I have not loved a book as much in a long time! This story is a smorgasbord of elements: Science Fiction, Historical, Contemporary, Fantasy, and Dystopian. It is one of those title so packed with intricately woven details, you want to instantly flip to the first page and re-read to find all the things you may have missed the first time around. It was a very satisfying read for me.

3.5 stars

How to describe this book? Some say fantasy (I always think fantasy has to include a dragon) others say sci fi. I'll just say it's very imaginative and moves fast--too fast to ever get hold of the ever reincarnating Milo and his beloved Suzie (please don't call her Death.) Milo has been slacking from one reincarnated form to another 9,995 times, and has just realized that he only has five more tries to get it right or, BLAM!, oblivion awaits.

It's a funny premise, and Matthew Poore is a sprightly writer. But I felt like I got the joke and then enough was enough. I'm giving Reincarnation Blues 3.5 stars because this is a very off the wall story and there are parts that delight with their sheer outrageousness and fun. I'll look forward to his next outing!

~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader

Reincarnation Blues was a pleasure to read. It’s about a man living the last of his 10,000 lives; trying to live a perfect life. This book allows you have a look at some of the lives that Milo lives in between romantic trysts with Death (Suzie).

Milo at the end of the world (before the meteor strikes Earth) is my favorite Milo, and I would love to read an entire book about him, his wife and his daughter. It was also fun to read about Suzie having somewhat of an existential crisis in regards to her job.

This book was a bit longer than it needed to be to get the point of the story and the philosophy across to the reader, but I liked it.

A mixture of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Cloud Atlas, Reincarnation Blues was deeply thought provoking and whimsical. I really wanted to like it, but found myself repulsed at times. I can appreciate it and understand why others might love this book, but sadly, it wasn't for me.

Loved this book. Hard to categorize, it's part mystical, part sci-fi; it reads like a series of short stories and is really, really funny. The main character has only five lives left to live to reach perfection or dissolve into nothingness. We get to hear alot about lessons learned and mistakes made and famous people met n the previous 9,995. and then we journey thru his last five with him in detail. Oh, and there's a great love story that happens between lives. With Death, of course (a.k.a. Suzie). it's an awesome ride.

A wonderful and inventive tale about love and death (aka Suzie). Poore wins the reader over quickly with his witty yet poignant writing, and takes them on a ride they won't soon forget!

A good portion of the books I read are review copies, and while I’ve come to enjoy the chaos and unpredictability of reading books where I have zero expectations, there are definitely times where I’ve considered giving it up. (Why, yes, these times often correspond with long streaks of bad books – how did you know?) All of which goes to say, the joy of reviewing is that sometimes you get a book like Reincarnation Blues that can completely blindside you, coming out of nowhere and blowing you away with its imagination, humor, style, and richness.

Trying to describe Reincarnation Blues is a bit of a rough task; the best I can do is to say that it combines the millennia-spanning reincarnated souls of Cloud Atlas with the untraditional but rich love story of The Time Traveler’s Wife, with a rich sprinkling of humor that’s oh so welcome. But even that description doesn’t really do the book justice – it doesn’t convey the richness of the storytelling, the quiet silliness, and most of all, the pure warmth of the whole experience.

Reincarnation Blues is the story of a soul named Milo, who’s among the oldest souls in the universe – he’s been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times. That’s given Milo an incredible amount of experience and learning, with lives lived in the ancient past, the distant future, and everywhere in between. But Milo’s favorite parts of existence are the parts in between his lives, where he gets the chance to reunite with the love of his “life”: Suzie…also known as Death. And once you add to that the impending threat of oblivion – because any soul that hasn’t achieved enlightenment by incarnation #10,000 doesn’t get another chance – and there’s a lot of pressure on Milo to figure some things out.

