LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff (ARC review)

TITLE: LIFEL1K3

AUTHOR: Jay Kristoff

RELEASED: May 29th 2018 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

GENRE: Sci-Fi/YA

They kill my father first.

I should probably preface this with the fact I find most science fiction VERY difficult to get into, but that was totally not the case with this one! 2018 just seems to be the year for phenomenal books, because I LOVED this one so much! I’ve read a little of Jay Kristoff previously, but I am now completely in love with his writing style and storytelling. It was unique and compelling. I didn’t want to put it down! The detail he puts into building this world without it becoming tedious is phenomenal. There is so much going on between the machina, logika, lifelikes, and other robotic beings. My favourite has to be the blitzhund, Kaiser! He’s the sweetest little explosive dog I’ve ever read!!

“But you get fancy, Mister Stabby gets dancy, you read me?”

The characters, Eve, Lemon Fresh, Grandpa, Cricket, Ezekiel, are all hilariously funny and so real. Nearly everyone has a past they are running from in some shape, and they each try to atone for their transgressions in different ways. But they have to face up to those decisions eventually. They play hard and love harder. They invest whole-heartedly in their relationships, so when things are revealed that may have been untrue or omitted, they feel it like a punch in the gut. Especially Eve. I felt so many things throughout this novel, especially the last few chapters.

“Your past doesn’t make calls on your future. It doesn’t matter who you were. Only who you are.”

Then the twists and turns this story takes us on are….heartstopping! I gasped out loud and nearly cried a few different times – it’s amazing! And that ending? Holy damn….can’t wait to see what comes next!

BLURB: On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.

Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.

But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.

Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for providing me with an ARC. All quotes are taken from an ARC and may not match the final release.