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]