Reviews

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

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tessareads_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

It's nice to think that maybe we can all live our lives over and over again. I enjoyed the wartime setting which surprised me. I too am confused by the ending. It was written very brutally as is Kate Atkinson's style but I can imagine much of it could be triggering to people. Also loses some points for some of the weird, borderline anti-semitism.

Content Warnings

mbpartlow's review against another edition

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4.0

Beautiful and lyrical. Never boring. Takes the question of "what if" to a whole new level, marvelously played out.

Not sure I entirely agreed upon the point where the story ended, but on the other hand, cannot think of a single better place to end it.

The journey from WW I to WW II, and the different scenarios that are played out, is compelling every single time.

Flat out jealousy--I wish I could write this well.

nikread84's review against another edition

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3.0

I wanted to like this book.
This book was a relatively easy read, but it was hard to pick up once you put it down. And I put it down a lot. Over 2 years. I feel like this is one book where it would be better to read the reading group guide before you actually read the book, so you have some context. There is little explanation of why we keep getting differing storylines, and you just kind of have to figure out that Ursula seems to be living multiple lives. But not only that, according to the reading group guide, she can control it. Perhaps I missed something in my extended read of the book, but I never got that impression. I had difficulty reading this book because it seem to go over the same storyline again and again and again with the tiniest tweak here or there. The middle of the book was much more engaging, as it was one story line that lasted a more significant portion of time.
I’m happy I’m done reading this book and can move on to faster moving and more engaging narratives.

ellipsiscool's review against another edition

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2.0

I did not finish this book. I will probably finish it at some point, but I'm sort of bored at the moment. I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to care about. I mean sure I'm curious about why she's being reborn over and over again, but she's not very remarkable of a person, nor is anyone around her. I skipped like 30 pages at one point and it didn't make any difference. It was like I didn't miss anything at all. I think that says a lot about the book.

acrickettofillthesilence's review against another edition

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1.0

I was going to give this book three stars halfway through the book, but the repetition and lack of progression killed it for me. The concept had promise but the execution was far too drawn out without any sense of meaning.