Again Again Book Summary: A Raw Multiverse Tale of Love and Family
Readers searching for a clear, neutral summary of Again Again by E. Lockhart, will find all the essential details below.
Adelaide Buchwald is a rising senior at an elite boarding school.
Her summer begins with a breakup and a family crisis.
The narrative splits into multiple realities, each shaped by a single encounter.
What follows is a structurally inventive story about love, art, addiction, and the versions of ourselves we show the world.
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TL;DR: A Snapshot of Parallel Possibilities
Adelaide Buchwald walks dogs, hides her sadness behind a “sparkly” persona, and faces academic probation at Alabaster Preparatory Academy.
Her brother Toby is recovering from opioid addiction.
Her ex-boyfriend Mikey just broke her heart.
Then she meets Jack Cavallero at a dog run—and the story fractures. Different universes spin out from that meeting: in some, they connect deeply; in others, he stays distant.
Across all timelines, Adelaide wrestles with family trauma, completes a set design project, and ultimately finds her own footing.
Romance comes and goes.
What stays is her growing ability to accept her contradictions and move forward.
Again Again Summary: The Full Story
SPOILER WARNING: This section recounts the complete plot, including the ending.
The novel opens on the third day of Adelaide’s summer job. She walks five dogs—EllaBella, Lord Voldemort, Rabbit, Pretzel, and the Great God Pan—across the Alabaster Preparatory Academy campus.
She is reeling. Mikey Double L, her first love, ended their relationship. He claimed he never truly loved her. He left for a service trip in Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, her younger brother Toby has relapsed. He is a recovering opioid addict. Their mother Rebecca stays in Baltimore to manage his care.
Adelaide lives with her father Levi, an English teacher at Alabaster. She faces academic probation. Her Set Design grade is failing. She must complete a final project—a model for the play Fool for Love—to remain at the school.
The central narrative device is a multiverse.
The story splits based on Adelaide’s choices. The key divergence point occurs at the campus dog run.
She meets Jack Cavallero. In some universes, they recognize each other from a brief encounter years ago in Boston. He wrote her a poem then. In other universes, he has a girlfriend. He stays distant.
Across these parallel threads, Adelaide uses her “sparkly” personality to mask internal distress. She calls her hidden pain the “egg yolk of misery.” Her roommate Stacey S offers blunt, practical friendship.
Adelaide visits the Factory Center for Contemporary Arts. She finds inspiration in human creativity. Her teacher Sunny Kaspian-Lee pushes her hard on the set design project.
In some timelines, Adelaide and Jack share a passionate but short-lived romance. It collapses. Jack believes she wants to be rescued. That perception fractures their connection.
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In other timelines, Mikey returns. He disappoints her again. The pattern repeats.
Throughout everything, Adelaide’s text exchanges with Toby deepen. They discuss the “performance” of sobriety. Toby describes addiction as a “werewolf” living inside him. These conversations grow more honest over time.
Adelaide finishes her set design model. She builds a surreal, gold-covered motel room. It represents love’s toxic yet transcendent nature.
In the final presented reality, Adelaide does not end up with Jack or Mikey. She begins a grounded, gentle relationship with Oscar Moretti. He is a gifted piano player and Jack’s friend.
Oscar leaves for a music conservatory in Michigan. They share a poignant goodbye. They imagine meeting again as adults, years later.
The book closes as Adelaide moves into her dorm for senior year.
She accepts her own contradictions—her sadness, her defenses, her failures. The future feels open, wide with possibility.
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Summary by Chapter
SPOILER WARNING: The following section groups chapters into narrative arcs.
The Inciting Incident & Setup (Chapters 1–11)
Adelaide’s breakup with Mikey Double L coincides with the start of her summer dog-walking job. She meets Jack Cavallero at the dog run, and the narrative begins splitting into parallel worlds based on how that interaction unfolds.
These chapters establish her academic probation at Alabaster Prep and the hidden weight of Toby’s addiction. Adelaide struggles to reconcile her sparkly exterior with the misery underneath.
Multiple Universes & New Loves (Chapters 12–20)
The multiverse deepens as varying choices produce different romantic outcomes with Jack. Adelaide explores a local art museum and starts designing her Fool for Love set, while Stacey provides a sounding board for romantic confusion.
These chapters highlight the precariousness of new love and the challenge of releasing past attachments.
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Truths and Consequences (Chapters 21–24)
Adelaide’s relationship with Toby evolves through honest, difficult text exchanges. She recognizes that both siblings perform for their parents and the world to hide pain.
