Have you ever wanted a life do-over? The opportunity to try just once more to get it right? The chance to be who you know you’re really supposed to be? Or hell, maybe just to be someone different? The concept in The Nine Lives of Adam Blake,, a good piece of contemporary fiction by Ryan Gladney is not foreign to any who read, or watch TV for that matter. But Gladney deals with it in a unique way.
Reincarnation is a belief held by several religious ideologies such as Hinduism, where our souls continue to do life over and over again in a new form. Some thought behind this is that it gives us the opportunity to become a better person and perhaps right the wrongs of the past with the end result being that you end up being able to reach the ultimate end. Now, please don’t quote me on the aforementioned ideologies as they’re not research based, rather what I can recall.
Adam Blake’s situation varies in that his do-overs always begin at a particular point in his childhood with the consciousness that he has been down this road before. We see him wrestle with the ways in which he can manipulate the experience in an effort to have it end the way he’d want – particularly when it comes to love. Although it can’t ever be that easy or simple, can it?
Gladney gave us a fairly short and entertaining read with an interesting storyline. Although I find it pointless to go in-depth in regards to what takes place in this book, I can say it’s a good book….not a bad book. I’d recommend it.