I love a good time manipulation story and if you ever watched “The Greatest Hits” then go buy this book. Beautiful to See You (Again) examines loss, grief, and holding on to the past. Keep reading this book review of Beautiful to See You (Again) for my full thoughts.
Summary
Two years ago, she fell in love with her high school’s valedictorian Natty, the awkward boy who’d always adored her. But their summer together ended in tragedy. Now, instead of attending Columbia, Tia works as a dog walker, drifting through New York City and avoiding the future.
Then she discovers a hidden tunnel in Central Park…a tunnel that can take her back: back to Natty and their glorious summer, the summer she thought was gone forever.
But every visit comes at a cost. The more time Tia spends trying to change the past, the harder it becomes to return to the present—where the ambitious film student, Razor Ford, is determined to cast her in his short film…and maybe even pull her out of her grief and remind her that life is still waiting for her.
Caught between then and now, Tia must decide between holding on to what she’s lost—or moving forward to what might be the bravest love story of all.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Beautiful to See You (Again) asks us how much we can hold on to the past. It gives strong “The Greatest Hits” vibes as we wonder how good it is to keep reliving the past. The mistakes we made, the things we should have seen coming, and the moments we can’t let go of. It’s tempting to fall into this grief, to constantly relive the best, and the worst, of someone. But how will we keep honoring their memory, to find a new path forwards, to wonder if this is what they wanted for us. With snippets of Matty and Razor’s thoughts, Beautiful to See You (Again) explores a relationship and the echoes our life leaves.
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There’s this pit in our stomach as we wonder what happened. How this story ends and what happened. Beautiful to See You (Again) asks us how long we can keep the past alive before we become a ghost ourselves. How long can we keep reliving the past? The key isn’t in re-invention, isn’t in running full speed away, it’s in finding a balance between new and old memories. Grief which never leaves us. And love which can live beside it. With a captivating ending, Beautiful to See You (Again) shocked me in the best way. Find Beautiful to See You (Again) on Goodreads, Storygraph, Blackwells, Bookshop. org & Libro. fm.