Jack’s curse of almost is finally over.īut this love story is. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack. When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling-hard. Reynolds never loses that light subversion of a relatively trauma-free black protagonist, a black love story, and black families that anchor the character of Jack, and I cannot wait to read what he writes next. Not only has he created a time loop that will break your heart multiple times, he’s created A+ supporting characters that are messy enough to be real and realistic enough to get even messier. And yet, who hasn’t met that person who they thought might fix it all, if only they could keep them from, y’know, dying?Īs someone who fast-forwards through many second acts of films that are too predictable, I'm in awe of Reynolds's ability to draw and hold the reader in a story that's part love story, part coming of age, and part high-concept time adventure. Jack and Kate's almost love story is realistic, rooted in the expectations we put on relationships and the promise of new love that's usually not as sweet as it seems. If you’re worried about too many math equations on whiteboards: don't be. But Kate’s death triggers a shift in time that sends Jack back to the day they met, giving him the chance to save her life. When Jack meets Kate at a house party, he’s pretty sure they’re meant to be … until, that is, she dies unexpectedly. Reynolds, we have a new 21st-century time traveller: charming, heart-on-his-sleeve Jack, who yearns to alter the past until he finally gets every facet of his life right.

From Bill Murray in Groundhog Day to Back to the Future’s Marty McFly, we know well these (usually white!) heroes. Any child of the ’90s is familiar with the time-displaced protagonist.

Opposite of always kate