I feel a bit bad for DNF-ing this one, because I actually quite liked the style and the concept. There's the sense that it could have been a quality read, except the book seems SO. MUCH. LONGER than it needs to be.
I'm usually very good with long and slow-paced books. It's just that, in the case of Life after life, there is practically no plot, just a concept, and characters that aren't fascinating enough to make up for it. The descriptions aren't bad by any means, but they just don't have that magically immersive quality that impressed me in The Goldfinch, for example (another long and slow-paced book that I absolutely adored). And yeah, as I was saying, Life after life DRAGS. My mind keeps wandering while reading this thing... It feels like one interminable introduction, I keep waiting for the plot to actually happen, except I'm 198 pages in and it STILL feels like the beginning of the book, with the stage being set.
One more thing that annoyed me about the book: the author has this annoying habit of starting off almost every new chapter right in the middle of the action, with new characters and events she doesn't bother to actually introduce or, respectively, explain until like 10 pages later. I'm sure Atkinson thinks it's very modern and candid and surprising, but really it is just confusing.

Wise Children by Angela Carter

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funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

As glittery, ragtag and shocking a novel as the profession that is its subject: that of the theatre.

Red Butterfly by A. L. Sonnichsen

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slow-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? No

2.5

The writing style was pretty nice, and I sympathized with the main character, but the americanized perspective that miss Sonnichsen writes from kind of ruined Red Butterfly for me. The author takes liberties that aren't hers to take, cracks jokes that are uncomfortable coming from a white woman, and just generally pervades what should've been a picturesque depiction of a child's life in China with a neon bright, artificial, toxically positive white saviorist atmosphere.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.

It's pretentious and uninteresting. The writing style is so bland and unremarkable; I couldn't tell the stupid characters apart. Besides, the author writes from perspectives she can't possibly understand (black men, gay men) as if she understands them perfectly and it gets on my nerves. Girlie pretty much said black identity comes with constantly feeling agressive and "wounded" (sorry for yourself) and implied that it's possible to feel "post-black" (???) because you were raised with money and somehow that cancels out any racism you might experience (??!?!!?) Like wtf. Not to mention the cliches. "he avoided asking because he was afraid of the answers he might hear" COME ON. Honestly it reads like YA but for 30 year olds that never developed past reading YA.

Aleea Zorilor by Andrei Crăciun

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emotional reflective medium-paced