The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This is a book that I was recommended by my father. Seeing as that's a fairly uncommon occurrence I figured I should prioritise it, and was not disappointed. Â This is a story that is told in a fairly non-chronological order but it works. Like other stories like The Time Traveller's Wife and The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue it ties beautifully through theme even if the events aren't strictly contiguous.Â
The story is that of a person who lives again after dying (what I call "Groundhog life"). As someone who has read and watched quite a few timey-wimey stories this was fairly familiar ground. I noticed information that I had picked up recently from recently reading Catch-22 and Midnight in Chernobyl, and there is at least one reference to Back to the Future.
This is a book that grazes themes of anthropogenic climate change (without dwelling on it) and wonders at what would have happened if the pace of change we have gone through over the last 200 years, had been even faster. It almost hints at the question of whether this is what has happened for us to be in the situation we are now. I'm glad that the cast of characters isn't focused on one part of the world, but rather, spans every continent, with characters from China, Nigeria, the Americas, Russia, various bits of the UK, and all over.
On a personal level, the main character is burdened with living his life with few interpersonal relationships. He floats along aloof of what is going on and suffers many of the same ills as other immortal fantasy characters. It does mean that relationships he develops are sometimes dysfunctional or toxic. He also remembers his own deaths and the horrible things that he has happen to him and has to take a proactive approach to his own self-care for the sake of his mental health.
Interesting book. At times terrible, and at times inspirational, but I feel like if I go into more detail it will spoil things.
The story is that of a person who lives again after dying (what I call "Groundhog life"). As someone who has read and watched quite a few timey-wimey stories this was fairly familiar ground. I noticed information that I had picked up recently from recently reading Catch-22 and Midnight in Chernobyl, and there is at least one reference to Back to the Future.
This is a book that grazes themes of anthropogenic climate change (without dwelling on it) and wonders at what would have happened if the pace of change we have gone through over the last 200 years, had been even faster. It almost hints at the question of whether this is what has happened for us to be in the situation we are now. I'm glad that the cast of characters isn't focused on one part of the world, but rather, spans every continent, with characters from China, Nigeria, the Americas, Russia, various bits of the UK, and all over.
On a personal level, the main character is burdened with living his life with few interpersonal relationships. He floats along aloof of what is going on and suffers many of the same ills as other immortal fantasy characters. It does mean that relationships he develops are sometimes dysfunctional or toxic. He also remembers his own deaths and the horrible things that he has happen to him and has to take a proactive approach to his own self-care for the sake of his mental health.
Interesting book. At times terrible, and at times inspirational, but I feel like if I go into more detail it will spoil things.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Gaslighting, Torture, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Mental illness, Infidelity, Death, Suicide, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, and Drug use
Moderate: War, Stalking, and Rape
Minor: Infertility
spookily's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Mental illness, Suicide, Death, Genocide, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Murder
Moderate: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Child death, War, Death of parent, Rape, Self harm, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Classism, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Infidelity, Sexism, Grief, Pregnancy, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Addiction, and Car accident
corriejn's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Drug use, Murder, Death, Terminal illness, Stalking, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Gore, Torture, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Dementia, Genocide, Child abuse, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Gun violence, Child death, Medical content, Alcohol, War, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape
francestea's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Ok wow, what a book. The first half (and it’s a long half) of this book is spent introducing the characters and their context. North doesn’t rush this section and though I found it slow at the time, I appreciate how thoroughly she set up the story to come. Then all of a sudden the second half hits and it’s a fast-paced adventure story; I couldn’t put it down! The first 15 Lives of Harry August is a book for people who love and appreciate world-building and time-travel narratives. If you loved this book I would recommend Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life or The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship
Moderate: Suicide, Mental illness, Abortion, and Murder
Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Drug use, and Rape
lilifane's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The premise was really cool and interesting, but I struggled a lot with the rest. The atmosphere was quite depressing, and I really didn't like the detailed descriptions of torture, injuries and diseases. If you can think of any trigger, you can be sure it's in the book. I also didn't care for any of the characters, most of them were pretty unlikable. And it probably didn't help that I didn't like the German translation or the German narrator of the audiobook. Kinda wish I'd had access to the English book/audiobook.
