you know, it’s hard to get the person-B-dies-and-person-A-aka-the-main-character-relives-the-day-over-and-over-again-and-tries-everything-to-prevent-person-B’s-death trope right but this book did EVERYTHING right.

when you have a trope like that where the plot repeats itself over and over again, it’s hard to make it not feel repetitive and therefore boring for the reader (see: Before I Fall where exactly that happened..) but the author did such a great job here!!! while the initial meeting of the characters was always the same, the timeline that followed differed each time and jack was always very inventive with how he wanted things to play out. there was always something new and plot-twisty in each timeline which was very entertaining!

i listened to the audiobook and i highly recommend that you do too if you’re hesitant about picking this up because it was very engaging. i think it also helped in not making the plot seem too repetitive because it was much more lively and i had a lot more sympathy for the characters. kudos to the narrator (and god bless audiobooks).

the book genuinely took me by surprise and kind of crept up on me. in the beginning i thought well this is a solid 3 star book but it probably won’t impact me much and but somehow the characters worked their way into my heart and i thoroughly enjoyed this and found myself rooting for jack and kate. i liked this much more than i thought i would and i’m SOO glad i decided to pick this up!!

rep: black main character, black love interest