Blog Tour: Second Lives by PD Cacek

Released: 11/04/2019

Publisher: Flame Tree Press

Genre: Science Fiction / Horror / Dystopian

Blurb:

Four dead patients awake. But whose souls now inhabit their bodies?

A frightened little boy killed in 1956 cries out for his mother from the body of an eighty-one year old Alzheimer's patient. The soul of a spinster killed in a Suffragette rally wakes in the body of a new mother. An Orthodox Jew, murdered in 1922, opens the eyes of a man who just committed suicide and a teenage girl wakes to discover she's now in the body of a forty-five year old woman.

They are completely alone, displaced in bodies that are not their own, and terrified. All must find immense bravery within themselves to transition into their new lives.

My Thoughts:

This book absolutely blew me away - I was mesmerised by the cover to begin with (so stunningly creepy) and then became enthralled in the short, emotive chapters as I learnt more about the characters. The premise is so original, and I found the execution to be well thought-out and impressive. I hadn't expected for the author to draw out so much depth from each character to help us as readers really empathise with and relate to their situations. Aside from what you would normally hope for from these genres, I was so engaged in the emotion of the stories and the lives that I was reading about, that even though I wanted to savour the experience, I couldn't put it down.

I loved how P.D. Cacek writes so dynamically to not only capture a mixture of styles and genres within the story but also to use the characters to comment on the strength of the human spirit, acceptance and friendship in such an interesting way.

I realise this novel may not be for everyone, but if you like dystopian stories and perhaps enjoyed Black Mirror, or more recently, series like Travelers (Netflix) then I urge you to give this a go. I will definitely be looking out for this author's other novels now.

Thanks so much to Flame Tree Press and Anne Cater for sending me a copy of this amazing novel for review, I'm so excited to be part of the blog tour. Check out the tour details at the top - are you following the other bloggers for more recommendations?

Happy reading :)