Book Talks: The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by MG Buerhlen

I did a half baked review of the book here: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/06/half-baked-reviews-57-lives-of-alex.html

**To view spoilers, drag your mouse over the empty space between"<SPOILER>...<SPOILER>"
So, this book is about a girl named Alex who can travel back in time to her past lives. It's a pretty interesting premise, and I liked the concept. However, I did have some problems with it. So, let's just talk.
*By the way, I'll be repeating some of the points I made in my half baked review.

• I hated the main character. Alex seemed to be a pretty rebellious and cool protagonist at the beginning of the story, but the more I got to know her, the more I hated her. Even though she seemed affectionate and the part about her sister having cancer was touching, I didn't feel like the protagonist was a very likable person.
• The instaluv. In the book, Alex travels back in time to 1927 and meets an attractive blonde boy there with blue green eyes. They go out on a date the next day and kiss, and then she wants to have sex with him. But what bothered me is that this instaluv was dragged out throughout the book. <SPOILER> Whenever she sees someone with blue green eyes, she immediately thinks "OMG! IT'S BLUE!" Even though she was right, it was annoying. And the author tried to justify it by saying that their souls were powerfully connected, but I did not believe the love between them. Like I said, Alex wasn't a very likable person. Also, whenever she sees blue, how does he have the same eye color? If he was a different body with each life, then how does he have the same eye color? That makes no sense. <SPOILER>
• The author usually used very nice sentences, but there was one sentence in particular that just killed me so much that I felt the need to fold the end of the page it was contaminating just so I could point it out in this review. "Every muscle was stiff, and my stomach growled, demanding a living sacrifice." page 208. WHAT? DEMANDING A LIVING SACRIFICE? That one sentence just changed the mood of that entire page so much. There was this kind waiter serving her pancakes an other yummy stuff, and I'm just laughing and shaking and crying all at once because I'm imagine her stomach tearing bloody birds apart and devouring their feathers one at a time and screaming "GIVE ME MORE!" Not imagery I needed.
• There were long information dumps. Page 186 is basically an entire page of information dumps disguised as conversation. It really bothered me how the main characters gave too much information away when they were speaking. It was during a crisis, too. The main characters would be like "Oh no! This bomb is going to go off in five seconds! Please, during this time, let me educate you on why it will be bad if this bomb goes off."
• It really makes me sad when authors use inconsistent spelling. During the book, one of the main character's past lives is as Shooter Delaney. On page 268, her name suddenly becomes Shooter Delany. Now, mistakes like this don't ever affect my enjoyment of the book, but when I am making reviews and I'm being very critical of the text, I like to point these little things out.
• While I'm pointing out little things, the author used abbreviations and just didn't add the periods. Instead of Dr. the author said Dr which I realize that I do quite a lot, with names like JK Rowling, but that's okay on a blog. I'm not trying to be professional, but this is supposed to be a professional book. Little tiny things like that just annoy me.
• The author explains things. Now, I don't feel like the author should spoonfeed their reader. Before I talk about a certain spoiler, the author would put in words what just happened and kind of sum it up for the reader. It made this book feel like it was targeted towards a younger audience, but it dealt with things that younger audiences don't usually read, so that means that the author was just plainly telling you what happened. There is one rule in writing I think all writers should follow: Show, don't tell. <SPOILER> On page 359, the author says "He rubbed circles around his pinky knuckle with his thumb." Now, I think that most of us picked up that this was a habit that Porter had. But the author literally tells you in the next page. That really bothered me. <SPOILER>
• I like that the main character seemed to have dignity, but she also felt a little too hung up about some stupid guy at the same time, so everything kind of cancelled out, which made the character feel like a generic female protagonist.

Now, all of this being said, I didn't hate this book. I actually kind of enjoyed it. The concept was kind of interesting, the book was pretty fast paced, and there were a lot of possibilities in this book. It all lead up to one big cliffhanger, which linked back to the instaluv, but I'd like to see what happens. And though the rest of this review might have seemed kind of harsh, I actually recommend this book. Because the finale was kind of exciting, it was an easy read, the ending was nice, the writing was usually pretty beautiful, and you know what? It was a fun book.

Half Baked Reviews: The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by MG Buerhlen

Currently, I am on page 223 of 410, which is a little more than halfway through according to math.
It's about a girl who has been reincarnated 56 times, and she is capable of traveling back in time to her past lives. However, someone doesn't want her to be able to do that, and they want to kill her.

The book is so far, a fairly easy read. The size of the book is kind of deceiving, because I was able to get through these pages relatively quickly.

What this book is doing well so far:

• It's a very interesting concept. I just have a very beautiful image in my mind when I imagine Limbo, and it's very entertaining so far.
• I like the writing style. It will have a short description, one of the character's funny thoughts, and then some dialogue. There's very good balance and the author uses very good imagery.
• It seems to be dealing with time travel in a way that makes sense, but it's a very daunting task for an author to write about time travel. There are so many potential plot holes that can be made and things that can be misinterpreted. The author is doing a pretty good job with it so far, though.

What is making me seriously consider throwing this book against the wall:

• Instaluv. And a lot of it. I knew when I opened the book and the first thing I saw was "This is the way my story begins. Not with a bang but a whimper. Nothing more than a calm voice, a careful smile, and a pair of spectacles perched on the tip of a thin nose. But don't let that deter you. You'll be happy to know a bang comes in the end. Literally. Along with a kiss, a promise, a death, a broken heart, and an end to life as you and I would have known it" that this book would be a hit or a miss. But OH MY GOSH. The main character meets this guy with muscles and blue green eyes and he's very kind and instantly she's drawn to him. The next day, they go on a date, make out, and the main character wants to have sex with him. WHAT??!
• Long information dumps. The author tried to disguise them and casually weave them into conversations, but when you have a page of information with no indents that indicate a new paragraph, you can't disguise it.
• The author usually used very nice sentences, but there was one sentence in particular that just killed me so much that I felt the need to fold the end of the page it was contaminating just so I could point it out in this review. "Every muscle was stiff, and my stomach growled, demanding a living sacrifice." page 208. WHAT? DEMANDING A LIVING SACRIFICE? That one sentence just changed the mood of that entire page so much. There was this kind waiter serving her pancakes an other yummy stuff, and I'm just laughing and shaking and crying all at once because I'm imagine her stomach tearing bloody birds apart and devouring their feathers one at a time and screaming "GIVE ME MORE!" Not imagery I needed.
• I hate the main character. She's kind of stupid and impatient. She's too emotionally attached to people, and I'm partially just saying that because I'm emotionally detached and I can't relate to her. But she's kind of an idiot, she seems really dependent on other people, and it seems like she overreacts to certain situations a bit more than the situation calls for.

My feelings are kind of mixed about this book, but I'm enjoying it so far. It's pretty fast paced, it's not very boring, and I'd like to see where this leads.