The Same Backward As Forward is a young adult dark romance novel written by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and originally published in 2024. Barnes is the celebrated author of several young adult books and series, including The Inheritance Games (2020), to which The Same Backward As Forward serves as a prequel. Her books have been featured in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Young Adult Fiction. The Same Backward As Forward features the same love story told twice—once from each participant’s perspective. It explores themes of How Love Reshapes Identity, Inheritance and the Choice to Be Different, and Self-Honesty and the Path to Forgiveness.

This guide is based on the 2025 Little, Brown and Company edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of illness, death, addiction, substance use, graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual content, child abuse, and suicidal ideation.

Plot Summary

Twenty-year-old Hannah lives on her own and as far apart from her criminal family as possible, in the town of Rockaway Watch. She is attending nursing school and planning to escape town with her younger sister, Kaylie. Kaylie is reckless and full of vigor and tries to inspire Hannah to be more like Kaylie herself. One night at a bar, Kaylie steals the wallet of Toby, a wealthy man from Hawthorne Island, where the Hawthorne family owns a large mansion. Soon after, a storm rolls in, and an explosion sets the mansion on fire.

Kaylie was found to have been at the mansion when it exploded, prompting blame and suspicion from Hannah’s family. Meanwhile, a lighthouse keeper named Jackson, with whom Hannah is friendly, brings Hannah to a badly burned survivor he rescued from the water, who happens to be Toby. Because Toby caused the fire, Hannah reluctantly treats him while hating him; rage over Kaylie’s presumed death leads her to relish Toby’s pain. Hannah cannot take Toby to a hospital because she knows that her family would find him there.

Toby wakes unable to remember his identity or what happened. As Hannah continues tending his wounds, their dynamic shifts, and Hannah sees Toby’s human side. Jackson gives him the name “Harry,” and Hannah tries to convince herself that the old Toby is gone. After losing a card match, Hannah questions him about lines he recites in his sleep from William Blake’s “A Poison Tree,” which is a poem about withheld anger and revenge. As his health improves, she begins helping him stand and walk.

Meanwhile, Toby communicates through puzzles, lemon juice messages, word games, and coded drawings and slowly exposes what he knows about Hannah. They fall into an intense argument when Toby accuses Hannah of hiding from her life; Hannah responds by calling Toby a coward and then threatens to reveal his identity. They reconcile, and during a game of number Hangman, Toby sketches a detailed portrait of Hannah that mirrors the beauty he sees in her.

The discovery that her mother has cancer contributes to Hannah’s growing emotional turmoil. When she tells Toby that she lost her sister, their shared agony leads to a kiss. That night, Hannah dreams of Kaylie, who assures her that the fire was an accident and urges her to live fully and to dance every day.

As Toby’s memory begins to come back, his bond with Hannah deepens. They plan to leave town together to avoid Hannah’s family. However, when a candle is knocked over, the resulting small fire triggers Toby’s memories, and he recalls setting the fire that killed Kaylie. Overcome with guilt, he nearly jumps from a cliff, but Hannah stops him. He reveals that he was adopted by the powerful Hawthornes after they murdered his father, William Blake. Believing that his past will endanger Hannah, he leaves to protect her from the Hawthornes.

Months later, Hannah is living under the name Sarah in Connecticut and is pregnant by another man. Toby returns just in time to support her and meet the baby, Avery Kylie Grambs. Eighteen months later, Hannah is confronted by Toby’s mother, who warns that Toby’s father will find Hannah eventually.

The narrative then backtracks to Toby’s perspective as he regains consciousness in severe pain and with no memory of who he is or what has happened. Hannah’s calm, capable presence becomes his only certainty and his anchor each day. Toby quickly senses that the truth is being withheld from him, and he turns his attention toward understanding Hannah instead. He studies her expressions and daily habits to distract himself from his condition and finds himself falling for her.

Toby has dreams of being trapped with no aid and being told he did it to himself, as well as of the fire, but he doesn’t know what any of it means. As Hannah gradually reduces his medication and pushes him to regain strength, Toby channels his restlessness into wordplay, paper folding, and coded messages written in lemon juice.

Jackson warns Toby not to fall for Hannah, but Toby ignores the advice. By the time she solves his most elaborate puzzle and encourages him to walk to the lighthouse, Toby realizes his growing attachment to her is undeniable. Simultaneously, his dreams change and become clearer. He takes comfort in waking up beside Hannah, certain that whatever his past holds, what they share is real. He notices her grief but waits for her to speak about it. Seeing Toby’s love for Hannah, Jackson gradually softens toward him, even admitting his own love for Hannah’s mother.

Toby and Hannah’s bond deepens as she reveals her family’s dangerous reputation. Fragments of memory return to Toby when Hannah mentions William Blake, and Toby remembers having sisters. When a storm rolls in, he asks her to leave with him, but Hannah says that she can’t.

A small fire triggers the full return of Toby’s memories. He recalls his role in the blaze, which he meant as revenge against the Hawthornes. The plan spiraled out of control and killed Kaylie as well as two of Toby’s friends. Toby cannot bear the guilt and nearly throws himself from a cliff, but Hannah stops him just in time. He confesses everything, including his adoption, his father’s criminal past, and his fear that he carries inherited “poison.” Although Hannah forgives him, Toby leaves to protect her from himself and his family.

Years pass as Toby wanders the globe to evade his father and protect Hannah. After he is violently attacked, his mother finds him and warns him to be more careful. Several years later, Toby manages to forge a bond with Avery by playing chess with her in the park. She does not know who he is, but he hopes one day to tell her.