Name: The Loop
ISBN: 9781423160892

Shandy Lawson

In New Orleans, Louisiana, star-crossed teens Ben and Maggie try to find a way to escape the time loop that always ends in their murder.

The Loop

Reyna Wren

Fast paced and interesting, this book offers some similarities to a modern-day Romeo and Juliet combined with a beat-the-clock thriller.

The Good:
- Interesting premise
- A clever and intense plot. I liked that it was fast-moving, without ever letting me know what was going to happen next, or leaving me bored. However, there were many unexplained things.
- Reasonably good characters. It was interesting to see Maggie and Ben interact, and Roy and and Steve were also fairly intriguing.
- A twist on the whole "Love at First Sight"/Insta-Love vibe that annoys me in many YA novels. (view spoiler)[It was neat to see Maggie and Ben fall in love, since they actually knew each other for a long time, but were experiencing it as a single day. (hide spoiler)]
- A very intriguing look at time, fate, and choice.

The Bad:
- A very vaguely explained premise. (view spoiler)[What causes the loops? Why do only certain people experience them? And also, if time moves along smoothly for people not in the loops, is the way that you get out of the loop not predetermined? For example, if Maggie and Ben always die at the end of their loop, would their parents not continue to experience life with them dead? Is it a thing of Maggie and Ben creating an alternate universe where they are still alive, in which case they would have to create an alternate future every time they go through the loop and change things, or is it a case of there being only one timeline/universe/future in which they do live because that is the last time they go through the loop? If that is the case, then would Maggie and Ben's parents only experience the last version of the loop, or go through all of them without being unconscious of it and only go back into regular time after Maggie and Ben break the loop?
My brain hurts. (hide spoiler)]
- A plot that sometimes didn't make sense. (view spoiler)[If the whole point is that time loops are predetermined loops of an exact period of time which you have to relive, then why does the loop not break once Maggie and Ben have lived past the point in time? How can they go back and start the loop again once they have lived past the end of it? Also, what happens to Steve? He noted that he read in the newspaper that they died at the end of their loop, so did them living break him out of his loop/kill him/find some other way to get rid of him? Is he living on in another dimension where Maggie and Ben are still dead? And Roy said that he doesn't really know what happens after the loop ends, and he seems to just cease to exist. However, he ends up dead in at least one version of the loop, so are there alternate versions of him running around in Steve's alternate universe where Maggie and Ben died? WHY IS NONE OF THIS EXPLAINED??!!? (hide spoiler)]
- Characters with little fleshing out/backstory and some annoying characteristics. (view spoiler)[Steve exists only to help give them information, and while he does have a bit of a backstory, it's never really explained what happens to him, or who he is. Roy literally has no characterization beyond "I must kill you," and that is even slightly explored. What is/was his life like? Why isn't he able to fight the loop? Why isn't he trying to fight the loop? What is is favourite colour or hobby, what is his family like, is he married, does he have anybody he loves? He seems to almost be just a personification of fate, in which case, does he even have a past/future? If he is literally just created by fate to kill Maggie and Ben, then did they just kill fate? If they did, then how could they be in another loop at the end of the book as it is eluded to? Or is he more of just a part of fate, and killing him was just like taking a finger puppet off of your hand and ripping it apart, with no damage done to yourself? If fate is still alive in that sense and able to hurt Maggie and Ben, then why did it let them live for at least a year without hurting them at all, when it seemed so convinced to kill them, even outside of the time of their original time loop? (hide spoiler)]
- This completely ridiculous and slightly offensive quote:
"Now that he's gone, I can feel how much of my strength was actually drawn from his. Or maybe our strength came from simply being together; all I know is that without him I feel weak, inside and out.
So this is being in love."
P. 169
(I added the sarcastic bolding and italicizing, but this is a real quote.)

There were parts of the book that I did enjoy, but also large unexplained notions. So, in the end, I simply feel confused and conflicted.

Lisa Collins

Well, shit!

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A bit Groundhog Day, a bit Shakespearean tragedy… The Loop by Shandy Lawson was one of those rare books I picked up with almost no knowledge about it and ended up liking very much. My sister-in-law had mentioned seeing it at the library, so when I saw it on the shelf I just grabbed it. My thought pattern was “Well… she reads the synopsis before picking up books, so if she checked it out it must not be bad!” Honestly, guys. That’s how it was.

If I’m being honest with you: it took me, like, two months to actually pick the book up. I guess I wasn’t being drawn to it. But I could have sent it back and I didn’t, so that says something. I’m here to tell you, though, that I’m very glad I didn’t take The Loop back to the library without reading it. There were two main reasons I finally did read the book:

 
	 It’s quite short and quick. It’s not fluffy. It’s just only 198 pages, give or take, and that takes no time to read. 
	 That is one intriguing concept. 
 
“Lisa, it’s intriguing? You just compared it to Groundhog Day, so surely it’s been done before.” Um… no. The Loop is actually a really depressing story. These two kids are running around desperately trying to find ways to not die at the end of the day… like they always do. Can you imagine that? And I’m not talking peacefully falling asleep and not waking up or anything… I mean bad deaths.

And the time loop had a mind of its own, which I thought was super cool. It’s almost like the time loop was a person, bending people to its will and helping them to make decisions. (READ: Telling them what to do.) It was crafty and smart and so well done. The characters actually started calling the loop “she” because it seemed so… human. LOVED IT.

The characters were, while not extremely significant in any special way, likable. Brave is one word that is screaming out at me as I’m trying think of how to describe the main characters. While Ben has trouble remembering the past cycles of the time loop, Maggie remembers quite a lot… especially the fact that they die. They’re well aware of that fact and instead of giving up and just saying “Screw it!” they keep trying to find ways to stop it or break out of the loop. Their bravery and persistence is what kept me reading until the end. Everything was being shoved back in their faces and I couldn’t wait to read how they were going to get past it.

The Loop was honestly a very happy surprise. Aside from a few small things (that aren’t even worth mentioning) I enjoyed every bit of this book. The end was “OMG!” for me and I thought it was sort of perfect. I just want to say so much about this book but can’t because it would ruin the review. I definitely recommend this to basically anyone (especially so we can talk about it!).