And yet, Reincarnation Blues never feels like a high pressure book. Yes, there’s this deadline looming, and yes, there’s this complicated idea of having a romance with the incarnation of Death, but Reincarnation Blues remains focused, both in plot and thematic terms, on the nature of the human experience – on learning to be kind, on listening to other people, on trying to accept the universe for what it is. It’s a book that’s never really about all of Milo’s lives, despite the way it weaves in and out all of them, giving us scenes of combat, of peace, of future science, of primitive tribes, and every possible combination of all of those. It’s about what Milo did and learned in those lives, and the experiences that shaped him into the person he is.

And yet, there’s no denying that Poore’s incredible imagination gives the book a life that’s undeniable, and maybe all the more effective for how he backgrounds it throughout. More than that, the way he weaves all of Milo’s lives into one complex history – with actions in one life being referenced in another – give the sense of a complex mythology behind the book, a carefully planned out reality that we only get glimpses of. Add to that his quietly funny, sometimes silly writing style, and you have a book that succeeds in no small part to the authorial craft on display in every page.

But more than the imagination, more than the humor, what really made Reincarnation Blues work for me was the warmth of the whole novel. This is a book where the stakes revolve around finding a successful relationship and achieving some sort of internal peace and calm with the universe. And to that end, for all of the drama, for all of the stakes in each individual life that Milo leads, the book is more about connecting to other people, about learning the importance of how we relate to each other and the legacies we leave behind. That’s a great message to receive, but also a rich one, one that’s so welcome in days where we feel constantly pushed against each other. And it’s the thing that really sold me on this book – that, and the great writing, and the rich imagination, and the wonderful characters, and the great humor…well, maybe I just loved all of it, and loved it so much.

Reincarnation Blues
By Michael Poore

Impressions

From this author’s pen comes thousands of worlds and countless lifetimes.

Because the author takes us on an enlightening journey filled with persuasive tales of past lives…one could describe this work as a montage. But that assumption would be wrong. This is a continuation of tales masterfully strung together about an old soul name Milo. His need is to live countless lives on a journey to possess spiritual “perfection”.

His struggles of eight thousand years ambitiously told with disparate story lines spans time and space. The biggest reveal in this read is the amazing ways this author makes Milo’s many lifetimes an easy read. His character remains true and easily identifiable; I was able to relate to his struggles. The book is crammed with well-described soulful passages that compel and repel. It is also a harsh reminder of how cruel humanity has always been.

Each life composing this soul’s journey promoted an addiction to living. Each meandering from the passage to perfection with life’s revelries of lust, loves, wealth, selfishness, selflessness, anger, and the universes was rewarded often with a myriad of punishments. Not every reincarnating was pleasant or necessary. Amidst all of it, his growing love for Death came easy to understand.

If only

Death is Suzie and she is calm beautiful, patient intelligent and a seeker as well. Their story of mutual desire and love lasting 8,000 years warms the spirit.

Reading this book begs the question. If every soul wrote his own unending story, how many unending lifetimes would be a worthy subject for a great literary work? The author presents a kind of impermanence in carnal life. The reader may find their own material understandings in more than a few passages about Milo’s incarnations.

There comes an understanding

My favorite life story is of Milo as a builder of Arks. Enlisted to build a Noah’s theme Ark, Milo and his family must come to terms with a dying Earth. These words are so defining of spirits dying long before their body.

“An eight-year-old who had seen the plague approach her village, take her family, and then crawl down her own throat.” From Reincarnation Blues

My favorite character in this read is Suzie. She is Death and powerful. But an eternity of it and the love of a man named Milo sparked a yearning for more. To no longer “be” the ender of life. Eons of being a god of death finally evolved to a need for Suzie’s own realizations of peace and perfection.

Story/Plot/Conflict
Milo arrived into the world the first time and many thousands of times after as an ordinary baby. And with each incarnation, his soul experienced events that shaped his journey to become enlightened.

But the thing is that reincarnation is addictive, especially when your soul understands that Death is a friend and lover. This offers Milo countless more chances to get it right. But even addictions become boring after eight thousand years and one comes to recognize the need to achieve “Perfection”.

Turns out its harder than it looks because nestled within each life lies the needs for pleasure, selfish luxuries, and endless love. Milo’s spiritual passage to “Perfection” is compromised with obstacles. His “soul pecker” seems to circumvent efforts in achieving a selfless life and an enlightened soul.

