A review by witcheep
Lifel1k3 (Lifelike) by Jay Kristoff

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

3.0

At the first glance, Lifelike seems like a basic YA coming-of-age dystopian story that has been told dozens of times already. In the last third of the plot, however, the book bombards the main character and the reader with plot twist after plot twist, that just make the book unique enough to spark interest in the sequel.

The basic beginning


In a postapocalyptic dystopian world a teenaged underdog girl finds out she has secret superpowers that put her life at risk. While fleeing for her life, she comes across a perfect-looking boy. Said hottie boy gives the first clue that the girl's whole life has been a lie and that she has actually another identity of offspring of one of the most influential – but now murdered – families of the world. Said hottie was a romantic part of her past. Now the whole world seems to want the girl dead – as she already should be, per the murdered family and secret superpowers out in the open. The girl wants to figure out her identity while running for her life.

No.
No, my name is...
...What
is
my
name?

Getting better: deviations from the basicness


The narration is very descriptive and the plot feels quite cinematic. There are multiple enemies that provide showy and very violent battle scenes to the point I felt the book was feasting with the gore a little too much for a YA book. The narration is in third person, mostly from the pov of the main character Eve. We get a few chapters or fragments within Eve's chapters from the pov of other characters as well; members from the main group or their main personified enemy.

The worldbuilding is intriquing, altough we've already seen multiple dystopian fiction worlds built on the ruins of the USA. The colossal rivaling science companies specializing in AI robots are an interesting ruling force in this world, and I wish there was more focus put on this worldbuilding aspect rather than the superficial gimmick of making up multiple nicknames for every character in the main group.

"Listen," Lemon said. "Eve.
Ana
. Whatever you want to call yourself. You're still Riotgrrl to me, yeah? And I don't care who's after you. Where you're from or where you're going. It's you, me, Crick and Kaiser. No matter what. Rule Number One in the Scrap, remember? Stronger together, together forever. Right?"

The main character Eve/
Ana
/Riotgrrl (and her multiple nicknames
besides these multiple identities
) likes to think herself a cabable heroine, but for the most part of the book she is just a stubborn and very unforgiving teenager that is forced to react to whatever the world throws at her next.

Hitting a jackpot: fireworks of plot twists


Towards the ending, the main character begins to grasp agency, though, and shaping the course of her own life with decicive actions. In the last third of the book, there comes interesting plot twist one after the other – Regarding Eve/
Ana
/Riotgrrl and the other characters. Some of these plot twists were very predictable, but Kristoff managed to throw some real curveballs into the mix as well, making the future of the characters quite unsure. These plot twists make the story a little more unique and are what might push me to continue this series regardless how generic it seemed at first.
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