Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

A magically inspiring tale of a man who is reincarnated through many lifetimes so that he can be with his one true love: Death herself.
What if you could live forever—but without your one true love? Reincarnation Blues is the story of a man who has been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times, in search of the secret to immortality so that he can be with his beloved, the incarnation of Death. Neil Gaiman meets Kurt Vonnegut in this darkly whimsical, hilariously profound, and wildly imaginative comedy of the secrets of life and love. Transporting us from ancient India to outer space to Renaissance Italy to the present day, is a journey through time, space, and the human heart

So I am very disappointed in this book. I voted on it for book club thinking it would be really interesting and what it turned into was an MRA wet dream.

Let's start with Milo, a not very attractive slacker who has lived almost ten thousand lives without making it to "perfection." He's in love with death who of course is a beautiful woman who loves him and fucks him all the time and who, honestly, doesn't have much of a plot or personality aside from being Milo's love interest. 

We then move the the afterlife, which is pretty interesting but the idea of gaining "perfection" to move on into the golden pool of everything is ridiculous. Milo lives plenty of lives that are really good, where he does wonderful selfless things and saves people- only to be told it's not good enough not "perfection" but hey we can't tell you what that is soo..... If you don't want to be thrown off the sidewalk into nothingness you better get it right.  

Oh also, they don't tell him about the 10,000 lives dead line until he only has 5 left- dick move. 

Some of his lives were interesting, some so dull/stupid I skimmed through them. (One where he wanted to be the one to claim some girl's restored virginity was fairly vile) In fact by the end I was so uninterested in Milo and Suzie (death) that I just wanted to book to be over. 

Many of the concepts of this novel were interesting and unique, I did laugh a few times and there were several chapters I really enjoyed. 

BUT this was the one that made me stop and say: FUCK NO. 

One of Milo's lives he is a 15 year old boy who is accused of raping a girl who is older than him, even though it was consensual.  It takes place in the future where he is sent to an asteroid prison where he is then raped over and over again. "Owned" by horrible people and used for whatever they want, but mainly raped. (Oh and they remove his eye and choke him into unconscious...a lot)

Finally he is released because they find out the girl who accused him is crazy and in a mental hospital where she is getting futuristic anti crazy treatment that "fixes" her. While this version of Milo's life is ruined and he eventually commits suicide, the girl's life is fine and pleasant and she feels guilty about what happened to Milo and begs him to forgive her, which he does and then she moves on.

In this day and age of #metoo movements and a culture of  rape and white entitlement I feel this chapter never should have made it past an editor, or been published without its removal. It read like a MRA blog going off about how many "great" guys lives are ruined by false rape accusations while women go on to live fairy tale lives . After this chapter it was hard for me to continue on. 

So I don't know, read this if it sounds good to you and let me know what you thought. I'm giving it two stars- mainly for original concept.