Main Characters

Milo becomes the oldest of the old souls who finds reincarnation is not only necessary but also addictive. And it brings him the one love worth all his lives.

Suzi (Death) how can a bringer of the end come to be all things to a single man? She was sensual, feeling, brilliant loving and best of all, she was there wanting for him at the end of each lifetime.

Genre: General audiences and a good read.

The book's premise is fairly interesting - it’s about a man (Milo) who has been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times. I know the book summary talks about his search to be with his beloved, but he’s not really aiming for that. He’s aiming to reach Perfection. He also just happens to be in a relationship with Death.

Reincarnation Blues is interesting & almost reads like an anthology. Every life Milo has is its own little story. They’re individual in plot and could be small standalones in some aspects. And with all anthologies come stories that we love, and stories we can do without. That’s how I felt about Milo’s lives that were showcased.

When we are introduced to Milo, he has lived 9,995 lives and only has 5 more left to achieve Perfection. If he doesn’t, he’ll become nothingness. No more lives or existing. It’s doesn’t help that he’s in love with Death aka Suzie. She’s a complication because if he only has 5 more lives, how is he supposed to be with her to the end? And of course, life is all about that pursuit of happiness, knowledge, and hard choices.

The book itself is fiction, but sometimes historical, sometimes fantasy, dystopian, and science-fiction. Poore’s definitely a creative and a philosopher of sorts. Reincarnation Blues definitely makes you think. I had a great time with the idea of this novel, but it loses steam in the middle if you’re preoccupied. Lives blend together, and nothing new is revealed for a few chapters. Suzie’s part could have been more engaging too. I felt like she wasn’t super evolved. Poore could have dialed up certain aspects. It almost tried to be too many things. Go for the whacky humor or go philosophical/sentimental. It tried to be both and missed on both fronts.

Despite the flaws, it’s a fun read. I’d definitely recommend for someone feeling a bit of everything in a book.

Reincarnation Blues: 3.75

Thanks Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and netgalley for this ARC.

This book just didn't keep my interest. I never finished it.

“Every life has something to teach you. Chances for you to learn and grow and eventually become perfect. It may take thousands of lives.”
Milo is a man who has died and been reincarnated almost ten thousand times. He is truly an “old soul” who needs to reach perfection soon because he has only a few remaining lives left to “get it right”.
The book is a collection of stories of Milo’s past lives that sometimes occur in our future time as well. I have always been fascinated by the concept of reincarnation so this book was an easy choice for me. I was entertained and quite interested in the author’s most unusual perspective of the afterlife and his descriptive humor and the many tales of Milo’s adventurous lives. I now have a new perspective on what being an old soul can really mean! This was a different and enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy with a reincarnation theme. I was able to review an ARC of this book thanks to Netgalley and the publisher. This is my honest review.

Reincarnation Blues is definitely an ambitious novel, taking on a high-concept premise, zany and scattered style and weighty theme - that being, what is the meaning of a life well-lived?

Milo, our slacker-dude protagonist, has lived 9,995 lives, with varying degrees of success, but mostly coasting and spending the interludes between lives with his girlfriend, Death (AKA Suzie). Trouble is, Milo's just found out there's a 10,000 life limit on this reincarnation biz and now he's only got 5 tries remaining to achieve a perfect life or his soul will be snuffed out forever. Dude!

Because time is non-linear (obvs) this is also kind of a time travel story, since Milo's next life could be anywhen. As a result the story jumps around in time, but much of it takes place in a sci-fi future, after the colonisation of our solar system. There's also some Bill & Ted style interaction with historical figures, like the Buddha. No way!

There's a lot going on and if all of that sounds up your alley, then it's a fun & entertaining read. For my money, I think Reincarnation Blues would have been a better book if it had picked a lane: Dial it up to eleven and go for full-on wacky absurdist humour; OR tamp down the crazy a bit and flesh out the philosophical and/or sentimental message. It seems to be aiming down the middle and just narrowly misses both marks.

