Thank you so much to LiterallyPR for my copy of this book and my spot on the tour for an honest review.
Blurb:
On December 31st 1999, history changed. Precisely at midnight David Becker was born into abuse and left home young. Rescued by Deborah Glasscock, a natural born leader from three generations of extraordinary women, they married in 1998. With the first tick of Saturday January 1st, 2000 the course of their lives was forever altered and time-travelling consequences began to manifest.
The peculiar lives of their predecessors, the epigenetics of a war torn, alcohol soaked ancestry, and entangled events from previous life changing Saturdays somehow connect through cause and effect to an ominous diagnosis hanging over their now young family. Rational explanations fail leading Dave into a mirrored funhouse of consciousness, beliefs and free will.
Fearing an inescapable destiny as his family is daily ravaged, Dave encounters his own personal Fate, a being he is convinced is real.
Witty, quirky, surreal and tender Evren retells the Greek myth of the Fates as an if only story of regret and redemption, sex and power, the old animus of science and religion, the endurance of suffering and the resilience of family.
My thoughts:
For a debut novel this tried to tackle a lot of interesting things in a book under 300 pages, an ambitious first novel indeed. Also it’s interesting that parts of the story are based on true events from the authors life.
I enjoyed finding out more about the family histories of both Dave and Deborah going back to the days of the colonialists, both world wars and then onto present day Canada. An area not well known to me so it was fun to learn of some new places.
Their is a section of the book that is done in Diary format from the perspective of Dave’s wife which came across as emotional, dark humoured and you could really feel the torment she was going through from the time of diagnosis to when she left the family home. Very powerful and is one of my favourite parts of the book that I wish had been explored more.
Now onto some of the parts I didn’t enjoy, though I do wonder if that’s because I’m possibly not the intended audience for the book.
I found David’s character quite hard to like after a few morally grey decisions and his reactions to some of the events in the book (for example when being told no one time when sex was involved) he came across as selfish and whiny at times. Though his actions are explained by his upbringing it still grated.
Also the sheer amount of times a penis is mentioned 🤣🤣 Yep we get it Dave. Though this may just be a bug bear of mine.
A 🌟🌟🌟 from me. I’d have preferred it to have been a touch longer with more of Deborah’s point of view.
About the author:
A Body of Fates is Kenneth Evrens first novel. A fictional tale inspired by a personal real life tragedy. Using bits and pieces of lived experience, he has fashioned a gorgeous, intriguing and inspiring metaphysical mosaic of one families multi generational history. Ken lives in Vancouver B.C with his family. He enjoys the ineffable in story, music science and love. Find him on Goodreads, Reedsy, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok or at http://www.kenevren.com
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