47 pages • 1 hour read
Laura NowlinIf Only I Had Told Her
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Series Context: If He Had Been With Me
If Only I Had Told Her is a companion work to If He Had Been with Me, another young adult romance. If Only I Had Told Her focuses on Autumn’s perspective on losing Finn, but it also traces their relationship further back, returning to the beginning of high school to examine many moments between Finn and Autumn. Throughout the early narrative, Autumn and Finn do not behave as former friends normally would, implying their romantic interest in each other. However, Autumn does not realize that she has romantic feelings for Finn until junior year of high school, at which point she resigns herself to not having him; he is with Sylvie and she remains with her boyfriend, Jamie. During senior year, Finn and Autumn have a class together that brings them into more contact with one another, and their friendship tentatively rekindles.
After graduation, Autumn finds out that Jamie is cheating on her with their mutual friend Sasha. This causes them to break up and leads to Autumn’s depression that summer. Meanwhile, Sylvie is in Europe, so Finn spends more time with Autumn. At the end of the summer, they share their feelings and are intimate, but Finn dies as he is breaking up with Sylvie to pursue a relationship with Autumn. If He Had Been with Me ends after Autumn’s attempt to die by suicide, which is where Part 3 of If Only I Had Told Her picks up. Parts 1 and 2 of If Only I Had Told Her overlap with the timeline of If He Had Been with Me, but those overlapping portions are narrated from the points of view of Finn and Jack, giving fresh perspectives on the shared scenes. Each novel can be read as a standalone, but reading them as companions to one another will deepen the reader’s understanding of the overall story.
Genre Context: Young Adult Romance
If Only I Had Told Her fits within the young adult romance genre. It has many of the romantic elements that are expected of the genre, including an exploration of Finn’s unrequited love for Autumn in Part 1. Finn’s death at the end of Part 1 takes the narrative in a darker direction, making it part of the subgenre of young adult romantic tragedy. Romantic tragedies centering on young protagonists have existed throughout history—e.g., Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. When also pitched to a young adult audience, such works explore romantic love through the lens of loss and heartbreak while also considering the impact that loss has on characters who are still growing and maturing. This genre often has protagonists who navigate the challenges of adolescence—including grappling with their own changing identities—while experiencing the grief of losing their romantic partner or potential romantic partner.
Ultimately, young adult romantic tragedy explores how love defines human experience even as it can be a source of pain. The Pain of Unrequited and Requited Love is central to If Only I Had Told Her, as Finn and Autumn have just experienced the ecstasy of realizing their feelings are returned when an unexpected accident kills Finn and extinguishes all their plans for the future.
