Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of those authors that, when I see a new book of hers ready for pre-order, I instantly hit the button and then wait anxiously for it to arrive at my door. Her books are just that good! She has this way of making you really feel for her characters, she makes you internalize their pain and joy until you are just breathless watching their lives unfold on the page. For me, she also makes me look at relationships and their issues and successes in a different way than I necessarily did before. She mixes humor with heavy elements so that the stories are neither fluffy nor overly depressing and I always feel completely satisfied when I turn the last page. In other words, I'm a fan!
In Maybe in Another Life, our main character Hannah has kind of drifted through life, never really putting down roots or committing to anything in particular. The more you get to know her you discover that her parents moved to London when she was a teenager while she stayed in L.A. and lived with her best friend's family and, since then, she has been trying to discover where and what "home" is for her. While I can't say I've experienced this same feeling or agree with all the choices she made by the time we meet her, she is charming and caring and a completely sympathetic character. She's the kind of girl I would want in my corner if I really needed someone to be there for me, good or bad, and tell me the truth when no one else would.
The story really takes flight when Hannah and her friends go out to celebrate her return to L.A. and we begin to see how one tiny decision - whether to go home with her best friend Gabby or her ex-boyfriend Ethan - can spiral into two very different, yet in some respects very similar, life paths. I'm not about to give away how either story progresses because that would spoil too many surprises for anyone who wants to read it, but I will say that neither life is a smooth path and both are filled with the many ups and downs of any life. This seemingly small choice will have far-reaching consequences for not only Hannah but many other characters, and it was fascinating to see how the various characters experienced many of the same elements - infidelity, pregnancy, feeling alone, finding love - in both storylines even while they were presented or experienced in different ways. This brings up the whole fate versus choice debate and my mind was spinning back and forth as I tried to see which way the cards would fall for each of them.
The end of the book presents a concept that I am completely in love with now and it is this: each choice we make fractures our life into alternative universes, and each of those alternate universes is another existence or life that we are living parallel to the one we are in now. With all the choices we make each and every day this gives us infinite, varied lives that we are living. There might be some similarities that remain across the universes but it would be impossible for them to be the same. I keep thinking about how, if I hadn't agreed to tag along with a friend one night in college, I might never have met my husband and might then never have had my son. However, it could be that we would have still met, just at a different time and under a different circumstance. Or, I could have met someone else and be living a whole different life. Who knows! I start getting emotional when I think about this too much as I don't really want to imagine my life any other way and I'm just glad I am living in this universe. What I end up coming away with each time is that, regardless of whether fate will have its way or not, we have to make the choices we think are right for us and let the world unravel the way it will.
Taylor Jenkins Reid's novels are smart women's fiction, novels that make you really think about your life and how much you can relate to her character's experiences and feelings. I've read all three she's written so far and I've loved each one more than the last. I can't recommend her enough for those looking for an emotional, thought-provoking book that tests what you think about love and relationships and leaves you longing for more.
Maybe in Another Life: A Novel
4.1 | 28,592 ratings
Price: 2.99
Last update: 10-06-2024
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Top reviews from the United States
Colleen T.
Maybe in Another Life
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2015
RSW Kindle Customer
Very intriguing Premise
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2015B Lynn
Good idea but ultimately, not a great read
Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2024