Review: Eternal Life by Dara Horn

Eternal Life by Dara Horn (1/23/18 from W.W. Norton) 

Goodreads Summary:
Rachel is a woman with a problem: she can’t die. Her recent troubles—widowhood, a failing business, an unemployed middle-aged son—are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, and hundreds of children. In the 2,000 years since she made a spiritual bargain to save the life of her first son back in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, she’s tried everything to free herself, and only one other person in the world understands: a man she once loved passionately, who has been stalking her through the centuries, convinced they belong together forever.

But as the twenty-first century begins and her children and grandchildren—consumed with immortality in their own ways, from the frontiers of digital currency to genetic engineering—develop new technologies that could change her fate and theirs, Rachel knows she must find a way out.



My Review:
I was initially interested in this book because it sounded like a mix between Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers and Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. I liked the storyline and found myself thinking about how I would live my live if I was in Rachel's position. For one, she has hundreds of children and then has to watch them all die. Unless I was on a mission to repopulate an entire community I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to continue on that devastating cycle of grief. But then I thought "what would I do?" which led me into some daydreams and thinking about why I wouldn't just do those things now because I won't live forever. While I liked the storylines in this book, I liked the way my mind wandered away from the story even more. I would recommend this if you want a little escapist reading. Plus, the paperback version just came out a few days ago!