Just Like That is hard. Not Okay For Now hard, but hard. It is also lovely. And tearful. And sweet. Typical Gary D. Schmidt, it has several key literary influences that are obvious, but it also reminds me of things that are not mentioned in the text. Diane and I both thought that this one had strong roots in Oliver Twist and maybe a little bit of David Copperfield. I also felt like it reminded me of the Anne of Green Gables books and the Kevin Sullivan mini-series – “Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel,” specifically the Kingsport Ladies College scenes. While this one can absolutely be read as a standalone, it makes sense to have at least read The Wednesday Wars so that you know who Meryl Lee is.
As I always try to do in my reviews, I will tell you enough about the story to catch its flavor, but I will try to avoid any real spoilers. That said, in the next paragraph, I need to talk about The Wednesday Wars. Something happens in the first paragraph of this book that is essential to your understanding of the rest of this story. If you do not wish to have any spoilers of any kind, know that this book opens with something shocking, and then Schmidt spends the rest of the book dealing with grief. I still think that Okay for Now is Schmidt’s most powerful work, but this one was very compelling and brilliant. Schmidt’s wife died in 2013, and while this book was published in 2021, I felt as though he let his characters carry his grief with him. Just Like That is tender and beautiful.
*****SPOILER FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER BEYOND THIS POINT****
In most of his books, Schmidt’s main character has a catchphrase that is repeated again and again throughout the story. “And, I’m not lying” is from Okay For Now, and “I’m not making this up” is from The Labors of Hercules Beal. In Just Like That, the phrase is the title. In the summer immediately following The Wednesday Wars, Holling Hoodhood is in a car accident and dies “just like that.” Meryl Lee had no chance to say goodbye. No chance to prepare for the loss. One moment he was there, and then, just like that, he was gone. Sometimes as adults, we tend to think that children aren’t capable of strong romantic attachments in middle school. In the case of Holling and Meryl Lee, however, they had been best friends their whole lives. Meryl Lee is devastated because she has lost not only her boyfriend but her very best friend. Meryl Lee’s grief is real, and her parents are worried about her.
As heavy as Holling’s death is, it isn’t the only hard thing that Meryl Lee will have to face in the first few months of this book. While she doesn’t know it yet, her parents’ marriage is about to come undone, just like that. In consideration of her grief and the secret knowledge of their impending separation, Meryl Lee’s parents make the decision to give Meryl Lee a fresh start. They send Meryl Lee to a boarding school away from all of the memories at home and all of the necessary activities of untangling lives.
At St. Elene’s Preparatory School for Girls in Maine, Meryl Lee has a lot to navigate. She is just a normal girl from a normal way of life. But the girls of St. Elene’s are different. They divide more or less into two categories – rich girls who are becoming accomplished and the poor town girls who serve them. While Meryl Lee battles “The Blank” (her term for the suffocating grief she feels), she struggles to make friends with either set of the girls. She does make friends and find her place, but it takes time and some trial and error.
It has been a very long time since Matt Coffin knew what a home was. He has a distant memory of loving parents, but all he really knows is an Oliver Twist existence of living in a band of boys who are run by a bad man and his gang of thugs. When things got really bad, Matt ran. And ran. And ran. But everywhere Matt ran to, he was chased by the man he stole from, and the good people who tried to help him paid dearly for sheltering him. When Matt is befriended by the old seaman and the kind old lady, he struggles with trusting them, and he fears them getting ensnared in his mess.
Matt and Meryl Lee are unlikely friends. But both are haunted by “The Blank,” and both are in need of the friendship and stability that can be found with Dr. MacKnockater and Captain Hurd.
Like all of the Gary D. Schmidt books, this one deals with very hard things. Violence is very real in this story but told with the kind of elegance and detachment we expect from Dickens. Class warfare is an issue. Divorce is a theme but only lightly touched on. But, like nearly all of the other Schmidt books, it resolves very well. As Diane so often says, Schmidt takes us into hard places but doesn’t leave us there. I loved Matt. I loved that Captain Hurd is from Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and that he reminds me of both Matthew from Anne of Green Gables and Mr. Pegotty from David Copperfield. And, I love that Dr. Macknockater reminds me of Marilla from Anne and Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter.