I have in the past frequently compared books to food because I find it helpful. I love both books and food in the way that only comes from consuming something, putting it inside yourself and making it a part of you, quite literally. There’s the immediate pleasure of the consumption itself, and then there’s the afterward, when the food or the ideas do things to you (good, bad or in between; small or large scale). I have previously compared books to cotton candy and burritos and tacos and just a really good sandwich. I’m saying all this word vomit because comparing this book to food seems the best way for me to convey how I feel about it.
If this book were food, it would be a feast: a seven course meal served to you one at a time, and you don’t know what’s coming in the next course so it always surprises you. But this feast isn’t stuffy; it’s one you eat with your favorite people, wearing comfy pants, and the items you eat are many and varied. It’s a super nice day outside, or rainy if you prefer that, and there’s a fluffy sweet doggo at your feet.
That is how I feel about this book. I rated it four and a half stars, rounded down, upon finishing it, but I think with more time I might seriously consider rounding up to five, or if I ever revisit. It’s just so well put together, so smart and fun and brain-bendy, and the worldbuilding was just as good as the characters, and it was tense and exciting and sad and joyful. It was, like all my favorite books, full of imagination.
I’m not going to say much about the plot, because it’s really fun to just let the book happen to you, not knowing what’s coming, but if you want some clue whether this book might interest you, it’s about a man who dies and lives the same life over again, and the different choices he makes each time, the different people and places he interacts with along the way, and how he and the world change.
I did the audio, and had a really great time with it. Highly recommend this one!
[4.5 stars]
I am a sucker for a live-die-live-again; I’ll have to blame Life After Life. Obviously this is going on my list- your dinner scene sounds perfect right now.
I still haven’t read Life After Life, but I get the sense it’s much more on the literary end of the spectrum, whereas this one is more sf adventure with a good character arc. I read a Sherlock fanfic inspired by Life After Life once, though, and it was very good, but it was also super traumatizing and intense, so that is making me wary, also.
ahhh yeah, Life After Life covers some intense points in history, but it’s still Kate Atkinson- and she gave us the fantastic mess that is Jackson Brodie : D
I read the first Jackson Brodie book back when it was first published, and I remember not being impressed. I haven’t read any of her books since then. I was pretty young, though, so maybe I’d like it better now.
hahaha, my (at the time) boyfriend’s mom told me to read it, because it “reminded [her] of [me], which is truly wild considering how messed up every person is in that book!
Ha! You’re like, thanks?
Wow, the way your describe this book and the imaginary meal it evokes in you has me moving this much higher up on my TBR list right away. It sounds great.
I mean, it might not feel that way to other people, but it was just so fun to listen to! It got dark in places, but that darkness was well balanced by all the cool stuff that was going on.
Maybe it would also be accurate that at this dinner there may or may not be a man hiding in your closet with a knife.
a cake knife, maybe?
As long as it’s a big one.
*best nic cage roar*
BRING ME THE BIG KNIFE
Oh my God, this reference. We are best friends now. I just watched that movie a couple months ago and it very much holds up and is still so very good. So yeah, I’m down with it being Nicolas Cage hiding in the closet with the big cake knife.
YESSSSSSS
it is truly amazing how well that movie holds up; it’s still perfect. I finally got my husband to watch it, and now he’d mad at himself for having gone so many years without!