Book Review: Firstlife by Gena Showalter

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Firstlife
Everlife #1

Author: Gena Showalter

Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy

Released: 23rd February 2016

Review Source: Bought

Step one...you die.

ONE CHOICE. TWO REALMS. NO SECOND CHANCE.

Tenley "Ten" Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live — after she dies. There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.

In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, long-time enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms that will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she's drawn to isn't where the boy she's falling for lives? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…

Firstlife is another success from the wonderful Gena Showalter. It's unlike any of her other works--but that's the beauty of Showalter's novels. No two series are the same. She brought us demons, aliens, zombies, angels and now she brought us a dystopian, fantasy trilogy.  

It took me longer than normal to get into Firstlife but that isn't because it wasn't a good read but because the author has created a whole new world with an unfamiliar hierarchy system. It's brilliant to have such an imagination to build an entire world in your own mind.  

Firstlife follows the life of Ten Lockwood--the girl who has spent more than a year in an asylum, which was her price to pay for not letting her parents choose her life after death.  Both Troika and Myriad --the rivalling Everlife realms-- will stop at nothing to recruit Tenley onto their side of the war. There's a good side and a bad side but figuring out which one is which is the problem. Tenley has to stay alive long enough to make a decision because the other option, a Everlife filled with a nightmare reality isn't an option. But staying alive is a lot easier said than done when she's on the run with someone determined to make sure she dies.

Ten is a solid character and strongly stubborn (which was actually her saviour in the end). She had many admirable traits from being fiercely loyal to standing up for what she truly believes and that made it even more of an exciting read because throughout I really didn't know what was going to happen or which side she would choose. We were also introduced to Archer/Bow and Killian. Archer is a firm favourite-- I don't believe he will be a love interest but he is hilarious and I hope we get to know him more. 

If you're looking for a solid read, you've found it. A unique and gripping novel from an author we all know and love. 

I would also like to add that the audiobooks for the Everlife series are fantastic. Read by Emma Galvin (who is also happens to be my favourite narrator) and Zachary Webber.