves.

Then, let's talk about the plot for a minute, because oh boy!

First of all, the book was way too long. It took 150 pages for Kate to even die. And I'm aware that without a build-up of Jack and Kate's relationship, I'd probably be bitching about that, but it didn't have to be that long! And after she died and the timeline reset, the same plot points kept being repeated over and over in every single timeline . Characters kept talking about the same things, and even more infuriating, Jack never learnt a damn thing. He kept making the same mistakes several times, especially when it came to the way he treated Franny, and he even came to the same conclusion twice? Like dude, for the love of God, give me some character development, I'm begging you.

Next up, there were a few plot holes that bothered me immensely. The book starts with a prologue in which Jack stated that this was his third try trying to save Kate. Later in the story, you ended up in that exact timeline, except it ended way differently than it did in the prologue? Plus, there was a character who was first introduced as a nice guy in one timeline and as an asshole in the next, so like ... consistency? I don't know her.

Then, one timeline was a straight up nightmare that made absolutely no sense. None. Nada. Zilch. It was also at that point that I decided to give the book 2 stars, because nothing could be redeemed now.

Basically, after not being able to save Kate yet again, Jack decided to not pursue her. And instead, he ... finally went after Jillian and kissed her? And they became a couple?

I think what I hated the most about that timeline was how much it tainted everything I had known so far about Franny and Jillian's relationship. Up until that point, they were a pretty cute couple who treated each other really well. I liked them together! But Jillian didn't even hesitate to kiss Jack back and dump Franny for him. Like, 'Oh, Jack finally kissed me? Great! Now I can finally dump this consolation prize of a dude!' And when that timeline finally ended and a new one started where Jillian was still dating Franny, I couldn't be happy about them anymore. I didn't care about them anymore. I always knew, at the back of my head, that Jillian would dump Franny without a second glance if she could be with Jack, so how was I supposed to root for them anymore?

There was also the fact that, again, Jack didn't act like a friend to Franny. Not only did he steal his girlfriend, for the rest of the timeline he also constantly talked about Franny like he was just being overly emotional and irrational and would always have to forgive Jack and Jillian for their betrayal. Which didn't sit right with me. SOMEONE SAVE FRANNY FROM THIS DUDE. Jack also somehow thought that he was the only one with a deep connection to Jillian, despite the fact that throughout the entire book so far, Jillian and Franny had way more chemistry than Jillian and Jack? And Franny always appreciated Jillian and treated her well? WHAT WAS HE ON.

What bothered me, too, was how Jack acted like he had no choice but to pursue Jillian. He basically acted like since he couldn't pursue Kate this time around - or didn't want to -, that he had to go kiss Jillian. Like he couldn't have ... just stayed single??? And because Jack still tried to help Kate from afar and therefore didn't even leave her alone, this entire relationship was also pretty unfair towards Jillian. He didn't even appreciate being with her; as a matter of fact, they didn't even like being together that much.

I was pretty happy when that stupid timeline was finally over. It was a whole goddamn nightmare.

Last but not least, I also wasn't that big of a fan of the fact that it was never explained why these new chances happened to Jack. And like, I didn't really expect them to be explained, because I feel like they usually aren't in stories like these (at least not the ones I've read and watched), but it was still infuriating. Because why would Jack be responsible to save the life of a girl he barely knew? And not only that, but also improve the lives of his friends in the progress? Why did Jack just assume that this was the reason he was sent back in time? And that everyone's happiness relied on him?

In literally the last chapter, Jack also casually mentioned that there were over three dozens of repeats (you get to see five of them). Which just proved one thing to me: The reason these stories work sometimes is because the main character realises they're an asshole and they stop being one. They have character development. But Jack never really stopped being an asshole and never really learnt anything from his mistakes (hence why it took him so goddamn long). He never properly, wholeheartedly apologized for anything. To me, it felt like the universe just gave him a dozen of chances for literally no reason.

Overall, while I found the concept of the story intriguing, the execution was ... not done well. Jack as a protagonist was just a horrible friend who had no chemistry with his love interest and took way too fucking long to learn from his mistakes, the female characters were tragically one-dimensional, and the plot just dragged and had too many holes in it. Really disappointed with this book.

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