Begin Again

He doesn't remember being a monster. Everyone else does.

The last thing seventeen-year-old Evan Reed remembers is the summer before ninth grade: drawing comics on his bedroom wall, a kid who would rather sketch robots than throw a football. Then he wakes up in a hospital bed after a crash on homecoming night, with a scar down his face and two years of his life gone.

The boy he's supposed to be is a stranger. Star quarterback. Dating the most popular girl at Harlow Ridge High. And, according to the videos on his own phone, the cruelest person in the school.

His favorite target was Marcus Bennett, a quiet artist Evan called names, humiliated in front of the cafeteria, and tormented for two straight years. Marcus has no interest in Evan's apologies. He doesn't believe in clean slates for people who only forgot the evidence.

But when a ruined art project lands them in detention together, painting a mural after school, Evan begins to see Marcus for who he really is. And for the first time, he starts to feel something he can't explain.

Then the flashbacks begin. A car door slamming. Glass breaking. A pair of white sneakers walking away. The night of the crash isn't what everyone says it was, and the people closest to Evan are hiding something. To find the truth, he'll have to face everything he did, and decide who he wants to be once he remembers.

Begin Again is a YA LGBTQ+ romance and psychological mystery about memory, accountability, and whether a person can truly change. Perfect for readers who love stories about second chances that have to be earned.

Content note: this book includes bullying, homophobic harassment, a car accident, and depression with suicidal thoughts.