Review of Firstlife by Gena Showalter



Series: Everlife #1
Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 467
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: 23/02/2016
Find The Author: (Website/Twitter)
Find The Book: Book Depository/AbeBooks UK/US
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ONE CHOICE. TWO REALMS. NO SECOND CHANCE. 

Tenley "Ten" Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live — after she dies. There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death. 

 In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, long-time enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms that will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she's drawn to isn't where the boy she's falling for lives? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…


I blitzed through this one way, way quicker than I was expecting and I was surprised that I really enjoyed it. It's complete trash in the nicest way, one of those guilty pleasure books that brought me right back to the days of Twilight and Fallen. There are so many bad tropes but I couldn't help but completely love this strange little book. I'm unsure if it's a fantasy, high fantasy, dystopia or something else entirely though. It's worth noting that I too, am complete trash for books that are so bad they're good. I've previously loved books with a cliched zombie romance, vampires having armpit sex and a girl falling in love with an angel. I'm really weird like that.

I was a bit confused as to the details of the world at first, I was convinced that the story they were told - that you pick Myriad or Troika or you go to the Many Ends, a world where birds will peck you to death repeatedly - was actually just a dystopian version of Christianity and both realms and Many Ends would be revealed to be utter lies. Uh, I was really wrong. This is somewhere between fantasy and dystopia but I'm just not sure which.

“Hate is like drinking a vial of poison and expecting it to harm the other person, You’re not hurting the guy, only yourself.”

When we first meet Tenley she's in an asylum, tortured daily because her parents want her to choose Myriad and she isn't ready to pick. Lovely people. Then Bow and Killian arrives and she finds out she's super special as usual. This isn't a spoiler because if you didn't see this coming you clearly have never read a book before. Killian the Irishman was completely baffling because he spent his whole time speaking with a Scottish accent. I have no idea how the editor didn't pick up on this mistake.

 I liked the whole darkness versus light, super brutal battle thing. This book really doesn't care if you're squeamish. The head is coming off. Actually a lot of heads. The concept is actually truly unique, even if it was bogged down a bit by the tropes and I understood what was going on completely by the end of the book.

Comments

  1. Lily B8:07 pm BST

    the writing looks good so does the plot and the world, great review, glad you love it

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shooting Stars Mag3:45 pm BST

    Interesting concept. I'm glad you liked this one despite all the tropes - sometimes it just works, or you know, doesn't bother you! lol And an Irishman speaking in a Scottish accent? Oh boy...that's funny nobody caught that.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

    ReplyDelete

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