The 57 Lives Of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen

Every publisher is always looking for the 'next big thing', be it a new Hunger Games or Potter the hunt is always on. The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare (Alex Wayfare Series) by M.G. Buehrlen could well be that 'thing'.

Teenager Alex is argumentative, stroppy, the bane of her teacher's lives, and a constant worry to her parents. She knows this though and is often racked with guilt, especially as she feels she could never tell them the reasons why she plays up. For years she has been having visions of past events; be it stuck on a ship feeling sick, to witnessing horrific starvation in Jamestown, all her visions are sensory, realistic and unexplained. When she comes out of these episodes, she's often left with marks from injuries and totally overwhelmed, which goes some way to explaining her behaviour, especially when she's 'zoned out' during school. School is a problem for Alex in a big way. Isolated and unpopular, except with childhood friend Jensen who's attempts at bonding are always met with suspicion and doubt by Alex, she finds solace in the A.V. club where she can hide away with her main passion of fixing things up.

After several smaller visions, Alex has a monumental experience when she blacks out and finds herself right in the middle of 1920's Chicago. Once she's got her head together and checked herself out in a nearby window (Alex's appearance changes each time, sometimes it's just eye colour, other's it's a full body makeover, but still recognisably Alex) she's caught up in a mob hit on a local store. It's here that she meets the man who will change her life forever, 'Blue', but only after they're both involved in a violent fight with gangsters, and Alex discovers abilities she never realised she had.

When she comes around (bruised and with a nasty cut to the back of her head) and runs from class, she finds a flyer with a note on it specifically for her, leading Alex to the mysterious Porter, and finally, the answers she's been looking for. Alex is a descender, created by a research team to travel in time using the 'soulmarks' left in Limbo by Alex's 56 previous lives. Porter has been protecting Alex from Gesh one of the founders of company AIDA, who is now manipulating soulmarks to make him the most powerful man in the World, and totally untouchable, and the novel then follows them as they try to take Gesh down from the inside.

Buehrlen has created a believable sci-fi World that, although the 'taking down the big bad' trope is a well used one, we're allowed to get used to the main characters in Alex's universe before the arc gets complex, which I imagine will start with book 2 as the first novel is left on a crafty cliffhanger. I liked Alex. I know some reviews have called her whiny and spoilt, but I think they miss her guilt and regret, especially over the pain she's causing her parents at a time when they should be caring for her sister with cancer. Her anger and confusion is handled well, as is her inability to trust anyone, and when the truth comes slowly rattling out you can fully understand why.

This is a good solid start to a new YA franchise, and one that could easily appeal to either gender, especially if the male figures are given enough growth and emphasis in the second novel. The narrative is fast-paced, with plenty of action, and although it's a big part of the story arc, any romance is kept to a minimum. Buehrlen handles the time periods well, evoking each with strong detail, without reverting to pages of historical facts, and you really pick up Alex's feelings about each one (her opinions on the 1960's are refreshing).

All-in-all, I'd be happy to pick this series up, as I would imagine, any TV or movie exec will shortly.




This novel was supplied to me via NetGalley as an advance review copy in return for a balanced review.





Read as part of the Clean Sweep Challenge 

How I Will Be Spring Cleaning...

...My ARCs.

(Anyone who knows me will know I wasn't talking about on top of  my dusty shelves for goodness sake!)

So, in November of 2013, I discovered NetGalley and I can honestly say my (reading) life changed-the jury is still out on whether my actual life has improved or just collapsed by the wayside.

For the uninitiated, NetGalley is a service that provides readers with advance copies of books, and publishers a way of getting their author's work out into the market with relatively low overheads. All copies are digital, with a large proportion archived just before publication date, and are available either as .pdf downloads or can be sent straight to kindle. Each request is looked at individually (I pity the interns when big names are listed) which is why it's handy to either have an active blog, or to be working either with books or anywhere you can spread the word about a release. Just signing up for free shiz isn't going to cut it I'm afraid.

After signing my life away  up, I went on a bit of a request spree. Once you're approved, the adrenalin kicks in and you're asking for everything and anything. Think those 'fill a bin bag for £1' rummage fairs and you're halfway there.

Unfortunately, I will admit, this has made it very hard to get my approval rating (your request vs feedback given score) anywhere near the preferred 80%. At the time of writing I'm languishing around the 55% mark even though I've given feedback on 95 titles in 5 months. That's about 6 binbags worth I reckon. I need to get above that mystical 80% mark as that's when the 'big boys' of publishing start approving your requests. I'm talking Penguin, Random House among others. Not to decry other publishing houses (especially Scribner, the first ones to 'auto-approve me...mwah...no seriously MWAH!) but once you stop getting the 'denial' emails from those guys, the book world is your oyster.

To make my reading and reviewing life slightly more organised, and to give me a kick up the bum, I've signed up to the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge run by Angela @ Angela's Anxious Life and Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. The aim is to get as many of those ARCs read as possible, while joining others of a similar mindset, with the added incentive of comps and a chat meet-up to spur each other on.

Part of the challenge was to post and give yourself a target, so I'm aiming for 12 minimum, an average of 3 a week. The hardest part will be not requesting any more during the month of May. It's not a requirement of the challenge, rather my own personal goal, which if I manage it, will not only get me closer to the mythical 80% but also leave me like this:

With any luck, it should also lead to increased blog followers which are also handy.

You know, you could always click that groups follow button there ------------------------->

Up a bit. Under the Goodreads widget.

That's the kiddy.