Month: September 2017

Hurst by Robin Crumby

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

I initially expected this book to be a lot like Stephen King’s The Stand due to the apocalypse being brought on by a virus. Instead what I found was a fictional book about the truths of human nature under absolute stress.

Situations, like global annihilation of mankind, cause the survivors to do what they need to do in order to survive. Sometimes that causes them to turn into something they never were or just become the epitome of evil. Sometimes they can still hold true to themselves and maintain who they were.

Regardless this book turned out to really just not move for me. It was a great idea. It had a great setup. I couldn’t care less about the characters. If I don’t care about a single character, why bother with a book at all? I also felt like there weren’t enough descriptions. I couldn’t really fall into the scenes like I do with most books.

It was, like I said, a great idea for a plot line. Some of the characters would have also been great for me had they been fleshed out some more. If I could use half stars I would rate 3.5. In fairness I will round up.

4 stars.

I received a free copy from First to Read in exchange for an honest review.

The information from the book description sums it up perfectly: “Michael Poore’s Reincarnation Blues is the story of everything that makes life profound, beautiful, absurd, and heartbreaking.”

We follow Milo through his thousands of lives, deaths, and afterlives. True to life, he’s not always an adult when he dies. Sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking. Sometimes it’s stupid. Sometimes it’s just comical.

What’s different, though, is his relationship with Suzie, who is actually Death. After every death she meets him on the side of the river between the worlds. Around page 100 I actually began to care about what happened to these two and hoped their story would ultimately end well.

What I really enjoyed was that the story was not told in sequential order. We jump forward and backward through Milo’s lives to relive his experiences. I also looked that some of Suzie’s history was given to us as well.

The book ultimately hopped to a satisfying ending.

5 stars.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

This book started out like “Soylent Green” for me. It moved on to possessing serious elements of the “Hunger Games” in that the characters are in a lifelong struggle with the upper classes and feud amongst themselves for what they need to survive.

Araina is a truly likable character and I wanted her to succeed from the start.

The book was fast paced from start to finish and I can’t wait to finish the series.

5 stars