'Abigail Willard first spots her from the back of a New York cab: the spitting image of Abby herself at age twenty-two—right down to the silver platforms and raspberry coat she wore as a young artist with a taste for wildness. But the real Abby is now forty-six and married, with a corporate job and two kids. As the girl vanishes into a rainy night, Abby is left shaken. Was this merely a hallucinatory side effect of working-mom stress? A message of sorts, sent to remind her of passions and dreams tossed aside? Or something more dangerous?
'As weeks go by, Abby continues to spot her double around her old New York haunts—and soon, despite her better instincts, Abby finds herself tailing her look-alike. She is dogged by a nagging suspicion that there is a deeper mystery to figure out, one rooted far in her past. All the while, Abby’s life starts to slip from her control: her marriage hits major turbulence, her teenage son drifts into a radical movement that portends a dark coming era. When her elusive double presents her with a dangerous proposition, Abby must decide how much she values the life she’s built, and how deeply she knows herself.'
You Again is a strange kind of narrative, and often times feels more like a stream of consciousness more than a regular prose novel, and really gets into the head of the protagonist, Abigail. In her mid-forties, Abigail is a former artist and party girl who's settled down down, married and had two children, and now spends her days designing packaging and advertisements for pharmaceuticals. Her life isn't empty by any means, but she definitely seems to be stuck in a rut.
This all changed one day when Abigail sees a young woman who looks like her, exactly like her twenty years ago. Whilst at first she thinks this is either just someone who looks very similar, or perhaps some kind of strange hallucination, she keeps running into this young woman, and becomes convinced that she's somehow peeking backwards through time at a version of her that can still change her life and find another outcome.
Amidst this, her teenage son Pete is changing, becoming more and more political, hanging out with new friends that Abigail isn't sure she likes, and joining the ANTIFA movement. When Pete ends up in trouble with the police, Abigail begins to find herself attracted to the lead police officer on his case. With her son starting down a darker path, the temptation of an affair, and these strange sightings of her younger self, Abigail finds her life careening out of control.
There are a lot of interesting plot threads in You Again, and many of these stories are definitely worthy of being told, but due to the story being structured in the form of diary entries, interspersed with doctor emails and psychiatrist notes, none of the plot elements really feel like they've been given enough room to breathe and stand on its own.
For example, the main plot of Abigail seeing her younger self is deeply fascinating, and it raises so many questions about what's going on. Are these incidents simple delusions? Is this another woman who just looks like her and is living a similar life, or is this a split in time? This should be leading the narrative, driving Abigail on to find out more and to get to the bottom of this mystery, but instead this is just something that happens every now and again. This past version of Abigail only appears a handful of times across the year long narrative, and when the two of them interact the present Abigail seems to react like it's a slight bother in her otherwise normal routine. Yes, we can see that this is bothering Abigail more than she lets on thanks to the very personal nature of the narrative and the deep dive we get into her mind and emotions, but I just got frustrated with her for not making it a priority in her life.
Outside of this plot Abigail goes through a number of issues, and finds herself questioning the kind of person she has become and who she wants to be going forward. She has something of an awakening, realising that she's put her dreams and ambitions on the back burner to raise her family; and seems to be sitting on a huge talent in her artwork too.
One of the bigger things that seems to get her to reevaluate her life is her son Pete's interactions with local activist, and their anti-fascist stance. These political leanings are painted as something troubling for Abigail for most of the book, and she finds herself fighting against her urges to get involved too, to find something worth fighting for, that could make a difference. Unfortunately, the book is full of authority figures, such as teachers and police, who try to make the ANTIFA movement seem like something awful, an evil, that for much of the book it seems like Debra Jo Immergut was trying to present anti-fascism as something bad, which I did find a little troubling. But, by the end of the book it's clear that both Abigail and Debra seem to be not just okay with the ANTIFA movement, but view it positively. I think if this was a bit clearer from earlier on my enjoyment would have been increased for sure.
There's a lot in this book to like, a lot of mystery and drama, but the narrative seems to split its focus too much for any of the plots here to really shine or satisfy completely. I really wanted to like this book, and whilst I enjoyed it I left feeling a little let down. Perhaps I went in wanting more of a focus in one particular area, but there's still a lot here to like, and I'm sure that many people will absolutely adore this book.
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