Repeat by Neal Pollack (Book Review)

Disclosure of material connection- I received a copy of the book in exchange for my honest thoughts from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own. 

About the book-

Through strange metaphysical circumstances, failed screenwriter Brad Cohen finds himself caught in an infinite time loop, forced to relive the first forty years of his life again and again. Each “repeat,” Brad wakes up in the womb on what was supposed to be his fortieth birthday, with full knowledge of what’s come before. In various timelines, he becomes a successful political pundit, a game-show champion, a playboy, and a master manipulator of the stock market, but none of them seem to lead him out of his predicament. As he realizes he wants to break out of the loop and find the love of his life—the one he hadn’t appreciated the first time around—Brad tries, fails, and tries again to escape the eternal cycle of birth and rebirth. Repeat answers the question: If you could live half your life over, would you do things differently? Be careful what you wish for! Repeating is enough to drive a dude crazy.

My thoughts-

As a general rule, I will read pretty much anything having to do with the space/time continuum. There is just something about being in another time or another dimension that intrigues me. I have read a lot of novels about time travel, but I think Repeat is the first one about a time loop that I have stumbled upon. I found it to be an interesting premise- what would you do if you had to repeat your life on a continuous loop? Would you try to change things or keep on the same path for the most part? Brad is doomed to repeat 40 years of his life on a continuous loop, reborn again each year right before his 40th birthday. He keeps all memories and wisdom with him even as he navigates infancy and childhood again. Some of the funniest part in the book to me are when Brad is a kid and because of the way he talks comes off as a precocious child rather than the adult trapped in a smaller body that he actually is. I do wonder why he takes so long to maybe let his life happen again as it did the first time, he gets greedy in his life cycles and uses knowledge from big events in history to cash in. I feel sorry for Brad because the more time loops he goes through, the more lonely he seems to get. Overall I thought this was an interesting book, but for some reason Brad and his wife constantly referring to each other as dude rubbed me the wrong way. Other than that, I enjoyed Pollack's writing style. If strong language doesn't bother you, I recommend this book to readers interested in books that explore time travel or the space/time continuum.


Repeat will be available on March 24. You can pre-order it on Amazon.com.