Here We Go Again

                                

Title: Here We Go Again

Author: Alison Cochrun

Published: Atria Books, April 2, 2024

Pages: 364

Genre: LGBT Romance

A long time ago, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends. They spent their childhood summers running through the woods, rebelling against their conservative small town, and dreaming of escaping. But then an incident the summer before high school turned them into bitter rivals. After graduation, they went ten years without speaking.

Now in their thirties, Logan and Rosemary find they aren’t quite living the lives of adventure they imagined for themselves. Still in their small town and working as teachers at their alma mater, they’re both stuck in old patterns. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other—and their complicated past—they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.

But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they’re forced together once and for all to fulfill his last wish: a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip—from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine—that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.

Be extra sure to check your content and trigger warnings on this one. The whole point of this road trip is a one last adventure for a parental figure to both of these women. So you really have to be ready to sit with some grief to make it through this one.

For a book about a death road trip, there were a shocking number of additionally heavy themes. Addiction and sobriety, coming out, being gay in various parts of the United States of America, parental neglect and abandonment, parental death, anxiety and abandonment issues, etc. All of these things are touched on. And every single one of them made me sit with it and feel things about it. Rude.

In saying that, it's lovely. Their entire adventure is incredible. The idea that they loved this man enough to drive him from Oregon to Maine while he's using a wheel chair and adult diapers is pretty powerful. The care that they show one another, even in the midst of "hating" the other, is pretty great too. 

I love a good physical journey to represent the internal journey our characters are facing. Progress being made, backslides to contend with, unplanned detours and road bumps along the way. We love a good metaphor around here. You just really have to be in a solid place emotionally, and willing to feel some big feelings, to get through this one. But it's a beautiful story.

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Spice: 2/5