Book Review - First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

This was my second read of 2018 after a very disappointing read.I was not even sure why I thought of reading this book, it was a complete spontaneous decision for me.I believe this is the only SciFi book I have ever read in my life, on the top of it ,it is also set around second world war. SciFi and History are two genre which are my least favorite and here I was picking up this book with Zero Expectation.

How completely wrong I was!!

This was an absolute delight and brought me out of my Reading slump.Don't get me wrong,I had my own struggles with this book and God!!..There I am rambling without even starting from the start!

Plot -

Let's start with the summary.As the name itself suggests it is about Harry August,he is a kalachakra (ouroboran)..meaning he dies and born again and again in the same life and on the top of it...he remembers every thing about his previous lives after a conscious age (around 3-4 years old).This makes him valuable and very dangerous at the same time.Due to their nature of life, kalachakra  have the power to change the course of nature and can meddle with the time. And that my friend is the premise of whole book.As Harry is dying in one of his life, a young kalachakra inform him that the world is changing and if we do not do anything it is going to end and that also by the hand of a kalachakra. So rest of the plot (jumbled plots) deals with Harry trying to stop from this happening in his future lives.

Writing and Setting -

Set around second world war, this book gives us glimpses of all the first fifteen lives of Harry August in a very jumbled mess.Each chapter start with a different life of Harry and gives us experiences of him in different stages of his lives. As a reader we sometime have to figure out and pull all these jumbled mess together, which I believe,is the best part.It took me a while to get used to this but believe me guys all this struggle pays very well after the glorious satisfaction you experience after finishing this whole book.

Characters - 

I loved the character development of Harry. From being a soldier to Professor to a Teacher,he tried everything and developed a lot as his life progresses and that was my favorite thing in the world.Each characters though not main but still were interesting and complex.

My Overall Verdict -

- Very clever and smart Writing
- Great Characters - I loved the character development of Harry!
- Little Slow Paced and somewhere dragged and info dumpy, but only to a certain extent
- Interesting Plot Twists

4 Stars out of 5 overall!