Chris O’Brien and Alicia Ochoa can’t cease commencement day. Actually – they’re caught in a time loop and don’t know easy methods to discover their means out of it. You and Me on Repeat by Mary Shyne takes on graduating highschool and all of the enjoyable that entails with a contemporary, sci-fi tinged angle.

Chris and Alicia are former childhood buddies, now estranged classmates and about to be graduates of the category of 2025. Their paths diverged after Chris grew to become one of many fashionable athletes. Senior 12 months’s been powerful, together with his beloved swim coach all of the sudden passing away. He’s able to be performed this highschool nonsense and begin faculty in New York Metropolis alongside his girlfriend Andy. They haven’t had their first kiss but, however the excellent spot for it, the largest social gathering of their teenage lives, is forward of them. When nothing’s going as deliberate, Alicia involves the rescue, taking Chris to the answer to his downside: a swirling portal inside a superstore that may assist him relive the day and make issues excellent. Besides he will get caught alongside Alicia who has been reliving their commencement day again and again on her personal. Can they discover a means out and handle to restart their friendship?

You and Me on Repeat reads like an ideal teenage romcom. There’s the rekindling of outdated relationships, the anxiousness of the long run forward, and naturally, the blow out social gathering to finish all events. The writing, particularly the occasional annotations that dot the pages, even really feel like a voiceover impact whereas studying. However the characters have depth. Alicia is coping with the expectations of being a primary technology faculty pupil. Chris is coping with grief that’s not all the time straightforward to articulate, plus the feelings of your first critical relationship.

The e-book is trendy sufficient with out being too apparent in its references; youngsters will acknowledge personalities and conditions that match their very own lives. There are some references to ingesting and sexual exercise, so it’s higher fitted to older teenagers, these nearer to Chris and Alicia in age. These are solely minimal and actually nothing out of the bizarre for a younger grownup novel of any format.

The coloring is a spotlight of the graphic novel’s artwork. The portal itself is a swirling rainbow, so every particular person loop is coloured in that particular colour sample. New loop, new colour. It additionally helps with the storytelling as a visible cue {that a} new loop is starting but once more. Shyne switches Alicia’s look up all through the e-book too. She tries on totally different appears in some loops, one other clear visible to point out the altering days. It’s enjoyable to see the characters evolve and discover new particulars within the many, many loops we comply with them by.

You and Me on Repeat is about an limitless loop but it surely’s not repetitive storywise. The small print of the loop develop as the times go on and new discoveries proceed to be made. Teen readers who get pleasure from tales with elevated feelings alongside romance will discover themselves each hoping the loop by no means ends and rooting for Alicia and Chris to seek out their methods out.

You and Me on Repeat 
By Mary Shyne
Henry Holt Books for Younger Readers, 2025
ISBN: 9781250851840

Firm Age Ranking: 14-18

NFNT Age Advice: Older Teen (16-18)