Never Never

Never Never (2023), cowritten by veteran romance writers Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher, explores the idea of soul mates falling out of love—and its effect on the universe. Originally published in serial form as three novellas (2015-2016), the novel comprises the three stories and became one of the best-selling romances of 2023. When longtime high school sweethearts Charlize “Charlie” Wynwood and Silas Nash find that every 48 hours, they are stripped of their memories, amnesia gives them a chance to rediscover why they fell in love in the first place. Furthermore, the novel explores the transition from childhood to adulthood, as Charlie and Silas rediscover dark secrets about their families—revelations that, in turn, lead both to redefine their identities.

This guide is based on the 2023 edition.

Content Warning: Never Never includes a predatory relationship between a high school student and a guidance counselor, as well as a kidnapping and an animal death in the Part 2, Chapter 31 Summary.

Plot Summary

In Never Never, New Orleans high school sweethearts, Charlize “Charlie” Wynwood and Silas Nash, experience amnesia every 48 hours. The novel is told in chapters that alternate between Charlie and Silas, and is divided into three parts that chronicle the events per 48-hour period—thus each part begins close to 11:00 am, with both teens mystified.

As each amnesia loop comes around, both Charlie and Silas rediscover who they are, how they grew up as neighbors, and how their love developed for years. They are each other’s first and only relationship. Both families saw the two as soul mates destined to be together; their fathers work at the same investment firm. However, the firm collapsed when Charlie and Silas were in middle school, and Charlie’s father was arrested for fraud—resulting in the children’s relationship falling apart. Charlie now lives with her mother, who has an alcohol addiction, and her younger sister, whose upbringing falls to her; their original home was sold at an auction to cover her father’s legal fees. Charlie, who has trauma from her father’s arrest, has withdrawn from Silas and other friends. She enters a casual relationship with an athletic student named Brian Finley, while Silas ends up in a physical relationship with one of the school’s guidance counselors, who happens to be Brian’s older sister.

As Charlie and Silas navigate their amnesia loops, they start to leave notes for themselves and each other; their families and friends find their behavior odd. The more Silas remembers, the more determined he becomes to make Charlie fall in love with him again. During one of the amnesia loops, Charlie investigates her family’s original home (named “Jamais Jamais,” French for “Never Never”) and is taken captive by a woman who reads tarot cards in the French Quarter; she and Silas once visited her shop. As Charlie is held captive, she meets someone whom she believes is a nurse, but is actually the tarot reader’s daughter Cora—a shy, “unattractive” girl from her class nicknamed “The Shrimp.”

Silas, panicking, searches everywhere for Charlie. Charlie, who believes she is being kept in a mental hospital, finally escapes her room—only to find that she is being kept in a house. She is reunited with Silas, and they believe they need to talk to Charlie’s father in prison. When they get to the prison, Charlie recognizes her father as an expert manipulator. Then, in an epiphany, she sees her father’s resemblance to Cora. When she confronts her father as to whether or not he fathered a child outside of his marriage, he admits to having an affair and paying hush money to Cora’s mother, the tarot reader. The tarot reader used this slush fund to buy Charlie’s family home when it went up for auction. Kidnapping Charlie was the woman’s attempt to hurt her ex-lover’s family.

While tracking clues about Cora and both of their fathers’ business, Charlie and Silas begin to rediscover their love for each other. They revisit places in New Orleans where they once had fun. Silas, who retains more of his memory with each successful amnesia loop, commits to courting Charlie, certain that it was the trauma of her father’s arrest that caused her to give up on their love. When the pair kiss, Charlie begins to remember her love for Silas. Once Silas clarifies Charlie’s lack of participation in her father’s scheme, his own father accepts their relationship. Charlie and Silas face the next 11:00 am together, kissing when time elapses. This time, there is no amnesia. Silas suggests that he and Charlie breaking up defied the universe—so it worked to get them back together. They vow to keep their love alive.