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

Okay. I have literally no good reason to not like it--but I don't. Very literary sci-fi rather than *genre* sci-fi, the latter of which being what I actually like to read. I can just imagine this sitting and languishing, so I'm allowing myself to DNF it so it doesn't have to! :-)

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spookyaz's review against another edition

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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

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saradoxical's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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 one of those books where the first half sets the scene. It's a lot of world building, slow paced, interesting enough to keep me reading. And then you hit the halfway mark and the plot shows up. I personally am glad this book exists in cases it turns out that I too, am a kalachakra. I will know what to expect.

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carina_dreamer's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Apresento-vos o livro mais 🤯 que li em 2023 e ainda bem que foi numa leitura conjunta com a Bestie porque eu precisava de discutir a salada russa que isto foi!

⏳ Harry August é o nosso narrador, ele vai falar das suas várias vidas num formato semelhante a um diário. Ele pensava ser um ser humano e viveu uma vida típica de um britânico nascido em 1920, mas tudo mudou quando ele morre e volta a renascer como Harry August e com as memórias da sua 1ª vida. A partir daí, ele vai tentar perceber que abominação ele é e só vai encontrar um rumo à sua vida imortal quando descobre o nome Kalachakra.

⏳ Na 3ª foto eu indico os pontos principais do livro, mas deixem-me contar-vos que a quantidade de conteúdo e pesquisa postos neste livro para falar de momentos e monumentos históricos assim como descobrimentos científicos, tudo a nível mundial, é vasta. Para quem leu "Babel" e gostou do valor informativo/educativo, também vai gostar deste livro porque é tudo inserido no enredo e não feito como info dump.

⏳Esta pode ser uma leitura intimidante também pela edição em si.
• 1º conselho que dou, não leiam a introdução sobre a história da sci-fi que colocaram lá por whatever reason (mata logo os neurónios).
• 2º conselho, leiam o livro aos poucos porque ele tem uma letra bem pequena e apesar de capítulos curtos (são 82...) estes são bem lentos de ler - demorei um mês.
• 3º conselho, usem post-its para se orientarem no enredo porque há muitos time jumps para justificar certas escolhas do protagonista com experiências das suas diferentes vidas, a mim ajudou.
• 4º conselho, ele demora 100 pág. até nos dar as primeiras pistas do rumo da estória e outras 100 até o Harry começar a agir como um protagonista numa missão. Eu normalmente não tenho paciência para tal, mas vale muito a pena aguentar.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ eu li a última página múltiplas vezes, mas só fez sentido quando lá cheguei e foi um 🤯 que desvenda toda a razão de ser do livro e apaixonei-me!

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erebus53's review against another edition

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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.

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