Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
Perfect and just what I've come to expect from Starr. Great book
I'll give it a 4 for the idea, but only a 3 overall for the execution. It's a thought provoker in the end and keeps you reading but, in retrospect, maybe could've been fleshed out more for greater impact. Sort of reads like a Twilight Zone episode.
I LOVED this book. What a wild ride. I couldn't read this fast enough. You have to experience this for yourself. A totally unique and brilliant book.
Reading the blurbs now I see Philip K. Dick and The Twilight Zone as references. I really only knew of Jason Starr as a writer recommended by author Ken Bruen. I love Bruen’s work, have read dozens of his books, and expected a traditional hard-boiled-private-eye sort of thing. Things started off normal enough– until the world flipped upside down.
The world is a hall of mirrors to Stephen Blitz. One night his wife runs him out of the house demanding a divorce, he narrowly avoids a car crash, and then is fatally wounded trying to save a woman he had never met. He wakes up in a hospital (now) having crashed his car but is no longer fatally wounded… and his loving wife is at his side.
Everyone in the world is acting differently and apparently colluding in some conspiracy to trick him, a fairly common Twilight Zone theme. Stephen also discovers he is a little less of a decent human being than he thought he was.
“...This version of me has made some bad decisions…”
Changes are not limited to Stephen’s life. Like any good “butterfly effect” story there are alterations in the world, as well. Al Gore is president and Donald Trump can not run for office, as he is serving twenty years for sexual assault. There are other differences– but the plot revolves around a murder that Stephen in this reality had something to do with.
“The Next Time I Die” is an enjoyable quick summer read with pretty recognizable plot twists. Thank you to Hard Case Crime and Edelweiss for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
The world is a hall of mirrors to Stephen Blitz. One night his wife runs him out of the house demanding a divorce, he narrowly avoids a car crash, and then is fatally wounded trying to save a woman he had never met. He wakes up in a hospital (now) having crashed his car but is no longer fatally wounded… and his loving wife is at his side.
Everyone in the world is acting differently and apparently colluding in some conspiracy to trick him, a fairly common Twilight Zone theme. Stephen also discovers he is a little less of a decent human being than he thought he was.
“...This version of me has made some bad decisions…”
Changes are not limited to Stephen’s life. Like any good “butterfly effect” story there are alterations in the world, as well. Al Gore is president and Donald Trump can not run for office, as he is serving twenty years for sexual assault. There are other differences– but the plot revolves around a murder that Stephen in this reality had something to do with.
“The Next Time I Die” is an enjoyable quick summer read with pretty recognizable plot twists. Thank you to Hard Case Crime and Edelweiss for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
First novel in years that I started and finished in the same day. An interesting premise for a crime novel that barrels along without letting up.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
<b>"I’m aware that I’m not thinking like myself, that I’m thinking like a psychopath, but I also know that this doesn’t mean I am a psychopath. I’m being pragmatic, not psychopathic—there’s a huge difference."</b> delusion ✨️✨️
The falling down the insanity hole. I enjoyed this book, I understand the ending and why it's open and doesn't really answer things but it left me needing that closure.
The falling down the insanity hole. I enjoyed this book, I understand the ending and why it's open and doesn't really answer things but it left me needing that closure.
This is a modern look at the Twilight Zone / psychological thriller. The pacing works really well, the storytelling is enjoyable. Add in that the character was both normal and somewhat slimy means he's also believable. Only thing that love was it didn't feel like the general genre these books follow; so it wasn't what I expected.
All that said I really enjoyed it and basically read it in two days/sittings.
All that said I really enjoyed it and basically read it in two days/sittings.
There is about enough plot and characterization in this novel for a short story. At its base (spoiler) is a man's ability to slip between parallel dimensions at the time of death. The author spends pages, nay chapters, painting his alternate "history" when it could have been handled in a small handful of pages. In the end, do we really care how the Mets performed in this alternate reality. No, we don't. About halfway in, the "mystery" is fueled by an unexpected murder, and, forgive me that I don't spend a lot of time poking holes in the "get out of jail free" card provided by the ability to slip between dimensions, but my suspension of disbelieve was never suspended.
I received an advance reader copy of this novel from the folks at Hard Case Crime in exchange for an honest review.
Jason Starr’s male characters want you to know that they’re good guys. Really, they are. They might do a couple of not so nice things, like murder and thievery. But really, they’re good guys. They just happen to be in bad circumstances. It’s not they’re fault. Ok, maybe it is a little. But still, they’re good…hey, wait, where are you going?
