Reincarnation Blues

I expected this book to be fun – and it was, but I also found it to be a very robust and deep novel. Overall, it reads more like interlocking short stories with the connecting theme being the main character and the ideas of what it means to seek redemption and how to be one's best self.

I really enjoyed the premise and the writing of this book. The storytelling and creativity is completely stimulating and captivating. I may not have been in the mood for a varying-setting-timeline-story and wanted to have a more hardlined story.

I love this so much. I was surprised, actually, by how tender it was. A cross between Christopher Moore and Douglas Adams, I think, and tackling the tough topic of reaching “human perfection.” So, so good.

Entertaining and thought provoking. Had to knock a star because at times it definitely felt like “Eastern Philosophy / Reincarnation for white people” at times. But overall highly enjoyable.

Very Gaiman like. Fun and easy writing style in a good voice. I enjoyed how at the end, achieving perfection was less about being flawless, and more about being adaptable.

Really fun novel. Death, a Love Story. Mere mortal Milo falls for the immortal Death (who wants to be called Suzie). Milo is trapped between his love for Suzie and a looming threat of eternal nothingness as he reaches his allotted 10,000 reincarnations. It's definitely silly but the silliness carried me through easily to the end.

Wow. I have to say this book is something. The writing is somehow both thought-provoking, creative, and clever but also incredibly naive and cliche. I honestly enjoyed reading great swathes of it, but not sure if that compensates enough for all the...cringe. The characters in the book make no sense to me. The love story is unconvincing. The author's concept of reincarnation is compelling but deeply flawed. The ending is confusing but not in any meaningful way. All with the overarching voice of hetero-white-maleness. I feel like this author is maybe a very new soul and I would have really loved his 100,000th life's version of this story.

Similar to The Good Place in its zany examination of life, death, and the afterlife, Reincarnation Blues follows Milo, a man on his 9996th try (out of 10,000 lives) to reach Perfection, or else become Nothing. First and foremost, this was funny. The jokes are abrupt, startling laughs out of you. Poore lets things get heavy, then introduces a character named Wavy Gravy 2. Somehow it works.Reincarnation Blues reads almost like an anthology, because each of Milo's lives feature a different tone, setting, and group of characters. The book's premise enables its protagonist to be any age or gender or race, in any time or place. However, in the lives covered extensively, Milo is usually a straight white man. Based on some Tarantino-esque slurs toward the end, not to mention basically all takes on sexual violence, Poore might not have the range.My other main gripe is how initial fun and intrigue fade because of increasing focus on corny flat romance (see also: [b:The Humans 16130537 The Humans Matt Haig https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353739654l/16130537.SY75.jpg 21955852]). A trite conclusion to an imaginative pitch. How do you manage to make Death as a love interest boring? Probably by not really knowing how to write women. I'm just saying, if we're going that route, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind did it better. It's certainly ambitious, but when a book with universal reach lapses into stale tropes and torture porn, the whole thing falls flat.