Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After finishing this book, I was extremely perplexed. How did this book get so many glowing reviews? I was so excited to read Life after Life. It had an intriguing premise and the cover of my ARC book had excellent reviews from many reputable sources. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to the hype. It was a little difficult to get into the story since it kept starting over. That part didn't bother me so much. It wasn't until after Ursula's life extended into adulthood that I was sucked into the story. This was short-lived, however, as she was killed off and the story abruptly started again. That in itself would have been fine if there had been interesting bits that carried over, but I felt like the stories changed too much to keep it interesting. For example, mysteries created were never solved and characters that the reader is swayed to hate never get their comeuppance. Weaving in these bits of interest across the many lives would have improved this book tremendously. I kept reading because I expected such outcomes, but was so disappointed when they never came through. As the reader, it was wholly unsatisfying to read so many disconnected lives. Instead of linking the stories or solving mysterious elements of previous lives, some of the lives take ridiculous turns. The most outrageous of these lives is when Ursula ends up living with Eva Braun and Hitler due to some tenuous connection (seriously?). The nuances between the stories simply were not enough to keep the overall story held together. Perhaps if David Mitchell (author of The Cloud Atlas) or Ken Follett (author of Pillars of the Earth) had written it, I would have found the story worthy of a positive review.