Friday 10 July 2020

The Do Over by Jennifer Honeybourn

A teenage girl gets the chance to redo her past in this smart and charming YA novel by the author of When Life Gives You Demons.

Emilia has always wanted to fit in with the A crowd. So, when Ben, the hottest guy in school, asks her out, she chooses him over Alistair, her best friend—even after he confesses his feelings to her.

Six months later, Emilia wonders how her life would have been different if she'd chosen Alistair instead. Haunted by her mistake, she finds a magical solution that promises to rectify the past. As a result, everything in her life is different. What happens if her second chance is her only chance to make things right?



This is a fairly light and breezy treatment of the Many Worlds theory; how does a teenage girl's life differ depending on which boyfriend she chooses? Apparently, it...leads to her parents splitting up in one reality for reasons that are never explained, despite them seeming far more likely to split up in the other version.

I liked that in the second reality, Emelia had branched out and found some more friends. Pretty good friends, it seemed, too. But since we never see any of the missing six months, we never find out how it happened. We never find out about her parents, either, despite her telling us that she texts about everything with Alistair and Marisol. Apparently not about life changing events like her parents' divorce.

I liked the moral; that instead of worrying about and wishing to change past events, we should be concentrating on the time we're in right now. It's something a lot of people could stand to learn, I think.

Spoiler:


I liked this overall; it's light, fluffy and a quick read. I just wish there was more explanation on some of the mysteries. I almost feel like the story of how Emeline pieced together her missing months might be a better story than the story of how she hunted down the tarot reader. But the tarot and stones used in here were very accurate! I did like that. And I did enjoy the read, don't get me wrong. It's just - good, not great.

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