As Many Nows as I Can Get

June 3, 2019
Embracing Einstein’s theories of time, debut author Youngdahl offers a complex, compassionately written love story about a freshman college student whose past is very much a part of her present. When the novel opens, native Coloradan Scarlett’s “now” involves a cross-country road trip with college roommate Mina from their school in Maine to California. But Scarlett’s focus keeps looping backward to other “nows,” which focus on her ex-lover David, whose magnetism and increased dependence on drugs drew her to dangerous places the summer after high school graduation. Since then, her obsession with David and their shared passion has affected almost every aspect of her life, causing her to become a distraught, isolated physics student, until level-headed Mina brings Scarlett out of her shell and helps her make perhaps the most important decision of her life. Told nonchronologically and in the first person, Scarlett’s story includes many familiar yet relevant topics, including sexism, drug use, college stress, and ill-fated infatuations. If the book seems overloaded with issues, Scarlett remains a solid, convincing character—although Mina, perhaps the true hero of the story, is disappointingly underdeveloped. Yougdahl’s keen understanding of teen emotions and reactions adds credibility to her story, though, as does her interesting experimentation with structure. Ages 14–up. Agent: Elizabeth Bewley, Sterling Lord Literistic.

August 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-High-achieving students Scarlett and David, who think they have a solid plan beyond high school, find themselves caught up in life-altering decisions and the forces of fate that make them who they are meant to be. When they become unexpectedly attracted to each other before leaving for college, everything changes for them and their friends. Scarlett tells the story in a non-linear timeline, helping the reader piece together the events that create the present, including pregnancy, addiction, and death. The book is well-written with well-developed characters who teach the reader real life lessons, and chapters end with mystery, holding interest until the last word. Readers will feel heartbreak as well as hope along with Scarlett as she tries to fulfill the greatness others say she is destined for and must find ways to deal with roadblocks, even when she creates them. This debut novel evokes emotion and will resonate with teens. VERDICT Older readers will not be able to put this one down and libraries will find it in high demand.-Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 15, 2019
Grief, addiction, first loves, and traveling an unplanned road are among the many themes explored in this debut novel. After growing up in an insular town in Colorado, graduating senior Scarlett has big ambitions. Though she dabbles with alcohol and drugs, her intelligence, drive, and propensity for physics pave her way into college after college. At the same time, her close relationships prove difficult for Scarlett to leave behind: her best friend, Hannah; ex-boyfriend, Cody; and lifelong friend, David, with whom a clandestine romance, replete with a sort of magnetic sexual draw, blooms. Moving between the present and two points in the recent past, her heartfelt yet often sardonic first-person narration fills in the details of this deeply authentic story, realistically portraying how paralyzing unexpected circumstances and tragedy can be. Scarlett herself is marvelously complex, sympathetic but difficult, grief-stricken and funny. Secondary characters are also well developed, imbued with interesting backstories that help frame this study both in how people can break one another and hold each other together. Scarlett and David are both white, Cody is Latinx, and there is some diversity in ethnicity, gender, and sexuality among the people Scarlett meets while at her fictional college in Maine. Lovely, evocative, unadorned writing shines in this smart, poignant story that serious teen readers shouldn't miss. (Fiction. 14-18)

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