There were some things I liked, though. The premise, like I said. But also how the story was structured. You get these random episodes of Harry's lives, and with each one you get a piece of information that explains how living your life over and over again works. All the pros but also cons are explored really well, and I like how they play a big part in the showdown of the story. I think it was cool, how many historical events around the globe Claire North was able to insert in the plot, the research must have been really extensive. Oh, and some of the settings were really cool.Â
But all in all it felt too long in some places, too short in others, and the ending really dragged a lot because of so many repetitions. This felt like a 1000 pages book without actually being one.Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and Vomit
keegan_leech's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
A fast-paced and brilliant time travel mystery. The plot is at times contemplative and thought-provoking, at others a tense thriller. It's certainly darker than I had expected. The conceit of the novel and first few chapters didn't prepare me for the sometimes extremely heavy subject matter. This does balance out a plot that might otherwise seem campy and melodramatic, but if one of those elements would put you off then this may not be the book for you. However, if you like the sound of the book, you'll almost certainly enjoy it.
The conceit of the novel (a story told by a man reliving his life over and over again) was, in my experience, a wonderful bait and switch. The strange metaphysical questions drew me in so quickly and so easily that when the plot began to really take off I hadn't realised just how deeply invested I was. And by the end, the things that had drawn me in seemed absolutely unimportant in comparison to reaching the brilliant final moments. It's a very well-constructed story from start to finish. (As an aside, very few or perhaps none of the books I've read have created so much anticipation with the title alone).
If you liked Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, or The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, then you'll certainly love The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. If for some reason those just didn't land with you, then this might be worth a try, but they have a very similar style and appeal.
The conceit of the novel (a story told by a man reliving his life over and over again) was, in my experience, a wonderful bait and switch. The strange metaphysical questions drew me in so quickly and so easily that when the plot began to really take off I hadn't realised just how deeply invested I was. And by the end, the things that had drawn me in seemed absolutely unimportant in comparison to reaching the brilliant final moments. It's a very well-constructed story from start to finish. (As an aside, very few or perhaps none of the books I've read have created so much anticipation with the title alone).
If you liked Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, or The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, then you'll certainly love The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. If for some reason those just didn't land with you, then this might be worth a try, but they have a very similar style and appeal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Death, Terminal illness, Mental illness, and Torture
Moderate: Rape and Drug use
Minor: Child death and Animal death
tiredtori's review against another edition
As much as the premise interests me it was just too slow-paced for me to really get into it. While I enjoyed the writing there was not enough dialogue to keep it going or keep me interested. I felt like I was being told 'this happened' then 'this happened' rather than living it with Harry.Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Torture
booksthatburn's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August posits a strange version of mingled mortality and immortality, possibly repetitive, but capable of ending without warning or recourse.
I like the way the MC changes throughout the narrative. He's in very different mental states at different points in time, and the text does just enough to convey that without having the narrative voice shift in potentially jarring ways. Because it's told from one very specific point in his timeline, it grants a clarity of hindsight to experiences which range from euphoric to literally torturous. It also means that there's a bluntness to his descriptions, as the MC is remembering terror or joy, sometimes with little transition between the two. Chapters which are right next to each other may have very different moods in their detail, but his mood mostly changes between reflective and purposeful. The MC doesn't shy away from bloody descriptions, but he speaks about terror and torture without asking the reader to experience it with him.
One thing I think it gets right is that different kalachakra (a word which feels uncomfortable and stinks of cultural appropriation, though I hope I’m wrong) or ouroborans have very different reactions their status. Some want to explore the world, some embrace how full of war the 20th century is and get as much of it as they can, some stay home and keep things going for the future ouroborans to have a better start. It also embraces the idea that the MC, living so many lives in an era when travel is suddenly easier than in prior centuries, would do a great deal of travel across his lives. The story stays pretty focused in Europe, Russia, and the USA, but has snippets of time spent other regions of the world in a way that attempts to demonstrate the breadth of his travel without making the main story drag. It's also repeatedly concerned with ableism and how the mentally ill are treated. Since the MC and his friends have a perspective which is frequently mistaken for mental illness, I'm glad it doesn't shy away from the potential impact of that.
