{2015 Amazing Book Race Challenge Review} THE FIRST FIFTEEN LIVES OF HARRY AUGUST by Claire North

Lupe's Review:

It's not often that I am truly blown away by a book, so much so, that as I sit alone at home and close it, I still say "Wow" out loud to no one. This does that. It was closely reminiscent to The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, with the whole ability to come back in another life, but in this case, Harry August comes back as himself over and over, and has to relive his past time and time again. He always sees his mother die, always finds the Chronus Club and always befriends Vincent. Their friendship (which is an immensely complicated and unhealthly codependent one) is one of true beauty. Combine this with the fact that suddenly members of the Chronus Club and, by and large, others with the ability to die and come back, are vanishing or worse, not being born at all, Harry is tasked at the deathbed of one of his lives to find out WHY the world is ending so much faster than it should. This is a fantastic work of time travel, historical fiction, mixed with some quantum physics. I wasn't sure what I expected this novel to be, but what I was given was so much better. I was given hearbreak and sadness, with a mix of awe and reverence. I am saddened that this is a library book and that I have to turn it in, since I would re-read this in a heartbeat. So I will have to make this a staple on my bookshelf instead. Really, this was a wonderful work and I feel like I need to go and think about it a bit more.