Some Other Now

Because her mother has suffered from depression and often abandoned her maternal role in the past, 17-year-old Jessi “adopts” the Cohens. Rowan, the younger Cohen brother, becomes her best friend, Mel becomes the mother she doesn’t have at home, and Luke, the older of the two brothers, becomes her first real romantic crush. A year later, Jessi hasn’t even once visited the Cohen’s home, Mel is sick, and Jessi feels her actions of the previous summer have torn the family apart. But things change when Luke returns from college and asks Jessi to become involved with the family once again, particularly during his mother’s terminal illness.

The story is told from Jessi’s point of view as she deals with major emotional turmoil. She must confront grief and loss and help others to do the same. She also feels overwhelmingly guilty about what has happened in the Cohen household. To top it off, Jessi and those around her don’t communicate very well, and so a great deal is left unsaid or assumed which leads to many misunderstandings. While readers can appreciate Jessi’s turmoil and stress, it is more difficult to appreciate her melodramatic and self-absorbed character. In her own mind, it seems that everything revolves around her and what she did, or didn’t do, or might have done. Her story is a long line of “What if….?”, and her apparent inferiority complex makes it difficult to understand her, let alone like her. As the central character, she doesn’t have much appeal and really doesn’t change until the rather rushed ending in the final few pages.

Jessi’s parents also play an important role in the novel, and unfortunately their relationship with their daughter is strained and negative. While there is an attempt made at some communication and understanding at the end of the novel, readers never see a supportive and loving family dynamic.

The other major characters are the Cohen family. Mel is perhaps the most interesting and likeable character in the novel. Despite health problems and other issues, she remains feisty and strong as long as possible and often provides both some humour and some ‘grounding’ for the story. Younger son Rowan doesn’t give readers many reasons to like him, and Luke disappears and then re-appears in Jessi’s life, not providing much solid support for her despite being the romantic lead of the story.

Both families are mixed race, but this does not play a huge role in the overall novel and has little impact on the plot other than readers learning about the racist reactions at the time when Jessi’s parents – a mixed-race couple – decided to marry.

The novel takes on many serious issues such as dealing with grief and loss, the ups and downs of love and relationships and the meaning of just what a family is. Everett also touches on themes of mental illness and depression as well as the terrible consequences of binge drinking. All of these themes weave in and out of the story and add to the interest and emotional impact of the book.

The book is written with flashbacks from ‘now’ to ‘then’, referring to the terrible incident which fractured the relationship Jessi had with the Cohen family. While this might be confusing at first, readers soon understand the references and changes which differentiate the two worlds and the title, Some Other Now becomes more clear. Because the focus is so entirely on Jessi and her inner teenage angst and emotion, the plot feels very slow in places and seems to have little forward impetus. After many pages of Jessi’s emoting and introspection, the denouement seems rushed and the questions of Jessi’s relationships with her family and with Luke are not clearly resolved.

Readers who like to ride a roller coaster of emotions and who want to put their armchair psychology to use will enjoy Some Other Now, Sarah Everett’s third young adult novel.