Life After Life
Ratings189
Average rating3.7
I am having issues. DNF at 284 pages.
I am so bored and the writing is just not for me. I tried to push through I really did!! I think I may succumb to where my heads at and just read romance and short serious books
I just added this to my “Read” list because I remembered reading it when I was entering Shrines of Gaiety. That I remember the book pretty well is a good sign. Clever premise and entertaining read. It's especially fun for someone who appreciates time travel books, which I do.
gyakorlatilag halálra untam magam rajta. nem tudom, hogy lehet egy ilyen érdekes alapvetést ennyire unalmasan papírra vetni, de gratulálok hozzá.
Atkinson is attempting some pretty wild nonlinear timey-wimey stuff here. I found the first and last third exhilarating, racing to see how and why and where Ursula would reset. The middle was so tough to get through I considered DNF'ing.
Part of it is I struggle with this style of historical fiction writing- very set on telling the story of a middle-upper-class girl and her boring dailies. I wanted intrigue, action, misery, setting-grounded magic in reincarnation. If both of those sound great to you, you'll love this.
If you struggle at all with narrative justification of victim blaming rape/abuse victims, you'll hate this. I struggled with those rounds of Ursula's life, and it left a very sour taste in my mouth that never left.
Pretty good. Will not read again.
I remember going to Half Priced Books and whilst looking through the clearance section I spotted this book for next to nothing. I am not exactly sure what prompted me to pick this book up, it's just that I've heard the author mentioned in the past and was merely curious. I haven't read historical fiction in a very long time and was wondering if I would like it these days, if I gave it a chance. Well, the verdict is in, historical fiction as a genre is really just not for me. That's not to say that this book wasn't good, it really was, it just wasn't my cup of tea and I will not be continuing with the series, nor will I be picking up anymore historical fiction in the near future. However, if you are a fan of historical fiction you might really enjoy this so give it a chance.
To begin with, Life After Life is about a girl named Ursula and her life, from birth and all the way through World War II. However, what's unique about Ursula is that she can get as many chances at life as she needs to finally get it right. I wasn't sure what I felt about this plot and since I am a person who doesn't like fantasy all that much, I wasn't the most excited about the fantastical part of her dying and coming back to the same life over and over again. However, I thought it was done well, even if it got a little redundant and I never really found out what happened in the end. I am not a fan of open-ended endings in books and this one had exactly that. The middle dragged on a bit and I felt miserable reading about all the horrors of war because it affects me a lot deeper than most. If you enjoy reading about all the terrors of war, you will probably like this book.
Secondly, the characterization is where this book shined. The main character, Ursula, it was a treat reading from her point of view because she always had that naive, creatively wondrous outlook on life and it added the much needed humor to an otherwise very serious and depressing story. The other characters got a bit mixed up for me because there were tons but a few did stand out and had their own little quirks and ways of looking at the world. If you want intense character development in your novels, you should definitely pick up this book.
Finally, the writing was beautiful, albeit a bit too drawn out for my liking. I thought that the book could have been reduced down to three hundred pages and that would have been a lot easier to stomach in my opinion. However, because the book is very atmospheric and paints a very vivid picture in my mind, I fell into a deep depression whilst reading this book and the ending didn't snap me out of it whatsoever. In all, if you like a very high amount of description in your books and like to see everything, exactly as it's happening at every moment, then you will really enjoy this.
In conclusion, even though I kind of enjoyed my time reading this book, I also felt extremely depressed and down for the duration of it. I was hoping the ending would lift my spirits back up but it didn't really succeed in doing that since it was so open-ended and I didn't get the answers I was so desperately hoping for. Fans of historical fiction who are not affected by human suffering and horrors of war deeply in their books, give this one a shot, I think you will really enjoy it!
I read the second novel in the Todd Family series first, and was wowed by it, and now I'm wowed all over again by this novel. So intricate and complex! No need to recap the plot, but this story of alternative lives and outcomes is masterful.
I might have given it five stars if not for the wonky comma usage, which I found very distracting, there should have been an editor to impose some discipline.
How would I be different if some small thing had happened differently? How would the whole world be different? If I had been in a slightly better way that day I found out I had to opportunity to attend high school in Wales, maybe I would have gone. If I had, maybe I would be dead already. Maybe I would be a millionaire, maybe a monk. Maybe... who knows? This whole book is built on that question: what would be different if one small thing were different. Atkinson writes a gripping and entertaining exploration of that puzzle.