Reincarnation Blues might be a bit overstuffed, but it's imaginative, a good bit of fun and a refreshing change of pace.

For a little over the first ten percent of this story, I thought, okay, got it, guy has lived thousand of lives and he's supposed to move on, but he's in love with typical manic pixie dream girl, this iteration of her being Death, who calls herself Suzie.

I don't like manic pixie dream girls. Most of the time their main component is their sexual attraction, which makes these Holly Golightlys endlessly fascinating to those responsive to their lure.

I found Suzie yet another really boringly quirky M.P.D.G. and every few pages (usually when she came on scene) I kept checking to see how far I'd read, and inwardly groaning.

Then Milo dives into another life that shoots the storyline orthogonally into unexpected territory and I found myself deeply immersed. And yet again it happened, in a completely different existence--and meanwhile, M.P.D.G. actually faces consequences of her actions, which most of them don't. She, too, became interesting. And the side characters were all memorable--Poore never lets even the briefest walk-on become cardboard.

"All good parents taught their kids this same lesson: if everyone agreed to suffer pain or death rather than be treated unjustly, greedy people could never again gain power.

'We've had fifty generations of justice now,' they told the children. 'Don't be the generation that blows it.'"

The theme is human struggle, the setting the entire world, and imagined worlds beyond, all through time. Poore does a magnificent job with Milo's search for perfection, and what that might be; he follows Milo and Suzie through a kaleidoscope of experience, never losing sight of the full range of human potential, good and bad. Harrowing and breathtakingly uplifting. Sad and funny, gross and wise.

Poore's writing is tight, brilliantly vivid, and a pleasure to read. I'm so glad I persisted.

Five chances to reach Perfection. Can you do it?

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book but it far surpassed anything I had in mind. Reincarnation Blues is insanely imaginative. As someone who loves world-building, it was a real treat because there are multiple worlds and multiple realities surrounding the protagonist, Milo, and his true love, Death aka Suzie. It's witty and clever but not try-hard or obnoxious. There is a humor to the whole book but there is also a deep sense of insight and into life as a journey itself. It was thought-provoking and poignant while being entertaining, not an easy feat.

Reincarnation as a topic in fiction is so easily done badly but this book is perfection. No matter what situation he finds himself in, Milo keeps his voice the whole story and I found myself really rooting for him, even when he lived a not-so-good life. I really enjoyed the not-chronological telling of the story of Milo's past lives because I think it enhanced the reincarnation idea. All in all, it's one of my favorite reads of 2017 and I can't wait to check out more of Poore's work.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and the author Michael Poore for the opportunity to do so.

I honestly don't know how to categorize this or even how to review it because it's like nothing I've read before (and I read a lot). Suffice it to say that Poore has created a character- Milo- from a pastiche of others whose stories are briefly told as Milo is reincarnated time after time. Suzie, as he calls death, is elusive. There are snippets of history, there are meditations on lots of things, and there's not a particularly coherent plot line (things shift back and forth) so I'm not sure why I kept reading but I did. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is well written and engaging- it's also quite different and I suspect might be a love it or hate it book.

I couldn't put this book down. "Reincarnation Blues" by Michael Poore is a witty, humorous story of a man named Milo who's lived nearly 10,000 lives. If I believed in reincarnation, this is how I would imagine it. Each life is supposed to teach a lesson, and ultimately, people are supposed to achieve a "perfect" life. Milo, has lived more lives than any, and yet he still hasn't received perfection. His afterlife is also complicated, as he is involved in a forbidden love.

Each chapter of the book is about one of Milo's lives or his time in the afterlife in-between his lifetimes. At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like this book. For some reason, the first few pages, I just didn't care for Milo. But as I got further into his story, I really came to enjoy reading about all of Milo's lives. And no, Milo doesn't always come back as a human. Poore mentions his lifetimes as animals, but doesn't commit whole chapters to these lives. Milo's lives jump from the ancient past to the far off future, so it's hard to define what sort of genre this book falls into. There are fantasy elements, futuristic sci-fi, modern day, Poore brings so many different worlds to life.

