Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (spoiler alert!)

Before being 10% through the book, Ursula had already died twice. You may be thinking, "You just told us that a character dies? Where's the spoiler alert?!" However, the book description from Goodreads says this:

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

So no, I haven't spoiled anything. At this point in the book (10%) I actually read the description to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I hadn't realized that Ursula had actually died both times, though in retrospect the book says it in so many words ("darkness fell"). At least I knew now that the author's implications were actual deaths from this point forward... or were they? Then Ursula seemed to die again by climbing out of the attic window to retrieve the doll that Maurice launched out the window. Darkness fell again... but then it was like we went back a few seconds in time and there she was, safe and sound with a gut feeling that she shouldn't climb out onto the ledge.

I found paying attention to the dates to be a challenge with stopping and starting the book, and I found the point of view changes within chapters to be a bit odd-- having studied child development, I had a hard time believing that a brand new baby would have the ability to reflect upon the trees and nature surrounding her.

At 14% when Ursula died again, I started wondering if this book is about being reincarnated again and again as the same person into the same family, like we are all fated to be the same person over and over again. It's the only explanation I could think of for Ursula's uneasy feelings (like ESP or dejavu). Turns out I was right.

I kept wondering if she was going to hook up with Fred Smith or Benjamin Cole (and she eventually does in one of her lives).

I stopped counting how many times she died, but it is A LOT. I found it odd that at least once, in the last third of the book, Ursulsa says that she doesn't think anything happens when you die, that you simply cease to exist... but by the end she seems fully aware that she has come back many times before, and she is determined to "do it all right next time." So everyone lives- she has prevented all but one (or two if you count Izzie's boy) of her family from dying, and Bridget as well. She has prevented Nancy's death, and located Teddy when he was AWOL and presumed dead, and reunited him with his wife. She has killed Hitler. But Hugh is still dead...

So, the questions that remain after finishing this book, are 1) Since Ursula "did it all right" the last time, does she come back again? and 2) Did that coincide with one of Dr. Kellet's philosophies?

Overall, I ended up liking it, but I only give it 3 stars because it took a long time for me to start liking it and so I almost stopped reading it, and there are bits and pieces like that throughout.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (spoiler alert!)

And so the curse of expectations has ensnared another book. I wanted to love this book... I had high expectations. I'm finding it harder and harder to find books that wow me. As a bibliophile, I choose my books based upon how many stars Goodreads users give a book, and how many raters it has. If it is rated under an average of 3.8 and/or has a high rating but very few raters, I won't read it. At the time that I decided I wanted to read this book, it had an average rating of 4.5 stars from 448,042 people. That being said, this book should have been AMAZING... and at first, it was... but alas, it ends up getting 3.75 stars.

I started out rating this as five stars from the first few paragraphs. I love intelligent characters. I love writers who write eloquently. I love Young Adult (YA) books that don't dumb down the writing. I love a book that makes me giggle (admittedly hard to do considering I have a dry sense of humor). This book has all of that. So why only 3.75 stars?

First, I am not a YA... perhaps that makes my critique point of view unfair (maybe if I had read this book at the impressionable age of nineteen I would have fallen head over heels in love with it). I think what ruined it is Van Houten. I realize that this is the author's intent; we are not supposed to like Van Houten as he is quite a douche (quoting the book). However, I also think the author's intent is to make him somewhat likeable by the end. Well, I failed to like him. I found him creepy as hell sneaking into Hazel's car. I also felt like there really wasn't much to the plot: two kids with cancer spend a fleeting few moments together, then jointly endure disappointment, and then the inevitable happens when one of them dies (this is where the 'I cried my eyes out' comments on Goodreads come in). I did not, in fact, cry my eyes out. Also, the aftermath of Augustus's departure was severely lacking in eloquence, emotion, and content.

I had hoped this would be the next greatest book on my list, but no such luck. The search continues.

The Returned by Jason Mott

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. In avoiding spoilers, I will do my best to relate what I liked and disliked about this book.

I am torn between three and three and a half stars on this one. The premise of the story intrigued me. As a fan of most things macabre, a fictional book based upon the dead coming back to life sounded interesting… and it was at first. Jason Mott’s characters are well-developed. Harold is an old, lovable grump. Lucille is a god-fearing small-town Southerner (which I found slightly annoying), and Jacob is eight and very, very well-behaved…which goes against the memories that Harold and Lucille have of him. Although there are things I liked and disliked about all of them, I loved Jacob. However, compared to the memories of him, Jacob in person was just a shell… (perhaps that was the point, but I’m not sure). I felt like Mott was eluding to something that he never got to. I left the book feeling like I didn’t know any more at the end than I did at the beginning and I honestly thought the plot was going somewhere else, somewhere much deeper and darker. So here is the breakdown:

Pros: While reading this book, I had a dream that someone I know came back to life. Awesome dream, but it was in line with the book and as such I had some conflicted feelings about seeing this person again, alive, and ultimately became angry at her in the dream. So, this book will make you contemplate this dilemma, but only briefly.

Cons: I never really got the point of the story. The story is just something that happened, nothing epic, no light bulb.

Summary: Interesting idea but not fleshed out. You will ponder the idea of life after death, and a world that just doesn’t have room for so many people. But Mott doesn’t offer any further explanations as to why it happens or what to do about it.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17182421-the-returned
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/15622939-allison