My Second Life by Faye Bird
Published by Usborne Publishing Ltd on Jamuary 19th 2016
Genres: Action & Adventure, General, Horror & Ghost Stories, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Young Adult
Source: ARC from Publisher
Goodreads
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A pacy pageturner that asks: Can you be held responsible now for something you did in a previous life?
Fifteen-year-old Ana has a good life--she has friends and a boy she likes and a kind mother--but still, she's haunted by her past; she knows that she lived once before as a girl named Emma, and she still misses her old family. When, by chance in her life now, Ana meets a woman she knew in her previous life, a terrifying memory flashes through her mind of a young girl drowning. Was Emma responsible? And should Ana pay the price? Consumed by guilt, Ana sets out to find out as much as possible about the person she was before and what she had done, only to discover that the family she misses so deeply had dark secrets of its own. To come to terms with her life now, Ana must figure out how to let go of the past.
I am having the absolutely worst case of bad-bookitis lately!! Nothing is working for me. Okay, fine a few have but they have been 2016 books that are months away from releasing SO I just feel like all the books Iâm posting about now are all negative, which is something I HATE. I sincerely dislike disliking books.
Anywaysâ¦
My MAJOR issue with this entire book is that the writing is KILLING me. It was so choppy and frigid. It lacked so much emotion. I felt like I was reading a script or something, just way too much dialogue and not enough description or feeling. I never got fully immersed in this book or story like I want to and NEED to while reading a book.
I could not, for the life of me, connect with Ana or any of the relationships she has. Once again, it was the way she was written. All the things I should have felt sympathy for, I couldn’t. She was really hard to connect with and relate to in anyway.
The relationships she has with Rachel and Jamie were too emotionless for me. Jamie just kind of randomly appears here and there and she goes on about how much she likes him and that’s about that. Also, I found it odd that a 15 yr old girl would think to herself that “he kissed me tenderly”, but maybe that’s just me.
Anyways, Rachel is there a lot but the whole way their relationship is portrayed is so weird to me. And don’t even get me started on how Ana gets mad about David (her dad), but won’t even call Rachel her Mum. That was about the point that I started skimming. It just made no sense to me.
Nothing earth shattering or mind blowing happens at the end. No crazy, big reveal or anything interesting in my opinion. Basically what Ana thinks happened the whole way through the book is what actually happened. The only reason it got 2 stars was because it was a fast read and I didn’t throw it.
About Faye Bird
Hello! Iâm Faye and I wrote My Second Life, which I'd describe as an emotionally dark YA thriller. Iâm a debut author who has always had a passion for writing. I studied Philosophy and Literature at University and was a Literary Agent for TV and Film scriptwriters before becoming a writer myself. I am now getting used to sitting on the other side of the desk!
Do you ever get turned off by a book because of the writing?
Is it a major factor for you?
Sigh. I wasn’t OVERY excited for this book, but I was hoping to enjoy it. Your review has me worried now! I’m very character driven and it sounds like the characters are meh. Now, bad characters usually mean a DNF for me… EXCEPT, in some rare cases, if the writing is gorgeous, I can look past it. But it seems the writing is the WORST PART in this book. Now I’m scared to read it ð I’m sorry it was so bad for you and I’m sorry you’re in such a reading slump! Hopefully it goes away soon! <3
The idea for this sounds so awesome so I am very sad the execution sucked. AND BOO YOUR READING SLUMP. I hope you get something amazing soon.
oh gosh yes, if I can’t stand the writing, it definitely impacts how I feel about the book. It’s too bad about this one because it seemed so promising but if the writing is like that …. I think I may pass.
Ugh ð I’m so sorry that this book was so disappointing Crystal. That is no fun at all :\ And that cover is SO PRETTY. But yeah. Not a book for me either ð And ugh. Awful writing? Yeah, nothing can save bad writing, lol. You are awesome for finishing the book, though. <3 Thank you for sharing your thoughts sweetie ð
I’ve seen quite a few negative reviews for this, and I won’t lie, I’m pretty bummed out because I was so excited for it. However, the writing style would probably make me cry (I hate stunted, choppy writing), so I’ll probably skip it. Great review!