November 1, 2020
Gr 8 Up-Since the age of seven, Jessi has considered the Cohen family her own. She and Rowan play tennis and talk about everything; they are still best friends now at the age of 17. Luke has also always been there, another honorary and loyal brother. Even though the boys' mom, Mel, has cancer, she is accessible and accepting, the kind of mother Jessi needs because her own is bedridden by depression and not an active part of Jessi's life. Something terrible happens that rips the Cohens and Jessi apart, creating a rift between Jessi and Mel. Everett uses alternating time lines: "Then" is when Jessi, channeling Mel's joie de vivre, is brave and kisses Luke for the time, setting off a romance that enchants but ends frustratingly. "Now" is when Jessi is enticed into Luke's plan to pretend that they are back together to make Mel happy in her dying days. Everett is a master at dropping clues in these alternating time lines that cause readers to predict and question, compelling the romance and the complexities of Jessi's relatable life along. With foils like lovely friend Willow and cranky octogenarian Ernie, Everett enmeshes Jessi and Luke in the myopia of teenage self-blame, survivor's guilt, and a love triangle. Race and mental health play minor roles; Jessi's mother is white and father is Black, and Mel's parents are from the Philippines. VERDICT Though it takes 117 pages for Everett to drop the bomb of the worst thing, the story picks up unbridled steam of page-turning romance and existential angst as Jessi eventually learns there is no other now.-Jamie Winchell, Percy Julian M.S., IL
Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 15, 2020
In the process of seeking a family, a teen may be breaking up somebody else's. Jessi Rumfield has always felt closer to Mel Cohen than to her own mom, who spent most of Jessi's childhood so deep in depression that she was unable to be present for her daughter. Mel and her sons, Rowan and Luke, have been Jessi's constants in life. But after Mel was diagnosed with an illness they called the Big Bad, Ro asked Jessi to leave the house, and nothing was ever the same again. Now it's the summer after high school graduation, and Luke has turned up after months of silence, asking Jessi to do him a favor: pretend to be his girlfriend to make Mel, who is nearing the end of her life, happy. Except the last time they were girlfriend and boyfriend, Jessi and Luke's relationship ruined things with Ro, and everything fell apart from there. Despite the intriguing premise, big reveals and hidden secrets are so obvious that they lose their emotional impact. Sections labeled "now" and "then" give structure and context to the narrative, but readers may nevertheless have trouble keeping track of what's happening. The main characters are biracial in a predominantly White area, which sets them apart from the community and draws them together. Jessi is Black and White; Luke and Rowan's maternal grandparents emigrated from the Philippines, and their father was presumably White. A predictable heartstring puller. (Fiction. 14-18)
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January 1, 2021
Grades 9-12 The Cohen family was the center of Jessi's life ever since she and Rowan became best friends at age seven. Jessi never knew who she loved more: Ro himself, his mother, Mel, or his older brother, Luke. Their suburban home was a warm contrast to her own, where her mother was bedridden with untreated depression. When Luke was about to leave for college and Jessi and Ro were beginning their senior year, Mel learned she had terminal cancer. Jessi reacted by seizing the day and, finally, kissing Luke. Ro began to drink. Now, nearly a year later, Jessi hasn't seen the Cohens for months. Luke, home for the summer, insists Jessi visit Mel again during her final weeks. As it toggles between then and now chapters, the novel builds in intensity until it reveals the tragedy at its core. From the first page, Everett's assured prose draws the reader into a world of sympathetic characters grappling with first romantic relationships and realistic family struggles.
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