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A review by pawsomereads2
Some Other Now by Sarah Everett
4.0
4.5⭐️
This book promised to be a YA This Is Us in literary form and it definitely delivered. Some Other Now was an absolute emotional rollercoaster and I was happy to be along for the ride. You’ll get all the feels from this captivating read about family, both found and lost.
The story follows Jessi Rumfield, a teen who has always felt closer to Mel Cohen than to her own mom, who spent most of Jessi’s childhood deep in depression that led her to be absent from her daughter’s life. Mel and her sons, Rowan and Luke, became the closest thing to family that Jessi ever knew. After Mel was diagnosed with a terminal illness they called the Big Bad and Rowan began to pull away from his best friend Jessi, nothing was the same again. Now it’s Jessi’s summer after high school graduation, and Luke has turned up after months of silence, asking Jessi to do him a favor: pretend to be his girlfriend to make Mel, who is nearing the end of her life, happy. Except the last time they were together, Jessi and Luke’s relationship ruined everything.
The plot plays out in an alternating timeline between then and now, with flashbacks to the past that connect to events in the present. It was really interesting to see how things unfolded over the course of the book. I liked getting little breadcrumbs in the “now” chapters and kept me engaged until I learned what actually happened in the “then” chapters.
This made it a fast read because I was so invested and so curious to know the full story.
I really enjoyed the romance aspect. It was a mix of the friends to lovers and fake dating tropes which are always fun to read for me. While the romance was one of the lighter plot lines, a lot of this book was super intense. There were a lot of heavy topics covered like depression, terminal illness, loss and grief. This is not at all a light and fluffy YA contemporary but it was still so wonderful to read because I was so connected to the characters and their experiences.
Some Other Now was a really emotional read. It was touching and poignant, yet beautiful and hopeful.
Thank you so much to netgalley, HMH teen and the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
This book promised to be a YA This Is Us in literary form and it definitely delivered. Some Other Now was an absolute emotional rollercoaster and I was happy to be along for the ride. You’ll get all the feels from this captivating read about family, both found and lost.
The story follows Jessi Rumfield, a teen who has always felt closer to Mel Cohen than to her own mom, who spent most of Jessi’s childhood deep in depression that led her to be absent from her daughter’s life. Mel and her sons, Rowan and Luke, became the closest thing to family that Jessi ever knew. After Mel was diagnosed with a terminal illness they called the Big Bad and Rowan began to pull away from his best friend Jessi, nothing was the same again. Now it’s Jessi’s summer after high school graduation, and Luke has turned up after months of silence, asking Jessi to do him a favor: pretend to be his girlfriend to make Mel, who is nearing the end of her life, happy. Except the last time they were together, Jessi and Luke’s relationship ruined everything.
The plot plays out in an alternating timeline between then and now, with flashbacks to the past that connect to events in the present. It was really interesting to see how things unfolded over the course of the book. I liked getting little breadcrumbs in the “now” chapters and kept me engaged until I learned what actually happened in the “then” chapters.
This made it a fast read because I was so invested and so curious to know the full story.
I really enjoyed the romance aspect. It was a mix of the friends to lovers and fake dating tropes which are always fun to read for me. While the romance was one of the lighter plot lines, a lot of this book was super intense. There were a lot of heavy topics covered like depression, terminal illness, loss and grief. This is not at all a light and fluffy YA contemporary but it was still so wonderful to read because I was so connected to the characters and their experiences.
Some Other Now was a really emotional read. It was touching and poignant, yet beautiful and hopeful.
Thank you so much to netgalley, HMH teen and the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!