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A review by kthomps1281
Some Other Now by Sarah Everett
4.0
This book was billed as a YA "This Is Us" and it totally lived up to that premise. The plot centers on Jessi Rumfield and her relationships with two brothers, her best friend Rowan Cohen, and his older brother Luke, and the boys' mother Mel, who has served as a surrogate mom to Jessi for years. Told in "Then" and "Now" chapters, the story follows these characters and their changing relationships as they deal with a number of traumatic events that change all of them forever.
Like This Is Us, the interspersed Then and Now chapters give you clues as to the tragic past events that have changed everything about Jessi's relationship with the Cohens in the "Now", the summer after Jessi's high school graduation. I enjoyed the little clues in the "Now" chapters before we found out what really happened in the "Then" chapters; however, like "This Is Us", some of the clues also filled me with anxiety and dread when I was reading the chapters from the past timeline because I knew what was coming.
I expected this story to be very focused on Luke and Jessi's romance, and it was. However, I found the relationships between Jessi and Mel; Jessi and her mother and Jessi and Rowan to be just as compelling. The romance was a lighter element of the plot, but the really powerful plots involved grief, parental relationships, depression and other heavier subjects.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an emotional YA contemporary novel, but readers should know that this is not a light and fluffy romance. I definitely cried at several points. However, I still enjoyed the story because I was connected to all of the characters.
Like This Is Us, the interspersed Then and Now chapters give you clues as to the tragic past events that have changed everything about Jessi's relationship with the Cohens in the "Now", the summer after Jessi's high school graduation. I enjoyed the little clues in the "Now" chapters before we found out what really happened in the "Then" chapters; however, like "This Is Us", some of the clues also filled me with anxiety and dread when I was reading the chapters from the past timeline because I knew what was coming.
I expected this story to be very focused on Luke and Jessi's romance, and it was. However, I found the relationships between Jessi and Mel; Jessi and her mother and Jessi and Rowan to be just as compelling. The romance was a lighter element of the plot, but the really powerful plots involved grief, parental relationships, depression and other heavier subjects.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an emotional YA contemporary novel, but readers should know that this is not a light and fluffy romance. I definitely cried at several points. However, I still enjoyed the story because I was connected to all of the characters.