You and Me on Repeat
by Mary Shyne
Henry Holt and Company, 2025. 220 pages.
Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
2026 Morris Award Finalist
It’s graduation day… again. Yes, this is a time loop graphic novel. It won me over on the first page when, instead of going through the process of the main character figuring out they’re in a time loop, the book starts on Loop 20.
Chris is convinced he’ll get out of the loop if he manages his first kiss with his girlfriend that he was trying to orchestrate at the party after graduation – that keeps getting interrupted in every loop.
But Chris admits that someone else was in the loop first. Alicia, whom he’d been friends with before high school, is the one who pulled him into the time loop. She volunteers to help him get that perfect kiss, though she doesn’t think it’s going to work out.
And it’s just a fun story. They try to divert themselves in various entertaining ways as they repeat graduation day over and over. And when there’s only one person who remembers what you did the day before, you’re going to grow closer.
This book does attach the time loop to physics and even goes for a pseudo-explanation. I don’t buy time loops at all if my mind gets involved – but they’re still lots of fun to read about and just let the explanation go.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/you_and_me_on_repeat.html
Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.
Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.
Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?