I don't want to give too much away, but I enjoyed reading this book. Poore has a interesting and sometimes brutal way of story-telling that is funny but also heart wrenching. Milo is a flawed man, but he tries so hard, I couldn't help but keep wishing better for him.

This is a great work of fiction that I think has a broad audience, for sci-fi and fantasy fans. I've not read anything like this, so it's hard to define a definitive group of readers that would enjoy. If you don't like Milo at first, give it a chapter or two, and I think you will warm up to the guy, like I did.

Note: I received this book from Netgalley & the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Out today, Reincarnation Blues follows Milo, a soul who's been reincarnated thousands of times and is still trying to achieve something big and positive enough to end his lives. There's one complication: if he achieves enlightenment, he will lose Suzie, an incarnation of Death that he has fallen in love with in between lives in the afterlife, which isn't making him super motivated to achieve it.

I really really really enjoyed this novel a lot. It's an offbeat, darkly comic fantasy and I really loved it a lot. The book takes you through various of Milo's nearly 10,000 lives and also fills in his love story with Suzie and his times in between his lives. The afterlife/purgatory Poore has created is wonderfully built and fun to discover. I always like seeing peoples' takes on such things. Not only is this backdrop well built and delivered on, Milo's lives also vary in wonderful ways. They range from futuristic sci-fi worlds to historical events and cover many things in between. Each one feels like a self-contained short story, but they're still obviously linked by Milo and his soul. Despite their differences, Poore has still created a very cohesive narrative.

Milo is an old soul, so he's unexpectedly wise--until it comes to figuring out how to achieve Poore's version of enlightenment. When he rails against this, and fights it so he can be with Suzie, he's somewhat immature, but understandable. You'll definitely be in his corner, rooting for him. The other supporting characters are also well developed: Suzie is an interesting incarnation of death, and Milo's other caretakers are also wonderfully their own people.

Overall, I found this novel enjoyable and funny. I loved the stories of Milo's lives, and found myself looking for the moment where he achieved what he needed to move on from reincarnating over and over. While I loved the individual stories, I also enjoyed that they told a cohesive whole, in which I really cared about what happened to the characters. If you like offbeat fantasy, you'll really enjoy this novel!

Milo is an old soul. In fact, he’s the oldest soul in existence. To be exact, he’s lived 9,995 lives. Milo has yet to achieve Perfection, the one thing that would send him along to “The Oversoul” in the “Everything,” but Milo isn’t interested in anything but his one true love Suzie, aka Death. Milo soon learns, however, that a soul is only allowed 10,000 lives. Milo has five more tries to achieve Perfection, otherwise he’ll be automatically sent into “Nothingness” with no chance of being with Suzie ever again. Now, Milo will have to live his last five lives to the fullest looking for that which would make him Perfect, while at the same time figuring out how this can include an idea like Suzie.

I’m pretty much a sucker for a good love story, and the star-crossed love story of Milo and Suzie in Reincarnation Blues hit all the right spots for me. Technically, they shouldn’t be together. While not necessarily frowned upon, definitely a relationship that cannot, in the end, go anywhere. Yet Milo and Suzie’s determination to defy the odds is endearing, and the stuff great romances are made of.

With that said, however, what really takes the cake in Poore’s Reincarnation Blues are the varying ideas about life and the afterlife. Seeing Milo in all sorts of different situations—from the mundane to the frightening, a simple past to a horrifying look at the future—Michael Poore really makes vivid portraits of belief, yet doesn’t get preachy with it either. It’s very fluid and slightly generic, but in the best way possible. He delivers the ideas about the afterlife in a clear and cohesive way that could make anyone appreciate it and understand it on any level.

For all that there are definitely some lives of Milo’s that are disturbing to read about, for the most part Michael Poore keeps things from feeling too weighted by seriousness all the time mainly by coupling Milo’s quest for Perfection with the love story. The love story, as unlikely as a relationship between a mortal soul and Death is made to appear, represents a thread of hope. You can see this hope transcend not only into wanting Milo and Suzie to be together in the end, but into many of the lives Milo inhabits throughout time. The one thing that keeps people going.

