Another of the novel’s primary themes is the importance of communication in building healthy relationships. Throughout Maybe Now, Hoover leans heavily on dialogue—large swaths of the novel are presented as lineated conversations between the primary characters. This literary device enacts the novel’s overarching message that all relationship conflicts can be overcome with honest, open, and heartfelt communication. The scenes of dialogue that pervade the novel reify the characters’ work to get along despite the emotional complications they’re facing.

At the same time, all the different couples in the novel communicate in their own way. For example, Ridge and Sydney must develop their own forms of communication because they’re a new couple, because Sydney is just learning ASL, and because Ridge is just starting to verbalize. They have to be open about their challenging feelings regarding their relationships with Maggie, their trauma, and their hopes for the future, and thus develop an array of communication strategies. The two use ASL, texting, and songwriting to share their feelings. When they’re communicating in ASL, they’re engaging their minds, bodies, and hearts to express themselves. When they’re communicating via texting, they’re recording their thoughts and feelings in textual form and ensuring that they avoid miscommunication. When they’re communicating via lyrics, they’re using music, poetry, and art to evoke the more sentimental aspects of their internal experiences. Their communication patterns stress the multivalent nature of self-expression, particularly in the context of a romantic relationship.

Hoover also widens her thematic explorations of communication by depicting characters outside of Ridge and Sydney’s relationship in intimate dialogue or communion with each other. For example, Maggie and Jake get to know each other via sex, physical touch, and shared experiences. Their first sexual encounter foreshadows the trajectory of their relationship:

After about fifteen minutes of full-on making out with him, something switched in me. I don’t know how he did it, but he was so attentive and into it that all my concerns and insecurities eventually fell away with my clothing. But by the time we made it to the bedroom, I was all in. And then he was all in, in more ways than one (76).

Maggie and Jake aren’t using language during this exchange. Their communication is purely physical, but being close to and sexually intimate with Jake makes Maggie feel seen. She feels similarly safe in their subsequent encounters. Jake can communicate his appreciation for her by making her feel beautiful and cherished. They continue to develop their relationship via the erotic throughout the months that follow.

Therefore, the characters’ verbal, musical, and physical interactions convey the multivalent nature of intimacy. By depicting the dynamics of Ridge and Sydney, Maggie and Jake, and Warren and Bridgette, Hoover implies that all relationships are distinct and require unique forms of communication.