Cassandra in Reverse: A Reese's Book Club Pick

This book was fantastic! I would give it six stars if I could. Cassandra is autistic and trying so very hard to understand other people and do the right thing. After reading this book, I had a much better understanding of what it means to be autistic and be constantly misunderstood.

Of course, wouldn't we all just love to rewind some of the things we've done or said? Cassie discovers she can close her eyes and go back in time and do and say things differently. Your heart will be filled with compassion as you see her struggle with love, work, and roommates. She desperately does not want to lose Will who she loves dearly and goes back again and again to remedy her faux-pas. She gets dumped over and over, but perseveres. She is also simultaneously trying to avoid getting fired from her job as a PR representative for a company selling skin care products for men and maintain peace in the apartment she shares with Sal and Derrick so she won't be thrown out and living on the streets.

Cassie is a beautiful young woman, inside and out. She really wants to get along with others, learn from her mistakes, and develop friendships; she just doesn't know how. Her estranged relationship with her sister, Artemis, also complicates the plot and the new timeline she has created.

This is not a silly fantasy of time travel, but a story of a young woman desperate for love, acceptance, and personal growth. Trying to fit in with neurotypicals (people without autism) is exhausting. She really stops and thinks about what she did or said that ruined a relationship and tries to fix it. She is caring beyond belief and begins to understand her co-workers, her roommates, and her former boyfriend. As she grows and changes, she learns how to develop friendships and value what is really important in life. She became self-less and show true compassion for her co-worker, Sophie, her roommate, Sal, and her sister. All of this is extremely difficult for her and you begin to understand the dilemmas that autistic people face on a daily basis.

There's also a lot of humor in this book, making it a delightful story. I would highly recommend this book. It is clearly, by far, the best book I have read this year.

This book caught me by surprise. I questioned the reality of me so many times. It's hard rationalizing in your 40s that everything perceptibly wrong with you is a symptom of autism, is quite a shake. From misunderstanding a person's motivations, or miscalculating or misinterpreting. To constantly wondering if you've done or said the wrong thing, the over thinking, the over processing every interaction, the fear of rejection, the distancing of self and the cognitive delay. I'm shook. But in the end, i really love Cassandra, and hopefully people out there love me too.

I loved this book! The world is a better place with people like Cassandra in it. So many of us try and change what makes us, us. Why do we do that?

Enjoyed the read. However I.misunderstood the ending. Know that I understand it my rating went down. 7 to 5.

Despite taking a bit to get into, I really enjoyed this book. Cassandra was complex and the way she learned certain life lessons was very touching. I thought the book had a powerful lesson about family and how we shouldn’t view ourselves based on only how others see us.