The narrative has a nice balance between mostly linear bits of narrative and digressions to other points in his personal history, it was engaging to read and I love the way it kept from giving away the ending (and the specific context of it) despite the whole thing being told in media res. The discussions of what one in this position of intertwined mortality and limited contextual immortality would do with oneself, and I come away from it feeling as though I've absorbed both a very good story and the summaries of several philosophical papers; mentally stretched in a good way. It's concerned with what the ouroborans actually do as much as it is with what they think about it, so the philosophical digressions are complete enough to be interesting to anyone who cares, but are usually placed so that they further the story and are shortly backed up by action.
I like this book, but I have a few reservations about recommending it. Spoilers are somewhat unavoidable in this discussion, but it concerns the handling of queerness in the story. I think it would have done better to either avoid queerness altogether, or to actually address the reality of the AIDS crisis with more than a passing mention via killing off a character with it. It irks me even more because that character is possibly queer, and I say possibly since she is implied to have AIDS because of drug use in this life, but in a previous one she didn't sleep with the MC because she was "giving homosexuality a go". The narrative treats it as noteworthy only as one of two reasons she didn't have a relationship with him in one life, the other was a life in which she was married. The other time queerness is explicitly discussed within the text is when the (male) MC is considering whether he should allow himself to be seduced by the (male) villain. No seduction is attempted, and thus it remains a thought exercise of hypothetical homosexuality, mostly notable for the MC's musings that he must be feign being appalled by any such attempt because of the era in which he was born.
I like the way the MC changes throughout the narrative. He's in very different mental states at different points in time, and the text does just enough to convey that without having the narrative voice shift in potentially jarring ways. Because it's told from one very specific point in his timeline, it grants a clarity of hindsight to experiences which range from euphoric to literally torturous. It also means that there's a bluntness to his descriptions, as the MC is remembering terror or joy, sometimes with little transition between the two. Chapters which are right next to each other may have very different moods in their detail, but his mood mostly changes between reflective and purposeful. The MC doesn't shy away from bloody descriptions, but he speaks about terror and torture without asking the reader to experience it with him.
One thing I think it gets right is that different kalachakra (a word which feels uncomfortable and stinks of cultural appropriation, though I hope I’m wrong) or ouroborans have very different reactions their status. Some want to explore the world, some embrace how full of war the 20th century is and get as much of it as they can, some stay home and keep things going for the future ouroborans to have a better start. It also embraces the idea that the MC, living so many lives in an era when travel is suddenly easier than in prior centuries, would do a great deal of travel across his lives. The story stays pretty focused in Europe, Russia, and the USA, but has snippets of time spent other regions of the world in a way that attempts to demonstrate the breadth of his travel without making the main story drag. It's also repeatedly concerned with ableism and how the mentally ill are treated. Since the MC and his friends have a perspective which is frequently mistaken for mental illness, I'm glad it doesn't shy away from the potential impact of that.
The narrative has a nice balance between mostly linear bits of narrative and digressions to other points in his personal history, it was engaging to read and I love the way it kept from giving away the ending (and the specific context of it) despite the whole thing being told in media res. The discussions of what one in this position of intertwined mortality and limited contextual immortality would do with oneself, and I come away from it feeling as though I've absorbed both a very good story and the summaries of several philosophical papers; mentally stretched in a good way. It's concerned with what the ouroborans actually do as much as it is with what they think about it, so the philosophical digressions are complete enough to be interesting to anyone who cares, but are usually placed so that they further the story and are shortly backed up by action.
I like this book, but I have a few reservations about recommending it. Spoilers are somewhat unavoidable in this discussion, but it concerns the handling of queerness in the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
Moderate: Violence, Drug use, Confinement, Mental illness, and Ableism
Minor: Rape, Racism, and Homophobia
CW for gaslighting, homophobia (minor), racism, rape (not depicted), ableism, starvation, confinement, mental illness, drug use, violence, suicide (graphic), torture (graphic), child death, major character death, death.
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