Me Myself & Him

May 15, 2019
Two what-if paths happen in tandem for a teen well-versed in the multiverse. After a casual encounter with a whippet (the huffing kind, not the dog) Chris Schweitzer wakes up wondering how to explain his visit to the ER. He could lie and say he tripped over a milk crate; coming clean about his derelict behavior would be all kinds of uncomfortable (like the moving 2,000 miles to spend the summer with his famous theoretical physicist father or else forfeit college tuition kind of uncomfortable). So...he does both. Chris experiences the deconstruction of his friend triptych (besties Wexler and Anna hook up), the awkward waves of addiction group therapy, a boyfriend with all the benefits, a born-again alliance, and a family wedding. Chris and friends philosophize and theorize on existence, physics, and religion every step of both ways. They posit what-ifs that happen within the next chapter or have just happened in the previous one. Subtle typeset variations visually segregate the parallel stories. Diagrams peppered throughout meant to clarify can be confusing, muddled, and superfluous. As two different Chrises unwittingly inspire and respond to each other's worlds, the white cast and dual narrative serve to make Chris realize he should be accountable for his own behavior. Would a sharper focus on only one of the universes have been better for narrative, conflict, and character development? Theoretically. This take on a trusted formula tries too hard to be different and ends up becoming overcomplicated. (Fiction. 13-18)

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May 27, 2019
Chris Schweitzer’s ideal Green River, Ohio, summer looked very different from the one that he’s living. It definitely didn’t involve being busted for doing whippits in the alley behind work and then shipped off to California to work under his genius physicist dad, who left the family years earlier. That he’s made to go to drug counseling every week and torn from his two best friends in their last summer before college feels to Chris like extra helpings of unfair. But what if Chris hadn’t been forced to leave his summer plans behind? Told in alternating chapters, one story follows Chris west, while the other follows an alternate timeline detailing what would have happened had he not been caught. Tebbetts creates entertaining dual narratives, but the ambitious genre meld—fantasy, sci-fi, religious, and coming-of-age story—falls short in delivering a coherent plot and leaves too many threads dangling. The hidden parallels linking each alternate-reality story, though, create enjoyable Easter eggs that sci-fi fans may enjoy. Ages 14–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

June 1, 2019

Gr 10 Up-After high school senior Chris Schweitzer passes out from doing whippets behind the restaurant where he works, his parents and employer find out about his illicit activities. Chris ends up losing his job and is sent to California to live with his emotionally distant and authoritarian father the last summer before college. Things aren't quite as dire as they seem, though, because in this reality Chris meets his first love, the handsome and mysterious Swift. In a different reality Chris isn't caught-he spends his last summer with his friends in his small Ohio town. What at first seemed like a better ending to the ill-fated night becomes a rot that pollutes Chris's entire summer. The secrets and lies hover over him, a constant reminder that he is one slipup away from being exposed, and the quality time he planned on spending with friends ends up not being what he expected. Chris finds himself a very lonely third wheel when his two best friends start dating. This is an engaging story that examines love, relationships, and the different paths one's life can take. VERDICT For fans of Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli's What if It's Us, Bill Konigsberg's The Music of What Happens, and Robyn Schneider's The Beginning of Everything.-Ellen Fitzgerald, Naperville Public Library, IL

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Starred review from May 15, 2019
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* So, here's the story?er, stories, for there are two of them in this wildly ingenious novel. Both feature the same protagonist, Chris Schweitzer. Both have the same catalyst: the gay, rising college freshman hu�ffs some nitrous oxide and passes out - at. In one version of the story, the truth outs and Chris is sent to California from his small-town Ohio home to live with his obnoxious father, a famous physicist. In the second version, Chris stays in Ohio with his best friends Anna and Wex. The three teens' friendship begins to change awkwardly when Wex and Anna fall in love, leaving Chris a third wheel, lonely for love himself. Meanwhile, California Chris meets a boy with the improbable name of Swift, and the two fall in like, maybe in love. So we have two parallel versions of the same story and, thanks to Chris' father's profession, lots of musings about the multiverse and parallel universes. When Ohio Chris then has to go to California for his father's wedding, will the parallel lines bend and somehow unite the two stories? If all of this sounds a bit confusing, it is?at first. But readers will quickly become accustomed to the conceit and enjoy the clever story and extremely well-realized characters. Altogether, the novel's a winner in this and any other universe.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)