Life Over Death
(I received this book for free from Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.)“Am I really equipped to make decisions like this? Can I justify that man’s death by assuming he is better off or that his family is better off? How in the world would you know without seeing how his life would have played out?”
The idea behind Life over Death itself is thought-provoking and interesting enough. It hammers down heavily on subjects such as morality and religion- mostly edging toward Universalism- and “the validation of Hope”. Tom is gifted with ten miracles in exchange for ten deaths, each of which is his own choice. He was chosen for the gift because of his pure heart, and of course he struggled with the morality of his gift and wether or not to share his secret with his wife. Though the book does have a great story line, it could have been executed better. It tends to repeat the same train of thoughts often.
The narration switches from Tom’s point to view to the view of people he has met/ will meet. He shakes up an otherwise mundane mundane tempo and gives a little insight into Tom’s decisions.
The dialog can get extremely wordy and is sometimes unbelievable, giving huge information dumps to give backstories on characters or just theological/religious/philosophical babbling.
Overall, Life Over Death has an interesting concept but could have been executed better.
