Reviews with content warning for War - Life After Life

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Reviews tagging 'War'

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

51 reviews

ibeforem's review

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challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What if we had a chance to do it again and again," Teddy said, "until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

On a snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, and Ursula Todd dies. And then Ursula Todd is born again, but this time, she is saved from the cord around her neck. And because the first half of the 20th century was rather unsafe, this cycle is repeated, many times, as Atkinson explores the ways that tiny changes can affect an entire existence.

The first 3rd or so of the novel was a little rough to read. Not only are you reading about Ursula's childhood over and over, but it can be a lot to read about a child's death in multiple horrible ways. But as Ursula gets older and her instincts/deja vu lead her into different choices, the story gets more expansive and more interesting. Perhaps most compelling is Ursula's time working in London during the Blitz, where sometimes she is victim and sometimes hero.

There's not really an overarching plot to the story, other than perhaps "is there a way to stop this horrible war from happening," but it is an interesting journey nonetheless. I didn't find the timelines too hard to follow, as long as I paid attention to the year cues at the beginning of each chapter. It's been a long time since I read a Kate Atkinson book, and this was a fine re-introduction to what she is capable of.

She was Ursula Beresford Todd and she was a witness.

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battysbooks's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

3.5

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julianship's review

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challenging reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

4.5 stars. This book took me two months to read, through no fault of its own- every time I picked it up I fell into Atkinson's deft prose and neatly nested storytelling. Because the book is so dense with detail, all of which matters because of Ursula's branching, subtly different lives, it is hard to get back into when you put it down, and thus here I am in November finishing a book I began around Labor Day.
I say this as a compliment, but this book feels like playing a particularly difficult video game with no save points. Ursula successfully navigates all the mundane ways to die that surround her early years, only to be murdered by a husband, or hit by a car, or crushed by a wall in the Blitz, and then we're back to the start again. I found myself clutching the book and mentally hissing at Ursula as though I were in a horror movie.
Luckily, the Fox Corner periods of the book are full of a particularly English drawing room sniping I do enjoy reading, mixed with lush descriptions of countryside and food, and also after the first three or four Atkinson doesn't linger too much.
The character portraits are a real strength; nearly everyone we meet is terribly human, full of flaws and foibles, and they scrape up against each other excellently. No one in this book is uncomplicatedly good, although many people do good things, which is refreshing to read in a novel that spends a large amount of its second half in the Blitz.
My only qualm is that Atkinson's style uses comma splices constantly as an apparent stylistic choice, which I should not care about but unfortunately I can't turn the proofreading part of my brain off even though it hasn't been my job for a year and a half now.
This was a rec from a friend, and I'm excited to see that Atkinson has a new book out, because I liked this one so much I'd like to read more of hers! Would highly recommend for anyone who likes intricate/nested stories, stories about stories, unreliable narrators, and messy British families.

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kadtide's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

lilaceous's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

characters - ⭐️

plot - .5⭐️

engaging to read - ⭐️

would recommend - .5⭐️

would read again -

the family dynamics in this novel are super fun to read. the plot did meander at times, but i wasn’t disappointed by the excess of flashbacks and seemingly unnecessary plot sections because it was all interesting.

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franklola's review

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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laurenleigh's review

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dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I didn’t get what I expected here, but I still got a good story. I suppose I thought there’d be more magical realism or fantasy, but this novel is squarely historical fiction with one dash of magical realism. It was an interesting plot device which allows for the same scene in multiple ways, the same life with various consequences. If you liked that part of The Midnight Library, you’d like this too I bet. Fair warning that many parts of this plot are quite sad and depressing. I was enjoying the bucolic childhood tales in the English country manor, but things take a sharp left turn as Ursula grows up. I do enjoy historical fiction, and this felt very well researched. I think I’m just a little tired of WWII historical fiction. Though it does make me grateful to live in a time and a country that is not at war, not being bombed every night.

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