Starr wasn’t one of my favorite writers when I began diving into his catalogue; I found his books to be too unsettling. I don’t know if my tastes adjusted or if I just came to appreciate his work more but now I look forward to reading him, even if I need to give my brain a shower when I’m done.
This is a kind of multiverse story where a man named Steven gets seriously (perhaps mortally?) wounded, falls down a rabbit hole and comes out on the other end in a parallel universe where his life is different in subtle but critical ways. His wife acts different, he parents a daughter instead of being childless, and he’s having multiple affairs he wasn’t having in his previous life.
(An aside but an important one: I want to live in this man’s version of the United States. Al Gore was President, 9/11 and the coronavirus both didn’t happen, the fiscal crisis was in 2015 instead of 2008 but isn’t as bad as that year’s recession, Donald Trump never becomes President and is in jail. And since 9/11 didn’t happen, the Twin Towers exist. The scene where Steven is just wandering around the old World Trade Center in a state of awe felt like a love letter to their existence. I’ve read so many stories where the Towers coming down was a plot point; here, it just felt nice for them to be again. The scene lasts 4-5 pages and they’re 4-5 of the best pages I’ve read in 2022.)
In previous works, Starr used noir tropes effectively to show how thin the line is between what’s considered “good” and “bad” behavior; especially how men will manipulate situations to justify them. Here he does it with time travel and does it well. Steven seems like a good enough guy when he falls into the other universe but he does terrible things. On top of it, in the other universe, he’s defending a serial killer on trial. In the alternate one, he’s not but still runs into the guy, trying to prove he’s a killer. What’s good, right, moral, etc. become interchangeable at Steven’s whims.
If you’re expecting a deep dive Blake Crouch-esque sci-fi story, you’ll be disappointed. This is the kind of crime tale Starr tells, only instead of amnesia, the man has a previous life in a different version of this universe. Slowly but surely, it’s revealed that he’s a criminal, caught in troublesome circumstances. How he resolves these circumstances: clinging to his past life while realizing his present one lives “multiple lives” in the affairs he has, is pure crime/bleak comedy gold. And the end is deliciously noir. Jason Starr is a star. This is a book you should check out.
Jason Starr’s male characters want you to know that they’re good guys. Really, they are. They might do a couple of not so nice things, like murder and thievery. But really, they’re good guys. They just happen to be in bad circumstances. It’s not they’re fault. Ok, maybe it is a little. But still, they’re good…hey, wait, where are you going?
Starr wasn’t one of my favorite writers when I began diving into his catalogue; I found his books to be too unsettling. I don’t know if my tastes adjusted or if I just came to appreciate his work more but now I look forward to reading him, even if I need to give my brain a shower when I’m done.
This is a kind of multiverse story where a man named Steven gets seriously (perhaps mortally?) wounded, falls down a rabbit hole and comes out on the other end in a parallel universe where his life is different in subtle but critical ways. His wife acts different, he parents a daughter instead of being childless, and he’s having multiple affairs he wasn’t having in his previous life.
(An aside but an important one: I want to live in this man’s version of the United States. Al Gore was President, 9/11 and the coronavirus both didn’t happen, the fiscal crisis was in 2015 instead of 2008 but isn’t as bad as that year’s recession, Donald Trump never becomes President and is in jail. And since 9/11 didn’t happen, the Twin Towers exist. The scene where Steven is just wandering around the old World Trade Center in a state of awe felt like a love letter to their existence. I’ve read so many stories where the Towers coming down was a plot point; here, it just felt nice for them to be again. The scene lasts 4-5 pages and they’re 4-5 of the best pages I’ve read in 2022.)
In previous works, Starr used noir tropes effectively to show how thin the line is between what’s considered “good” and “bad” behavior; especially how men will manipulate situations to justify them. Here he does it with time travel and does it well. Steven seems like a good enough guy when he falls into the other universe but he does terrible things. On top of it, in the other universe, he’s defending a serial killer on trial. In the alternate one, he’s not but still runs into the guy, trying to prove he’s a killer. What’s good, right, moral, etc. become interchangeable at Steven’s whims.
If you’re expecting a deep dive Blake Crouch-esque sci-fi story, you’ll be disappointed. This is the kind of crime tale Starr tells, only instead of amnesia, the man has a previous life in a different version of this universe. Slowly but surely, it’s revealed that he’s a criminal, caught in troublesome circumstances. How he resolves these circumstances: clinging to his past life while realizing his present one lives “multiple lives” in the affairs he has, is pure crime/bleak comedy gold. And the end is deliciously noir. Jason Starr is a star. This is a book you should check out.