The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is about a man (Harry) who relives his life over and over, but retains the memories from his former lives (think Groundhog's Day.) When a message comes to him from another person like him that the world is ending sooner and sooner in the future, he has to find out where the end of the world is coming from. He does this by tracing major world events, and when they begin to happen sooner and sooner, he can start to pinpoint where the inconsistencies are.
I bought this book for Kassia for Christmas after I had heard that it was really good, and she really enjoyed it, so I couldn't wait to read it.
The first 44% of this book were a CHORE. I really did think that the backstory and explanation were never going to end. Parts of it were like reading a text book. I would zone out for paragraphs at a time and have to re-read them. The first half of the book had very little dialogue and action, but a lot of explaining who he was and information about people like him.
Don't get me wrong - we get introduced to his first few lives in the beginning. But the world changing doesn't happen for many lives after.
I would suggest this book if you are off work for a few days (I finished 1/3 of the book the first day, took me about a week to finish the rest) and you want to wrap your mind around some sci-fi that seems to take a lot of explaining.
If you don't have energy for a book that is mentally draining, I would not recommend this book.
It was VERY interesting, and very different from everything I have ever read. I feel like this book took 15 years to write, because it seems that she really did a lot of research to write this book. That being said, that much research in my brain in one book really took it out of me.
It's just hard for me to not recommend a book that I finished. I'm torn.
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