Scan barcode
A review by favouritepages
Five First Chances by Sarah Jost
3.0
Five First Chances is a Groundhog Day esk story. This was a different take on the Groundhog Day theme though, its starts with a chance encounter and resets every two years when an extremely painful event happens for our main character. This seems to trigger the do over.
In Five First Chances, the main character isn't aware that she is getting a do over at first. Instead, she has this overwhelming sense of deja vu. Not knowing she is getting these do overs means she can't consciously make different choices, but unconsciously, she seems to sense where she needs to do things differently. This actually makes her a stronger person, without even really realizing it's happening to her. She starts out as this really awkward person that just lets life happen to her, to becoming someone who takes charge and makes life happen. But at some point, when she does realize what is happening, she tries to force things, which only makes things worse, but finally helps her to achieve some clarity in order to get out of her loop.
What I really liked about the story - I liked that it was a very different take on the Groundhog Day type theme. I think the ending came together really nicely. It ended the way it should, even if it was incredibly bittersweet.
What I struggled with - I found it could be a bit confusing because we were following over a couple of years each do over. It was hard to keep track of what had been significant to that day in the last do over. A major challenge with a Groundhog Day type theme is the repetitiveness of the story, which affects the pacing. I think if this story had been just a bit shorter, it would have helped it move along at a better pace and could have avoided some of that repetitiveness.
The ending of this story was just so well written that overall, I ended up coming away with a good feeling about the book.
In Five First Chances, the main character isn't aware that she is getting a do over at first. Instead, she has this overwhelming sense of deja vu. Not knowing she is getting these do overs means she can't consciously make different choices, but unconsciously, she seems to sense where she needs to do things differently. This actually makes her a stronger person, without even really realizing it's happening to her. She starts out as this really awkward person that just lets life happen to her, to becoming someone who takes charge and makes life happen. But at some point, when she does realize what is happening, she tries to force things, which only makes things worse, but finally helps her to achieve some clarity in order to get out of her loop.
What I really liked about the story - I liked that it was a very different take on the Groundhog Day type theme. I think the ending came together really nicely. It ended the way it should, even if it was incredibly bittersweet.
What I struggled with - I found it could be a bit confusing because we were following over a couple of years each do over. It was hard to keep track of what had been significant to that day in the last do over. A major challenge with a Groundhog Day type theme is the repetitiveness of the story, which affects the pacing. I think if this story had been just a bit shorter, it would have helped it move along at a better pace and could have avoided some of that repetitiveness.
The ending of this story was just so well written that overall, I ended up coming away with a good feeling about the book.