Like Nothing Amazing Ever Happened Is a Moving Story of Grief and Acceptance

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

The day I finished reading Minnesota-raised author Emily Blejwas’s new middle-grade novel, Like Nothing Amazing Ever Happened, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic. Two days later, a national emergency was declared in the United States. For many of us, that was the beginning of making major adjustments to our daily lives, forcing us to redefine what “normal” looks like. I know for me it’s been emotionally difficult to cope at times, and it’s only now that I realize just how relevant Blejwas’s novel is to the current state of things.

Set in the early ’90s, Like Nothing Amazing Ever Happened is more of a character study than a plot-driven narrative. The main focus in on Justin, a middle school boy who just lost his father in a trolley accident a few months prior. In the midst of handling his own grief, he worries about his family making enough money and struggles to accept the why behind his father’s passing. By allowing himself to make connections with his peers and adults in his small town, Justin starts to create a new normal and accept the uncertainty of what will happen in the future.

Blejwas does an excellent job at making her characters relatable and sympathetic. Justin is understandably lost in his own thoughts about his father a lot of the time, but he’s still a middle school boy, and his dry humor comes through every so often, which I loved. Justin’s older brother, Murphy, is working more shifts at his job at KFC, forgoing baseball in favor of helping their mother out financially; he’s also a vocally critical fan of the North Stars hockey team, dismaying that their losing streak may be permanent. Justin’s mother, while understandably still mourning the loss of her husband, works hard to support her family and is a pillar of support when she needs to be, easily bantering with Justin about mundane things and helping to lighten the mood.

Justin’s quest to find meaning behind his father’s death is incredibly heartbreaking to read. His father was a Vietnam War vet who hid his trauma with alcohol, leading to him stumbling into the path of an oncoming trolley. The possibility that he may have died on purpose does not escape Justin, which makes him all the more determined to make sense of things. Not knowing would mean having to accept the fact that Justin didn’t really know his father at all, or at least not as well as he thought. His best friend, Phuc, introduces him to the idea of multiple universes all existing at the same time, much like the concept of Schrödinger’s cat, and Justin clings to this theory, insisting that there may be an alternate reality where his father is alive (or where there’s no doubt his death was accidental).

The unknown is something I’m constantly afraid of, and I understood Justin’s need for an answer. If he knows for certain that his father’s death wasn’t suicide, then he can accept it and move on. My obsessive-compulsive disorder works much the same way, and finding an elusive answer is mentally exhausting. When we don’t have an explanation as to why things happen or what the future will hold, it can make us feel vulnerable and unprepared, and the best we can do is keep going. Blejwas validates how Justin feels, but she allows him to learn to accept the uncertainty, even if it’s difficult to do. I don’t know what life will be like a month from now, and that’s okay, because like Justin, I know I don’t have to face it alone.

Like Nothing Amazing Ever Happened hits shelves April 14, 2020.