Again, But Better AKA "The Bop It Book"

Jun 19, 2019
5 min read

I just finished Again, But Better by Christine Riccio! This book has been on my anticipated releases ever since I first watched her first writing video. I have watched Christine for such a long time and I am incredibly proud of her! She put so much work into this book and it is obviously her baby.

This is a review and it will be full of spoilers! Therefore, if you do not want to be spoiled, don't read anymore of this! I repeat: SPOILERS AHEAD!

I read this book in a day, mostly because I really wanted to go to the Barnes and Noble YA Book Club. This book was easy to fly through. It was really cool to hear other's opinions about the book in person and I highly reccomend going to the B&N book clubs!

I loved the premise of this book. As someone who is going on a study abroad trip later this year I was excited to read about one! I saw myself in Shane's character at times and it was really exciting for me. However, the majority of the time I could only see Christine. Because I have watched her channel(s) for so long, I know a lot of things about her. In so many of Shane's interests like Lost, Taylor Swift, and Dan Brown books, I saw Christine shining through. Especially in her blog's name FrenchWatermelon19, which is basically PolandBananas20. This wasn't necessarily a problem but it did detach me from the story at times. The connections were also something that made it special for those who watch her videos.

I did love all of the traveling in this book. I loved when the Flat 3 squad would adventure together. Rome was so much fun and a little stressful! I love the squad! Atticus was super cool and seemed like an awesome guy. Sahra seemed a little stand offish but caring. Pilot was a chill, cool guy. Babe was an awesome friend and it was so obvious she really wanted to help Shane. I wished that Shane would've seen that sooner. There were a lot of things that I wish Shane would've figured out or done sooner, in the first half specifically. I wish she would have communicated with her friends more AND with her family. I understand she was shy but it was very frustrating to see her being used like a doormat by her parents.

As much as Shane's parents pissed me off I understand why they were upset with her. Contrarily, I do not see the majority of their actions as being justified. Her dad was so pushy and controlling. Not only to Shane but to everyone around him as well. All of Shane's friends (plus Amy) were forced to go out to dinner with the parents. Her dad is so incredibly rude to Pilot when he tries to cover for Shane and then when the truth is revealed he had no filter in front of his guests when he called his DAUGHTER a "little shit" in the middle of a restaurant. Meanwhile, her mother didn't do anything to intervene she just shrugged and agreed with the madman.

Speaking of Pilot, (whose name just made me thing of the jar of pens on my desk) his character was not my favorite. He was so bad at confrontation and it annoyed me so much. As someone who has been in Shane's place of finding out a guy who has been blatantly flirting with you has a girlfriend, I did not really like him in parts of the book. He had some redeeming moments later on but I don't know if it was enough.

I felt bad for Amy at first because her boyfriend was flirting with a different girl. It was so awkward when she showed up too. However, I ceased feeling sorry for her when she read Shane's journal. I was livid when Shane found her reading it. That is such an invasion of privacy! I hated it so much. So when Amy showed up in the next half of the book I did not feel sorry for her.

I was super surprised when we skipped ahead to 2017. I had no idea that it was going to go back in time. That woman Shane kept seeing everwhere made me thing there might be an element of magic but I wan't sure. I thought maybe they would all meet up in London again but in 2017 for like a reunion or something. I did think that it was pretty cool though. The beginning of this half of the book was one of the parts I disliked Pilot a lot. This is because he blamed Shane for everything when he was not just an innocent bystander. He admitted that he liked her and that she wasn't imagining things. Obviously he was at fault too.

I did like how Shane's character arc progressed in the second part of the novel. It was cute and all when her and Pilot were having there little romantic getaways but I was not surprised when they had a falling out. Of course the guy who hates confrontation just breaks up with his girlfriend over a voicemail. That is such a shitty thing to do. So when Amy showed up and hadn't heard the voicemail I was kind of happy. Because of Pilot's idiocy, Shane was able to get her shit together and pursue her dreams.

I was so mad when Shane left her internship in the first half of the book and I was pissed when she originally put Pilot before it in the second half. Unsurprisingly I was ecstatic when she made the choice to turn things around and fix her relationships, not only with her coworkers but also her friends. Even before the falling out with Pilot she comforted Babe after Chad was an ass (but what were you expecting from a boy named Chad for goodness sake?). When Shane, Babe, and Sahra went on trips together I was so happy. Sahra did disappear from the book for a while and so did Atticus. That made me sad because I liked them. But, I am glad that Shane saw the importance of friends not just having a boyfriend. Shane became more confident in the years after and I loved seeing how she handled situations differently. She lacked the fear she had previously.

When Shane went of her trip to Edinburgh I was not surprised when Pilot showed up. In the original 2011 Pilot went there with some of his other friends. It was a little obvious. So when he swept her off her feet I was like: Okay yeah that's what I thought. I just wish Pilot had some real consequences for his actions. He cheated on his girlfriend but he still got the girl in the end. But this is a contemporary so I guess its fine. That's what I signed up for.

I did enjoy reading this book but I did have a few problems with it, so a 3.5/5 stars because there is room to grow (get the reference? :D)

I love Christine and this is not an attack on her these are just my opinions on the book. I do look forward to anything she writes in the future.