Here I Go Again is the latest selection from BlogHer’s book club. The book is told from the point of view of Lissy Ryder an uber popular cheerleader who dated the quarterback and picked on every kid she encountered in high school.
As an adult Lissy is no different than she was throughout her teens. She focuses solely on herself. Rather than going to work she spends time at the gym. She talks with her best friend but doesn’t listen to a single word her friend says to her. Eventually her self-involved attitude catches up and she loses her job and her husband and finds herself living in her childhood bedroom.
As the book progresses Lissy has a chance to correct her past and the novel takes you through a series of loops where Lissy returns to right the wrongs she caused so many years ago.
My own high school years weren’t particularly traumatic. I was never picked on and I never felt ostracized. I was smart, thin, tall and moderately attractive. I was the kind of girl who knew who the popular girls were but didn’t want to hang out with them. Even as a teenager I didn’t like the fake feelings they exuded or the backstabbing that I witnessed from afar.
I focused more on being kind to the kids around me. I drove my neighbor to school every day despite the fact that he received a perfect score on the math portion of his SATs. I tended to sit next to the kids in class who didn’t seem to have a lot of friends. At lunch I ate with a bunch of different kids, trying my best not to fall into one group classification or another.
So when I started reading this book all I could think was ‘ugh, not another book about a super popular high school girl who grows up to realize what a bitch she’s been.’ It’s hard to like a character like that, but as the chapters progress the author does find a way to entice readers to turn page after page.
By the last few chapters I couldn’t wait to see if Lissy was going to fix the past in a way that helped her live a more balanced life. This book made me think twice about some of the interactions I’ve had in my own life. (Not necessarily the ones from high school.) I wasn’t mean to others like Lissy, but it did make me wonder how chance encounters might have altered the future of those around me.
I think this book would make a great beach read.
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Note: This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.