Amidst these revelations, Adelaide finds a singular creative vision for her school project—one that incorporates the strange grandiosity of human imagination.
Resolving the Multiverse (Chapters 25–33)
The possible worlds reach their respective conclusions. Adelaide confronts the reality of Toby’s recovery and the changing shape of her romantic desires.
The narrative ends with acceptance. Life does not cohere into a single orderly story. It remains a wide field of failures, successes, and open possibilities as she begins senior year.
Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Adelaide Buchwald | Protagonist, a high school senior who uses sparkle and talkativeness to hide internal distress and family trauma. |
| Toby Buchwald | Adelaide’s younger brother, a recovering narcotics addict whose struggle fractures the family. |
| Jack Cavallero | Transfer student and artist with a skeletal limb abnormality; a primary romantic interest in many universes. |
| Mikey Lewis Lieu (Mikey Double L) | Adelaide’s first love and a fencer whose sudden breakup triggers the story’s emotional conflict. |
| Levi Buchwald | Adelaide’s father, an English teacher at Alabaster who tries to maintain normalcy. |
| Rebecca Buchwald | Adelaide’s mother, consumed by worry and the logistics of Toby’s recovery. |
| Stacey S | Adelaide’s blunt, fashionable best friend and roommate who offers practical advice. |
| Oscar Moretti | Gifted piano player and Jack’s friend; Adelaide’s romantic partner in the final possible world. |
| Sunny Kaspian-Lee | Intense Set Design teacher who demands Adelaide complete her project. |
| Terrance | Friend of Oscar and Jack who plays oboe and works at a sandwich shop. |
| Perla Izad | College philosophy student who introduces Adelaide to the multiverse concept. |
The Novel’s Deeper Ideas
| Theme | How the book presents it |
|---|---|
| The Multiverse and Parallel Possibilities | The narrative splits into different realities based on Adelaide’s choices, showing how a single encounter can branch into multiple outcomes. |
| Addiction and the Burden of Recovery on Families | Toby’s opioid addiction and relapse ripple through the Buchwald family, leaving Adelaide managing her own pain while her parents focus on her brother. |
| Self-Presentation vs. Inner Truth | Adelaide deliberately crafts a “sparkly” exterior to conceal what she calls the “egg yolk of misery,” a strategy mirrored by Toby’s performance of sobriety. |
| Heartbreak and the Subjectivity of Love | Mikey’s claim that he never truly loved Adelaide raises questions about whether love itself is a story people tell themselves. |
| Art as a Means of Processing Trauma | Adelaide channels her emotional turmoil into her set design project, creating a surreal gold motel room that reflects love’s duality. |
| Forgiveness of Self and Others | The book’s resolution involves Adelaide accepting her own contradictions, defenses, and failures rather than seeking external validation. |
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FAQ
What happens at the end of Again Again?
In the final presented reality, Adelaide does not end up with Jack or Mikey. She begins a relationship with Oscar Moretti, a piano player who leaves for a music conservatory in Michigan. The novel closes with her moving into her senior-year dorm, accepting her contradictions, and facing a future she sees as wide with possibility.
Does Adelaide end up with Jack in Again Again?
In some parallel universes within the book, Adelaide and Jack share a romantic connection, but it ultimately falls apart. In the final reality, she chooses a relationship with Oscar Moretti instead.
Is Again Again by E. Lockhart a romance novel?
Again Again contains romantic elements across multiple parallel timelines, but it is primarily a young adult contemporary novel focused on family trauma, addiction, identity, and self-acceptance rather than a conventional romance.
What is the multiverse concept in Again Again?
The book uses a multiverse structure where Adelaide’s life splits into parallel realities based on her choices, particularly around her meeting with Jack Cavallero. A philosophy student named Perla Izad introduces her to the idea that multiple possible worlds exist simultaneously.
Who is Toby in Again Again?
Toby Buchwald is Adelaide’s younger brother, a recovering opioid addict whose relapse forces their mother to stay in Baltimore. His struggle with what he calls the “werewolf” of addiction shapes the family’s dynamics throughout the novel.
Why is the book called Again Again?
The title reflects the novel’s multiverse structure, where events happen again and again across parallel realities. It also echoes the repetitive nature of addiction recovery, heartbreak, and the patterns Adelaide must break to move forward.
What age group is Again Again appropriate for?
The publisher lists the reading age as 12 to 17 years, with a grade level of 7 to 9. The book deals with mature themes including opioid addiction, heartbreak, and family crisis within a young adult framework.
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