Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

5 reviews

spookyaz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

erebus53's review against another edition

Go to review page

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. 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.

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