Would be better as a tv show (which I just learned there is one). I don't care enough about the characters to keep reading about the MC dying and living the same thing over and over again.
Oh wow! This is one I'd love to re-read and see what I get out of it a second time but I still really enjoyed the first time through. I loved these characters (well...most of them) and Ursula's lives are so well-structured. I guess I that's what I want to say? It's very clever.
This book is slow to grip you, and the first 100 pages or so were a bit of struggle, but it was all well worth it for the rest of the book. This a brilliant story of a women whose given the chance to be reborn time and time again until she succeeds in life and is happy, and it briliantly illustrate just how one tiny decision does have the ability to impact the rest of your life. I found that it also faced the horrors of WW2 both in England and in Germany fairly well and largely did not censor the terrifying war, or the implications of it on day to day life. An engrossing read if you give it a chance.
After hearing this one was similar to “The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August”, I knew I had to check this one out. The mechanism for the “life after life” affect took me a little while to understand, but made sense after a while. I didn't feel that I was able to connect with the main character by the end, leaving me withdrawn from the overall direction.
After hearing this one was similar to “The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August”, I knew I had to check this one out. The mechanism for the “life after life” affect took me a little while to understand, but made sense after a while. I didn't feel that I was able to connect with the main character by the end, leaving me withdrawn from the overall direction.
AMAZING!!!!! I loved this book!!! I am so excited for “God in Ruins”!! This is such a wonderful read and is so enjoyable as well as being interesting!
While this sounds like a book I would be into, it just didn't grab me. All the bits in between deaths just started to bore me. I'd rather read this book like a list of deaths: in childbirth - drowning - falling off the roof - etc. I only got about a quarter of the way through before the excitement of finding out how she's going to die next was eclipsed by my lack of interest in Ursula's life, so if something really cool or interesting happens sometime in the last 75%, if someone could just tl;dr it for me that would be great!
It opens with a Tarantino-esque scene with our protagonist walking into a German cafe, ordering a streusel and shooting Hitler. Darkness falls, Ursula Todd's life is reset and we're back at her birth. From there it's like I'm the world's worst Choose Your Own Adventure reader killing off my protagonist at birth, drowning as a child at the beach or falling out a window in search of a toy. I'm starting to wonder how I managed to survive my own childhood.
It's a life defined by singular, unremarkable moments. A fall on a street corner, a painter on a beach can change the tenor of Ursula's life significantly. She even gains a vague awareness of having been here before, a sense of pivotal moments. Speculative fiction? Light sci-fi?
Kate Atkinson never bores with each retelling but I've finished with so many questions.
Somebody owes me an explanation of why it is such a great idea to keep dull Ursula alive through all these pages.
Interesting concept, well-written. Liked how the author altered Ursula's life each time round. Also liked the author's description of the Blitz.
Interesting concept. A bit of a Ground Hog Day/Time travel mash up. Most of the characters were likable, but as always there is usually something about Kate Atkinson's books that just doesn't sit well in my mind. I was pretty ok with most things in the book until the whole Third Reich/picnics with Hitler section. It was too Forest Gump (I kept waiting for Jenny to pop up and tell Ursula to Run!) and pulled me out of the story. From that point on I was mostly reading just to finish.
Also wish they'd cut the last couple of lives/do overs. I didn't think they really added much other than to add some confusions about what the correct direction Ursula's life was supposed to take.
Just reread this for a second time in preparation for reading the companion book “A God in Ruins”. I forgot how much I enjoy this author and I enjoyed this book more the second time around.
Read it right after Code Name Verity - both set in the same time period. I enjoyed it but not as much as some as Kate Atkinson's other books and I preferred Code Name Verity.
I first tried reading this book over the summer, but abandoned it maybe a quarter of the way through. When it started popping up on best-of list and the short-list for ToBX, I decided to give it another shot. It was certainly a better read the second time around, but the opening of the book is so good that the rest of the book struggles to keep up.
I first tried reading this book over the summer, but abandoned it maybe a quarter of the way through. When it started popping up on best-of list and the short-list for ToBX, I decided to give it another shot. It was certainly a better read the second time around, but the opening of the book is so good that the rest of the book struggles to keep up.