When a vote was taken at my YA-for-adults book club regarding If I See You Again Tomorrow by Robbie Couch, there was not one person who didn’t like it. It was about half-and-half people who liked it and people who found it “middling.” I was probably somewhere between these two positions, but I raised my hand for “like it” because overall I did. And for what it is and is meant to be, well, I enjoyed it and there were aspects about it that I really sunk into. Plus, I felt like people were being way too hard on how Clark behaved, stuck alone in a time loop for almost a year. Walk a mile in his shoes, people!

Clark has been stuck reliving the same day for 309 days and every one has been basically the same. On day 310, everything is different. Okay, so maybe not everything, but any little thing—like the appearance of another person in his time loop—seems like an enormously big deal. But when Beau, obviously attracted to Clark as much as he is to him, disappears (on purpose?) the next day, Clark is left grappling with what might be even more lonely days, trying desperately to riddle his way out of this hell by doing all the things Beau would normally do. Because his therapist told him to? Basically.

My husband likes reading time travel books and watching time travel shows. I do too? Though I wouldn’t list it as a genre I seek out. I do enjoy reading YA, or at least I tolerate some and enjoy some while I write my own. I was happy to find a book club that reads YA, though it might be distracting me from the YA titles I was going to read (from Save the Cat Writes a YA Novel and my own personal list of classics and whatever new and intriguing titles are landing on bookstore tables). I probably never would have gotten to this one; I have never seen it around. But I am basically glad that I did. While it was far from perfect or from one of my favorites, I had a fun time with the thought-experiment that this book really is at heart.

Here’s the thing the people of my book club would like you to know if you are considering reading this book: it is not a romance. It may look like one. The cover copy may make it sound like one. But it is not. There is a romance in it (specifically LGBTQ+). But it is a coming-of-age story inside a cocoon of modern, light sci-fi. The only thing fantastical about it, in fact, is the time loop. Otherwise, we have a teen who is learning life lessons and struggling with intense loneliness. Personally, I see it as a Pandemic book. And if anyone here remembers the reality of the Pandemic, they are going to understand Clark’s struggles in this book. Plus being a teen. You remember that too, presumably? The romance takes a back seat to all this other stuff and, quite frankly, the love interest is in the book for only a few brief moments here and there. (I think there is some legitimacy to the suggestion that the romance should have been left out of the book entirely. I don’t think it would have suffered for it. But would it have sold? Would you have looked twice at it?)

(My current protagonist is named Chuck, by the way, and I hope I don’t accidentally call Clark, Chuck. But I may. You may point this out to me.)

There is a question of whether or not Clark’s lesson-learning is boring for the reader or, maybe worse, cheesy. There is an element of Hallmark to some parts of this story, which I guess we could call “cozy.” But, like I said, I was having a nice, pleasant time wondering how I would react and how I would behave in Clark’s situation. I believed the way he was responding and acting because it rang true to me from Pandemic experiences. (Who knew ahead of time that being forced into being home for many moons would lead, not to deep-cleaning your house, mastering skills, writing novels, or playing every board game in the world with your family, but eventually to loneliness, apathy, often guilt, and depression? Even if you did get some things done or enjoy a little alone time as an introvert.)

Since we’re talking about how If I See You is not a romance, let’s point out that the side-character game with this one is strong. I will agree with some that many of the side-characters came across as NPCs (non-player characters in video game terminology). There is a reason for this, and it’s that it’s awfully hard to develop a character—and especially a relationship—while only one of the characters is changing in absolutely any way. The rest of the characters aren’t even aware of the passage of time as we are experiencing it in the book. They’re necessarily stagnant, so Couch did the smartest thing he could and reached into their past to reveal their characters over time. However, this is imperfect, and there is a cardboard-cutout element to them all. Still, they are warm, engaging, and fun side characters and the book is full of them.

I also hear that many readers don’t like Beau, the love-interest. The main reason is that we don’t see him much, don’t get to know him. That is totally valid and why this book is not a romance. Other people just didn’t like either how impulsive and crazy Beau was or that he constantly pushes away from real attraction and possibility—from health. Personally, I’m like, these kids are kids. And they are alone and depressed. There is almost nowhere to go for help. What an impossible situation for a developing person! I guess I took Clark at his word and threw in a dash of compassion and another of teenager-reality. Clearly Clark was interested in this guy. And must every reader forget at the end that the reality is not Beau’s understanding of it, but Clark’s. Are they soul mates? We don’t get an answer to that in this book. So, if you want to believe that they aren’t, then fine. There is something connecting them, but I will leave that to you to find out when you read the book; it’s just not necessarily romance.

Speaking of the ending, some people complain about the suddenness. Couch basically wrote a denouement or climax to his book without a resolution—the stuff at the end that ties it all up and ushers our imagination off the page. Not like this is the first time an author has done this, but plenty of readers don’t like that. I was maybe disappointed. But not too much. Why? Because in the lead-up to the ending (which did ramp up rather quickly after a much slower narrative pace for most of the book) Couch gives us all the information we need to know what is going to happen after the climax. And-and-and the whole point is that tomorrow isn’t written yet! We know how Clark has changed, what he has learned, and what the set-up is. Without a time loop, time is a blank page, baby. That’s the beauty—and the scariness—of it. And the reader is left to think about their own tomorrow, a tomorrow without the universe interceding if they mess up massively.

I am hardcore defending this book. (It has great reviews, overall, by the way.) I might have cried a l’il bit.

If I See You went fast. It is on the light side. I was apprehensive that I was going to hate it because I hate Groundhog’s Day: I have ADHD and repetition is death to me. However, Couch handled repeating the days well; picking up on day 309 helped. I liked the unique approach to the time loop story, especially regarding a more realistic response (as opposed to zooming around like the world’s most gifted researcher and breaking out—I mean, was there even a way out? Says who?). Beau might have been a manic pixie dream boy, but I believed the story when it coaxed me toward Clark and Beau being destined to meet one another. You’ll have to see for yourself. It’s a time loop novel with a distinctly YA and mellow, cozy tone. I enjoyed it.

“Vulnerability. It’s contagious…” (p7).

“Because, if there’s one thing I’ve learned while being Trapped, it’s that time may be able to warp many things, but it can never destroy the life I’ve shared with the people I love—regardless if I shared all seventeen years, or just a single afternoon of running errands” (p312).