Maybe in Another Life

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

2 out of 5 stars

I wanted to love this one more than I did.

Maybe in Another Life is an early Taylor Jenkins Reid novel, and it shows. Not in a damning way, but in the sense that the formal ambition here slightly outstrips the emotional execution that would become her signature in later work.

The setup is genuinely clever: Hannah Martin, twenty-nine and slightly adrift, runs into her high school boyfriend at a bar after coming home. She has to choose: leave with her best friend Gabby, or stay a little longer with Ethan. The novel then follows both choices simultaneously in alternating chapters, tracing the dramatically different lives each decision produces.

TJR uses this structure to explore questions about fate and free will with genuine thoughtfulness, and there are moments, particularly in the Gabby storyline, where she finds the emotional depth the concept deserves. The message about how different lives can still be good lives, just differently good, is tender and real.

Where it fell short for me was in Hannah herself. She felt slightly more like a vehicle for the conceit than a fully realized person, and I found myself less invested in her romantic outcomes than the structural cleverness of the novel wanted me to be.

For TJR completionists, and for readers who love a formally inventive concept, this is worth your time. Just temper expectations if you're coming from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or Daisy Jones.

🫖 Tea Pairing: Decaf English Breakfast; familiar but missing something

🎵 Soundtrack: "The Road Not Taken" isn't a song, but you know the feeling

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