Judith’s review of (Never) Again by Theresa Paolo
Just when she had finally moved on…
…He moved back.
When college freshman Liz Wagner hears her ex’s voice for the first time since he moved clear across the freaking country, she does what any respectable girl would do: Dive into the girls’ bathroom.
Zach Roberts—the Zach Roberts—is back. And he’s everywhere Liz looks—infiltrating her friend group, buddy-buddy with her brother. It’s enough to ruin college altogether. But what choice does she have but to put on a happy face and pretend he didn’t leave her vulnerable and alone in a pile of emotional wreckage?
Pretending works, until tragedy strikes and the only person available for comfort is the one person she wants to stay away from. When Zach turns out not to be the jerk she convinced herself he was, but the boy she used to love, Liz needs to decide whether to open her heart again to the boy who tore it out.
There are a ton of novels that have come out in recent months that are based on the premise that the hero jilted/left without a word/broke the heart of the heroine years before. This novel embraces that premise but applies it to individuals who are literally beginner adults–college students and in the case of Liz, a young woman who has not yet recovered from the hurt of a high school crush gone sour. The novel is written in the heroine’s voice and I have to say up front that I have never liked that form of narrative as well as a third person style. Yet there is a winsome quality to Liz. It is hard to warm up to her, though. She is so very young and so very naive in relation to her personal responses to the emotional circumstances wherein she finds herself. It’s also one of the reasons I don’t read as much young adult fiction as some other reviewers.
That being said, my positive response to this book waned as the story progressed. Emotions are illogical and yet there are logical responses available to young and old alike when it comes to determining the validity of a relationship. It was painful to watch Liz’s involvement with Joe–a man who simply treated her like s____! And knowing that her fear of repeated hurt kept her in that relationship made me ill at ease and sometimes really angry. The author is to be commended for being up front and honest about the negatives in these relationships–the stuff many young people experience and the kinds of ups and downs emotionally we have all gone through as we have dealt with the challenges of life. That Liz had a lack of maturity is, I think, accepted by most of those who have read this story. Yet she did come to her senses eventually. However, to my way of thinking, not soon enough. There were times when I thought her behavior so immature I wondered why Zach even wanted to bother with her. I guess it speaks to his determination to be honest about his feelings even when he had to be aware that Liz was as skittish as a young colt.
I was disappointed in so many ways with this novel but that is not to say that possibly that response has more to say about me as a person than about the book itself. I am willing to take the responsibility for that negative response. The author has written a finely crafted story in and of itself. I just didn’t think it lived up to the hype. I know there is a particular pain in being young and perhaps that is the most authentic aspect of this story that the writer was able to capture. It’s too bad that Liz and Zach couldn’t have found their way back to one another as adults and not as people with an arrested case of adolescent development emotionally.
I give this novel a rating of 2 out of 5
You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This title is available from InterMix. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Leave a Reply