Again but, Better by Christine Riccio Review


Again but, Better by Christine Riccio Review
Release date: May 7th, 2019
*spoiler free*

Recently, I received an eARC copy of Again, But Better from Netgalley. As I have watched Christine work so hard on this novel for the past few years as she posted updates on Youtube, I was so excited to get one of my most anticipated reads months early. 
Before I get into my thoughts on the book, I just want to say that I still really love Christine. I am so proud of her for writing a whole book and getting it published. I can't wait to see what she does next. 

I went into this book expecting to adore it, which I think makes my real feelings even harder to accept. Even though I prefer fantasy, there are still contemporaries that I really enjoy. Often the problem that does arise with contemporaries that I don't like is that I find them cringey and/or predictable. Unfortunately, this book was both those things for me. 
The main character, Shane, is a college age student who travels to England for a semester abroad in hopes of getting out of her shell. The concept of this story does sound like something I would like, but in only the first few chapters I was offset by the writing of the main character. Shane was supposed a shy girl seeking change, but from the beginning she never really acted that shy. Her voice came off as outspoken and bold. She didn't always act on it, but overall she was pretty open to boldness. She was the person who went onto the dance floor and sang every song at the top of her lungs, and that just does not scream shy character to me. Also, despite being a 20 year old character, her internal voice read like a much younger character to me. If her age wasn't mentioned, I might have guessed she was more like 15 years old. 
Another aspect of her characterization that I struggled with was her personality. It was as if she was trying to sell the idea that she was "quirky" and "adorable" on the surface, but there was nothing deeper than that. She did not have deep emotional stories to dive into. Her entire story was basically told on the surface. That being said, she was not entirely unlikable. There were times when I did enjoy her as a character, but she was fairly two dimensional. 
I also noticed, in the general plot and specifically in Shane, that this all pretty closely reflected Christine's own life. When she was in college she studied abroad. Shane liked all the same things that Christine does and Shane acted a lot like Christine. They even had similar blog names. If someone was not familiar with Christine and her channel, they wouldn't notice this but I did. 
The other secondary characters seemed to follow the same pattern. They each had some quirk to define them and no underlying emotions to really carry the character. The family was unnecessarily mean, like truly truly cruel to Shane in a way I did not find believable. Her cousin was the only redeemable one, and only towards the end of the book. His story would have been more impactful if it was woven throughout the story and stuffed in at the end. Her other friends at the semester abroad program were all vaguely interesting, but there was nothing to make them stand out. The love interest, Pilot, was an entertaining character to read but there was a not much more to him. 
Their relationship was cute to read throughout the book, and I thought they worked really well together, but I wish there had been a deeper connection between them.
There a big thing that happened in the second half of the book. The timeline has some jumps, that at first were just confusing because they felt unsatisfactory for the characters but then they were confusing because it literally made no sense. If I had known the book had aspects of magical realism, maybe the transition would have felt smoother, but it was completely jarring to me. Again, this review is spoiler free, but let's just say my Doctor Who heart(s) was screaming at the lack of respect for the laws of time.
In my opinion, any emotional arc that had been built up to this point was ruined after the time change. The development that Shane had gone through in 2011 (the beginning of the book) was completely ignored in the second half of the story (2017). The characters and plot felt inconsistent and forced, and left the reader confused.  

 So overall, the plot and characterization did not sit right with me. But even if it had, there was a lot of little things that just didn't work. For example, she mentions Taylor Swift over 15 times in the book. That is just too much. She constantly references pop culture, like Lost and The Mortal Instrument and Vampire Academy. A scene that mentions The Fault in Our Stars went on to mirror that book scene almost exactly. The chapter titles were song lyrics a lot of the time, without actually acknowledging that the titles were song lyrics. There was some lingo and "internet language" that I just don't believe people actually use.

 Everything else I think I have to say would be spoiler-y, so I'll save that for release. 

 All in all, I did not like this book how I wished I could have. That being said, there could be people who read this book and love it. There could be someone who exactly sees herself in Shane and connects with the character. There could someone who loves the plot twists. And that is amazing. It would be impossible to love every book you read, and for me, this was just one of the books that didn't fit. 

 Like I said, I still love Christine. I don't mean to insult her in any way with my opinion of the book. My opinion only reflects on the book, not Christine as a person. 

 If you come across this book in the future, I hope you enjoy it even if I didn't.

 Final Rating: 2.5/5 stars.
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