Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

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.

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spookily's review

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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

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corriejn's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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francestea's review against another edition

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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!

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lilifane's review against another edition

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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.

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.

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keegan_leech's review

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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.

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tiredtori's review against another edition

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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.

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