Review by leahhateshardbacks - Come Again

leahhateshardbacks 's review for:

Come Again by Robert Webb

4.0

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book is like a genre grab bag. Romance, action, sci-fi, literary comedy, take your pick. When I initially picked it up I was sceptical. I wanted something light but the blurb of this sounded too cutesy - although when I saw it was written by Robert Webb and read by Olivia Colman I was intrigued. Well, it was the perfect balance of romance and general fiction - it really wasn't too cutesy at all. It's witty, charming, thoughtful, and self-aware. Robert Webb's dialogue writing just brilliant, and Olivia Colman's delivery brought every character to life. I lol'd several times (and even gasped once). Kate is a bit of "not like other girls" - she's gobby, tom-boyish, a world class sportswoman, and embarrassingly clever, and these traits are almost always related back to her being unfeminine. Although, the book is self-aware as Kate not only recognises her "not like other girls"-ishness herself, when she was a child/teen her unfeminine qualities made her mum convinced that she was a lesbian, which rightly wound Kate up because her mother was equating these things (and lesbianism) to masculinity and consequently imposing a narrow requirement of what womanhood looks like. This book doesn't really fit the stereotypes of others of its kind (are there others of its kind?), you might even say it's "not like other books". It doesn't follow the rules of go-back-in-time-to-visit-a-loved-one stories (Kate ends up doing it as best she can - it's not as easy as all the stories make out) and this time-travelling portion was comparatively short, which I really enjoyed. There's even a pretty intense action scene. You can't get too hung up in the logistics of it all - and it's important to remember that it's supposed to be a bit ridiculous. A very enjoyable and quick read that did the job.

Content Warnings