Claire North - The End of the Day

Charlie meets everyone - but only once.
You might meet him in a hospital, in a warzone, or at the scene of traffic accident.
Then again, you might meet him at the North Pole - he gets everywhere, our Charlie.
Would you shake him by the hand, take the gift he offers, or would you pay no attention to the words he
says?
Sometimes he is sent as a courtesy, sometimes as a warning. He never knows which.

Comment: This is the third book by Claire North I try. The others have given me mixed feelings and I liked one better but the fascinating element one can find in her novels is also found in this one: the ability to be provocative with a premise that should be bonkers but that turns out to work rather well. Sort of...

In this book the idea is that the four horsemen of he Apocalypse can and do act on the human world. They even hire human Harbingers, who travel all over the world to visit some specific people for all kinds of reasons but usually because whatever that person represents can be important. The man character is Charlie, the Harbinger of Death and while his work is reverenced and respected by some, it isn't so by others but one thing is certain, Charlie does take his job very seriously, even when it puts him in danger...

Again, what an idea for a book...the author really knows how to invent scenarios where she can exploit her thoughts. I believe is more than safe to share that the goal of this book is to make one think about the role of Death in our lives and what sorts of repercussions we all face knowing our life will end at some point. As always, it's the path to that moment that matters...

I liked Charlie for a protagonist. He is a sweet, honorable man, conscious of trying do do a good job, always presenting himself as expected, his role is one of courtesy or one of warning, preparing someone for the honor of receiving a formal call card from Death or a warning that it might be close. He doesn't know, however, how or when, nor can he influence his employer in any possible way. He tries to keep a quiet, routine life outside of his job and he even starts a romantic relationship. He is like the common decent man who goes on his life doing his best but he cannot foresee the dangers nor the way others try to manipulate or use him.

I think the suggestions, the hints, the sometimes realistic words the author adds within the story work to show case how marvelously unethical people can be. How we raise arms to attack something never to put ourselves in the others' shoes. I think the message portrayed here is one in par with Charlie's role: we have warnings, we have close calls but we still carry on as f we're invincible...until we are not. And often we justify the ends certainly need specific means to be so, but is it really?

As Charlie goes with his job, it starts to become obvious how weird and unfair the world is for some, for those who can't run from being different from the norms. Charlie starts to feel the weight of his role and the fact he can't change any outcome, he can't make but a small difference in the lives of those he meets through his role as Harbinger. I think it was clever how, as the story moves long, Charlie starts to feel the weight of difficulties and by the end I think it can be troublesome to identify what is worst in people's existence to the point where Charlie himself can't separate his own views and those others want to force on him.

There are wonderful passages in this book, some quite heart wrenching but let it be said there isn't an obvious linear plot development. This is a book to suggest thinking on whatever themes one wants to think about, with Charlie's job as a starting point. I can see how frustrating this can be for a reader who prefers a plot to follow. It's true that there several things, several ideas left up in the air, not leading to any obvious conclusion, somethings we just have to infer any way we like and this can be tiresome too. I've also seen some readers disliking the political and social critiques the author includes but for those who have liked other books by her, it' not a big novelty.

For me, this book worked. I liked the idea and the execution, of not the sometimes confusing jumps from one thing to another, especially those Charlie lives through and I admit there were moments where I was confused about what the message was supposed to be. However, for the most part this is a book to savor, to challenge one's views and while I can understand many will find all the negative aspects of it, for me it made sense.

Grade: 7/10

Claire North - Touch

Kepler had never meant to die this way — viciously beaten to death by a stinking vagrant in a dark back alley. But when reaching out to the murderer for salvation in those last dying moments, a sudden switch takes place.
Now Kepler is looking out through the eyes of the killer himself, staring down at a broken and ruined body lying in the dirt of the alley.
Instead of dying, Kepler has gained the ability to roam from one body to another, to jump into another person’s skin and see through their eyes, live their life — be it for a few minutes, a few months or a lifetime.
Kepler means these host bodies no harm — and even comes to cherish them intimately like lovers. But when one host, Josephine Cebula, is brutally assassinated, Kepler embarks on a mission to seek the truth — and avenge Josephine’s death.

Comment: Roughly two years ago, I've read a book by this author as a buddy read with my friend H. At the time, I had a good experience reading it and then I looked at other books by the author and some caught my eye. This was one of them and in the last few days I gave it a go.

In this book we follow the steps of Kepler, even though this might not be their real name, who is a Ghost. A Ghost is a person who dies, often in some traumatic manner, and upon death if they somehow touch some skin on somebody else's, they "jump" into that person's body and become that person. From this moment on, the Ghost has the ability to jump into anyone they want, for as how long as they need or want and they command that person's body completely. When they leave that "host", the person has no memory of what happened and they can't understand why so much time has passed.

This book begins when Kepler's host is killed and Kepler, having been fond of his host, decides to embark on a mission to discover why the host was killed and, eventually, get revenge.

On the way, though, Kepler finds many setbacks, deals with many people - including other Ghosts - and in the end a decision needs to be made...

If one thing can be said about the author's work is that imagination is not running out for her plots.

As it happened with the first book by her I've tried, this too was quite innovative in its working, even if similar ideas have been used by other authors, etc.

The notion that we could be anyone, anywhere, do whatever we wanted because there wouldn't be no consequences, no dealing with the afterwards, is strangely compelling, even while being basically a form of manipulation and morally wrong.

