As Many Nows As I Can Get tells a familiar story in a complex and fresh new way

Shana Youngdahl’s debut novel, As Many Nows As I Can Get, tells a typical teen story in a very untypical way, and creates something entirely new in the process.

There are tons of teen stories in the world of YA fiction about first loves, life changes, poor decisions and leaving home – but few of them feel as relevant or necessary these days as As Many Nows As I Can Get does.

Shana Youngdahl’s debut novel puts a fresh spin on the old trope of problematic teen love, telling the story of an overachieving young girl who’s drawn to a charismatic boy with a dark problem, and the far-reaching aftereffects of an impulsive summer together.

Scarlett Oliveira is a standout student with a love of physics and a desire to change the world. As she leaves high school, she’s pretty much got everything – she has a full scholarship to a good college, she founded a successful nonprofit to help lower income kids become involved in STEM fields, and a firm grip on exactly the kind of person she wants to become.

Until she doesn’t.

Scarlett struggles to say goodbye to the small Colorado town she was raised in, and to leave the people within it behind. A clandestine moment with local golden boy David Warren, her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, turns into something more, and Scarlett finds herself desperately drawn to him, and all he represents to her, even as she wants to turn away. (This relationship is obviously a complicated one, but the development feels natural within the world of the story.) And after spending a wild, life changing summer with David, Scarlett discovers it’s maybe not so easy to go back to the girl she used to be.

As Many Nows As I Can Get wrestles with issues of grief, loss, self-determination, sex, hope, drug use, friendship and even the nature of time itself at various points. The story is told in the first person, by way of Scarlett writing down a journal for a school project, for a reason that will become fairly obvious about a third of the way through the story. Its narrative is laid out in a uniquely non-linear fashion – in a nod to Einstein, one of Scarlett’s heroes – who believed in the relative nature of time.

When the story begins, Scarlett’s “now” is a cross-country road trip after her first year of college, but it’s spliced with many other “nows” (or “thens,” I suppose, depending on how you choose to look at things).  Her summer with David, her initial days at college and even her time with her first boyfriend Cody are all spliced together into a something that doesn’t really follow a straight line, but is nevertheless an extremely compelling read that’s difficult to put down.

The shifting timeline not only makes the more predictable elements of the story feel like something brand new, it also deftly plays with the idea of memory, and the ways we choose to memorialize the people in our lives and categorize the things that happen to us. (It’s hard to remember the exact order things happened in college, sometimes, let’s just put it that way.) Scarlett’s story – despite some of the more dramatic elements – is nevertheless very relatable, from her anxiety about living up to the image she’s created of herself as Graceville’s best and brightest, to her excitement over achieving goals she’s worked so hard for, to her regret and despair when she makes all too human mistakes. She’s a fantastic narrator, and despite the novel’s frequently heavy subject matter, her sarcastic, sardonic tone keeps things from feeling too like an after school special.

Because make no mistake, As Many Nows As I Can Get deals with several complex and tough topics. But no matter what happens, Youngdahl’s work never feels as though it’s judging the characters, just reporting the truth of what happened in their lives. And some of that truth is difficult – opioid addiction is a major subplot, and the novel doesn’t shirk from authentically displaying the damage that drugs can wreak in people’s lives, no matter how well meaning they might be otherwise. It also shows the hold that these sorts of pills can have over those who use them, and the desperate acts that they might be driven to as a result.

(This is one of those books that’s so hard to discuss without spoilers, but I promise: It’s worth it to go in knowing as little as possible about the way the plot will go.)

Because As Many Nows As I Can Get is the kind of story that will stick with you long after you turn the final page.

As Many Nows As I Can Get is now available at booksellers everywhere.