The setting drifts back-and-forth between Earth and the Afterlife, with the latter being, in my opinion, far more interesting. Probably because I enjoyed the conceptualization of the Afterlife more than that of future Earth, which is what is dealt with in the majority of Milo’s lives that we experience. Also probably due to the fact that the times spent in the Afterlife were relatively brief scenes, whereas the Earth scenes tended to drag on a little too much for my tastes.

I’ve been seeing Reincarnation Blues pop up on quite a few sci-fi/fantasy lists lately. Presenting interesting ideas about life and Death as well as a love story that defies time and space, Reincarnation Blues was an overall enjoyable read for me.

❝ He had always kind of thought he would go into death like an explorer, in a golden flash of peace and wholeness, and here he was being chewed up like a ham. His last words were "No! Fuck! No!".❞

Reincarnation Blues has to be one of my favorite books I've read this year. It keeps you entertained from beginning to end with all of the amusing, frustrating, and heartbreaking flashbacks of Milo's past lives.

Milo has lived for quite a while and hasn't really taken his journey to "Perfection" seriously. He's always assumed he'd have forever to get it right when he gets a rude awakening and finds out he only has five lives left or else risk becoming nothing.

For the first third of the book, it's mostly Milo remembering his past lives and the lessons he learned. Like the time he became a cricket, saved his village, or was thrown from a catapult. This is the super fun part of the book because even though Milo is planning out his next life and thinking about how he'll achieve perfection the book just lets you enjoy the humor of his human struggles.

This book had me laughing and smiling pretty much from beginning to end. It makes fun of life and the vastly silly things humans waste their time worrying about as much as it pokes fun at death, so if dark humor is your thing this is definitely a book you want to check out!

❝ "Love means being torn in two," he was known to tell young people on their wedding day. You shouldn't say things like that to young people. He had to live a penalty life as a catfish, after that.❞

Romance was a big part of this book, maybe not all of it, but a good chunk. It was about Milo and Suzie finding ways to be together even though everything and everyone wanted to keep them apart.

It's during the second third of the book that the story starts to focus more on specific lives Milo goes through rather than just rushing through different ones. I really liked this change because it felt grounded. It really became about Milo and the voices in his head (his past lives) really trying to find perfection. They gave him advice, helped him along, and even silently disapproved whenever he made costly mistakes.

This is where Milo stops trying to achieve perfection in the way he sees others have, and he really starts to question what it means. He starts to form his own idea of it and starts making some serious progress toward his end goal.

I think Suzie had her own journey to go through as well (although it was a smaller part of the book). Her sections were interesting because of the perspective she brought to it. I loved learning about her first years on the job and how much emotion she could show. She tried her best to learn from and understand humans, even rebelled about the cosmic soul for a while but. in the end, she was held back by fear just as much as anyone else.

I loved how she took a chance halfway through the book, and how she decided to take one last gamble with Milo at the end. It was all or nothing.

Another big plus from the book was how it explored both the best and worst that people were capable of doing onto one another. There were some hints at sexual abuse, violence, and things like that which Milo experienced or witnessed in his various lives. It never went into graphic detail or anything---like I said, it was more alluded to than anything---but it's just something to be aware of.

I'm not going to talk very much about the ending here just because I don't want to spoil whether or not Milo ends up figuring out the whole perfection thing, but I will say that just overall the book was awesome and I highly recommend this one for people who enjoy dark humor.

This amazing book hits the shelves on August 22, so please, please, please go check it out!

I recieved an e-copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. Unfortunately I picked up this book when I didn't really feel like reading so that may have affected my rating. I know everyone gets that way so I won't go into too much detail about the story.

Did I find the book enjoyable?
Yes

Did I like the concept of the book?
Yes

Would I read more by this author?
Yes

Do I think this book could be one of the best this year?
Yes

Do I think you should read it for yourself and see how you feel?
Yes