I'd say this is the biggest question of this book (although other things could be discussed rather extensively), this idea that we already use others for our benefit and what is missing is the use of the individual's body as our own.

Kepler is a very ambiguous character. We never have the certainty this is a male or female but the ghosts can be whomever they want, gender isn't that important. In fact, this is quite an interesting detail too, how we aren't only our physical appearance, what makes us us, is the combination of our body's abilities with our mind, our personality... this was also addressed the book because ghost don't acquire the host's memories or knowledge.

The whole book is focused on Kepler's mission, the experiences they went through, the people he met, including other ghosts and all the potential hosts out there. Kepler is distinguished from others because we are told they cared for the hosts they used  - although that didn't stop them from using them anyway.

The morals here are quite thought provoking. I think the philosophical and moral side of this whole idea is what made me eager to read the book. 

There were two problems, though, for me.

The idea of this book is crazy but offered interesting possibilities. I think the flaw for me was how vague and dubious Kepler was. If this character were to be someone we could sympathize with, the story would have gained a lot ore intensity. I understand the author wanted to leave them as someone we had to doubt, we had to wonder about, we had to think about motivations and would we become so indifferent to the host's rights with time, but... the way this went, Kepler was more like a parasite, someone not worthy of our empathy and care and it got to the point I wasn't certain what I really wanted to happen to them.

The other issue for me is that, in between so many characters, so many different settings (these ghosts certainly manage to travel a lot), so many "jumps", there were some confusing transitions. I wasn't always aware of where things were what was happening... mixed with this was also the fact Kepler, as narrator, was always thinking about past experiences, referencing hosts used, making connections between a lot of things.

There were moments I felt a little lost and added with the lack of sympathy towards Kepler...some passages weren't as poignant as they could have been.

So, among all the confusion, Kepler remains on their mission, we discover why their host was killed in the beginning of the book, we muddle through a lot of moral questions and difficult choices, and we learn why the villain felt like doing all the bad things that happen during the plot.

We go to the end of the book, some things happen and then... what? Was Kepler successful in his mission, what lessons did they learn at all?!

Again, as it happened in the other book I've read, no closure is gained. I think in the other book, that was OK, no big deal. However, in this one, the story does feel incomplete, as if the author had no ideas and hid that behind the whole "left to the reader's imagination" thing.

Summarizing, the story has an amazing premise, the idea is really interesting but the lack of affinity with Kepler, the lack of closure and a more structured development really made me think this was only OK for me. Sure, the plot moving along all over the place has its aim in sight but I think a more well structured segmentation of events would have aided me to visualize things better.

I still have two books by the author to read... I hope I'll like them better than this one.

Grade: 6/10

Claire North - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.
No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.
Until now.
As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August," she says. "I need to send a message."
This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow. 

Comment: This is a book I decided to buddy read with my friend H. As usual, I managed to read first but I must say this was a very positive surprise.

Harry August is a kalachara, which we understand as the pages go by, as being someone who can be reborn despite dying over and over again. The catch is that each time Harry is reborn he goes back to the same moment but as he gets older he still retains all the memories from his previous lives.

As his lives progress and he learns how to behave and to expect changes in his choices, he also must deal with others like him. However, some agree with his way of thinking, there's even an organization that helps those who arrive in the world in a not so easy way but there are those who want to use their status to change the world in ways no one could avoid or where it wouldn't be possible to stop catastrophes...

When I started reading this book, narrated by the protagonist Harry, I immediately thought about another book I've read with this theme, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, but now that I've read both, I got the impression this book by Claire North is a lot better when it comes to the way the information comes across.

This book's narrative focus a lot more on Harry's personality and his choices and Atkinson's was more confusing and seemed to focus a little more on the changes in each life of the character. Of course, it helps a lot that in this book we can have the main characters already knowing what he felt and lived through in previous lives and isn't unaware like Atkins's protagonist.

In fact, this was my favorite aspect of the story. I could think of the logical of such a situation happening (this is obviously not a very scientific theory) and then it's easy to accept that the laws of physics, of nature and of life itself could bent so for fictional purposes, but it's actually fun to imagine if it were possible. The author of course adds a lot of historical, scientific and sociological elements to add veracity and believability to what happened around the characters' lives.

Even if we couldn't believe the way Harry can be reborn, it's still quite a journey to see him go through so many experiences. I confess I was really eager to keep turning the pages.

Another interesting detail for me was to see how Harry rarely changed into a unlikely character. For the most part he is a likable and reliable character to care for. He does act not as well in some of his lives but he makes for it in others, which proves we can all be moved by what is happening to us and in our lives. I liked Harry was not perfect, but I did want him to choose better here and there, considering he knew things overall, from past lives.

There is some conflict and not as great lives for Harry. Those were complicated to go through.

I think apart from the detail, there's also a continuity that mixes all lives somehow so each experience, including the more negative ones, fells necessary and logical to have been included. I liked we also could think about several issues from a psychological and philosophic POV.

Probably what didn't make this more perfect for me was how some situations dragged. Also, the end was very...unsatisfactory because it doesn't really offer closure, it's more an idea in the air that we can read anyway we want but personally I'd have liked other clues to validate what I think should have been the perfect ending. But I kind of understand why the author decided to leave it to out imagination.

All in all, a great story! I'm thinking about trying something else by the author.

Grade: 8/10