Review by Kayleigh
This is a book that will make you ask what in your life is important enough to live again?
Favourite Quote:
I think how happiness is determined not by getting what you want, but by determining which things to hold on to and which things to let go. That there is joy in relinquishing. How extraordinary it is to be given the second chance to see the path we were always meant to travel down.
Book Synopsis:
The women of the Novak family were each born with a gift: they can, just once, turn back time.
Lauren has known since she was fifteen that her mother Marcella saved Lauren’s father from a deadly car accident. Dave is alive and happy, and out on the Malibu waves. But ever since, Marcella, her power spent, has lived in fear of what she won’t be able to reverse. Her own mother, Sylvia, is her polar opposite: a free-spirited iconoclast with a glamorous past she only hints at. Lauren has spent her life between these two role models—and waiting for her own catastrophe to strike.
Then one summer, Lauren’s husband takes a job in New York and she moves back to Broad Beach Road, back into her childhood home on the shores of Malibu. Lauren looks forward to surfing with her dad again and perhaps repairing an unspoken fracture in her relationship with her mother. What she doesn’t expect is for the boy next to door to return home as well: Stone, Lauren’s first love, who broke her heart nearly a decade before.
As Lauren falls into familiar patterns, with her family and, more dangerously, Stone, she finds herself thinking about all the choices, large and small, that have brought her to this moment. And wondering, finally, if one of them should be undone.
Review:
I have loved every novel Rebecca has ever written, and I was very excited to get my hands on Once and Again. This book is a beautiful ode to motherhood sacrifice and the challenges women face throughout the ages to keep themselves, their family and their identity fulfilled. This story focuses on three generations of women in one family who seem to have a magic ability. It really asks the question if you have a chance to do one do-over, what would you do? What would you use it on? It’s so hard to know this question without knowing the answer of hindsight which I think is what makes the story really interesting because sometimes something small can have incredibly large, catastrophic results or something that seems so large could actually be nothing in the big scheme of things. How do you actually know?
Lauren and her husband Leo, when we first meet them are struggling to conceive. Lauren desperately wants a child but she and Leo are at a breaking point with their fertility struggles. It’s putting an uncomfortable strain on their relationship and Lauren is wondering if it’s really going to work out at all. When a job opportunity comes up for Leo, he jumps at the chance to further his career. The only catch is that he is going to be living in New York City for the summer. Lauren decides to move home to Malibu from San Francisco for the summer and get to spend time with her dad, her grandma and her mom who all live in the same large house on the beach. It seems idyllic for her and everything seems to be going well until she runs into her first love there and you start to see some of her world fracture.
Lauren is very obviously desperate for some attention and for someone to give her support that she feels is lacking in her relationship with her mom and with Leo. Stone, who she has grown up with, knows her well and even though they haven’t seen each other in over a decade since they broke up, she finds a comfort in him that starts to cross some lines.
I loved Lauren as a character. She’s strong, opinionated, a little careless with the people she loves and very raw and real. I think it would be easy for people to call her selfish with how she lives her life and how she will make use of her magical choice but honestly, I don’t see her as selfish. I see her as a modern woman who’s trying to figure out where her life is going and what is truly important and not. One of the main messages that I took away from the story is that it’s really hard to know how to live your best life until you’re almost losing it.
Throughout Once and Again Lauren is working through her relationship with her mom Marcella and trying to come to terms with an accident that happened when Lauren was a child that changed the direction of her life as well as her mom and dad‘s life. Lauren herself makes a decision that causes her to reevaluate her life The ripples are felt across the generations of the family. I don’t wanna say too much more and spoil it, because the twists in this story are wonderful and need to be read by you.
While this has a strong romantic sub plot the main relationship focus is on Lauren and her mom Marcella and Marcella‘s mom Sylvia. These three women are a freaking delight and I loved the dual perspectives on them. We see them through Lauren‘s eyes, but also from their own perspectives. This is important as they filled in some of the gaps of the past. There is a strong case here for some generational trauma and suffering and a deep analysis on what women carry from generation to generation and how could we have a better relationship with each other? If we put some of that trauma down and communicated about it: spoiler alert we should all be talking to the women in our life more.
Sylvia, as a character, stands out for me in the story. She is a polarizing character who lives her own life and lives long enough to be able to reflect on how she lived her life. It’s just a fascinating read. In this generation, we are so concerned with how our life is appearing and how our life is reflecting to others through social media, etc., and I think we should all sit with a woman like Sylvia and welcome her spirit into our life a bit. Frankly, I would read a whole novel about Sylvia‘s life because she is fantastic.
Like all of Rebecca’s books this is an emotional sucker punch that will have you laughing and crying at different parts of the story. I think a perfect way to read this book would be with some important women in your life.
Thank you, Atria Books, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
