3.5 stars
The unnamed narrator of this book is a drug-addicted porn star, who
is in a car crash and is seriously burned. While in the hospital
recovering, he only wants to recover enough to go home, then kill
himself. Until Marianne Engel, a girl with an obvious mental
illness, arrives with stories of the previous lives they shared
together.
At the beginning of the book, I thought this would make my
favourites list this year. The descriptions of the car crash
itself, then what happens when a human is burned and the healing
process, were absolutely phenomenal, and it hooked me!
Unfortunately, Marianne then entered the story, and it went
downhill for me. I just couldn't get interested in her stories.
Some were good, but mostly I just wasn't interested, nor was I
interested in the Dante's Inferno hallucination near the end of the
book. I did like the parts where they were in the modern time
frame, and I also really liked some of the supporting characters
and their stories. Overall, I am giving this a rating of "good",
3.5 stars.