'Reincarnation Blues' by Michael Poore is a unique and thought-provoking novel that follows the journey of Milo, a soul who has been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times in various lives throughout history and the future. The book explores Milo's quest to achieve perfection before his 10,000th life, all while navigating his unconventional relationship with Death, personified as Suzie. Through a blend of humor, philosophy, and science fiction elements, the story delves into themes of love, life's absurdity, and the pursuit of meaning across multiple lifetimes.
The narrative style of 'Reincarnation Blues' is characterized by its non-linear timeline, diverse settings, and interconnected stories that provide a rich tapestry of Milo's experiences. The novel seamlessly weaves together elements of reincarnation, love, and existential exploration, offering a compelling and engaging exploration of the human experience across different lives and time periods.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Triggers include themes of violence, mental health crises, and existential threats, reflecting the darker aspects of Milo's experiences across his many lives.
Has Romance?
The romance between Milo and Suzie, Death, is a central element of the story, driving the narrative and emotional depth.
From The Publisher:
A wildly imaginative novel about a man who is reincarnated over ten thousand lifetimes to be with his one true love: Death herself.
"Tales of gods and men akin to Neil Gaiman's Sandman as penned by a kindred spirit of Douglas Adams."-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
First we live. Then we die. And then . . . we get another try?
Ten thousand tries, to be exact. Ten thousand lives to "get it right." Answer all the Big Questions. Achieve Wisdom. And Become One with Everything.
Milo has had 9,995 chances so far and has just five more lives to earn a place in the cosmic soul. If he doesn't make the cut, oblivion awaits. But all Milo really wants is to fall forever into the arms of Death. Or Suzie, as he calls her.
More than just Milo's lover throughout his countless layovers in the Afterlife, Suzie is literally his reason for living-as he dives into one new existence after another, praying for the day he'll never have to leave her side again.
But Reincarnation Blues is more than a great love story: Every journey from cradle to grave offers Milo more pieces of the great cosmic puzzle-if only he can piece them together in time to finally understand what it means to be part of something bigger than infinity. As darkly enchanting as the works of Neil Gaiman and as wisely hilarious as Kurt Vonnegut's, Michael Poore's Reincarnation Blues is the story of everything that makes life profound, beautiful, absurd, and heartbreaking.
Because it's more than Milo and Suzie's story. It's your story, too.
Praise for Reincarnation Blues
"The most fun you'll have reading about a man who has been killed by both catapult and car accident."-NPR
"This book made me laugh out loud. And then a page later, it made me sob. Reminiscent of Tom Robbins and Christopher Moore, Poore finds humor in the dark absurdities of life."-Chicago Review of Books
"Charming . . . surprisingly light and uplifting . . . It reads like a writer having fun."-New York Journal of Books
Ratings (27)
Incredible (6) | |
Loved It (11) | |
Liked It (8) | |
It Was OK (1) | |
Hated It (1) |
Reader Stats (65):
Read It (27) | |
Want To Read (33) | |
Did Not Finish (1) | |
Not Interested (4) |
2 comment(s)
4.5
Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from NetGalley, but I listened to the audiobook from the library.
In Reincarnation Blues, Milo is the ultimate slacker. He’s lived thousands of lives, but he still hasn’t reached perfection. Instead, he just wants to spend his time in the afterlife with his girlfriend, Susie, who also happens to be one of the incarnations of death. They’ve been together for more than eight thousand years, give or take, and Milo’s primary goal in the afterlife is avoiding transcending to the oversoul so that he can spend eternity watching TV on a couch with Susie.
Things get complicated, as they often do, when Mama and Nan, the caretakers of the afterlife, explain to him that he is about to run out of lives. Every soul gets no more than ten thousand reincarnations, and he’s down to his last five. If he can’t reach perfection and join the oversoul, Mama and Nan will push him off a floating sidewalk into nothingness and oblivion.
Milo thought that all he needed to do was be a wise man, which is why he’d spent his most recent life dispensing wisdom from fishing boat, but it turns out that perfection isn’t that simple. Part of the problem is that every life he lives feels more like killing time until he dies and gets to go back to Susie. Even still, Mama and Nan’s warning scares him into action, and he decides that he’ll do anything he can to reach perfection and avoid dissolving into nothingness.
The conceit of this book means that we follow Milo over the course of a dozen or so lives, each stranger than the last. It’s a bit like reading a collection of short stories with a through-line and common main character. The tone of the book is drily funny throughout, which is helpful because several of Milo’s lives are bleak or downright horrifying.
I will say that there is a point about halfway through the book where it almost lost me. Milo reincarnates somewhere far in the future as a young man with a promising future, but he is falsely accused of rape and sent to a nightmarish prison where the other prisoners rape and torture him.
If the trope of a false rape accusation wasn’t bad enough, the sheer unpleasantness of Milo’s life in prison started to drag the book down for me. However, I hung in to see how things played out, and I’m glad I did, because the end of the chapter redeemed itself. That said, several of Milo’s lives do happen in dystopias, so don’t go into this book expecting a happy time.
Reincarnation Blues is hilarious, moving, shocking and occasionally disturbing. The result is a wonderful coming-of-age story if those can happen to someone after they’ve lived close to ten thousand lives. Maybe a coming-to-wisdom story? Highly recommended.
This review originally appeared at Full of Words.
What can you read after
Reincarnation Blues?
About the Author:
MICHAEL POORE has written several books and short stories for grown-ups. Two Girls, a Clock, and a Crooked House is his first novel for young people. He lives in Highland, Indiana, with his wife, the poet and activist Janine Harrison,…
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