Life After Life

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!