Book Review
Title: More than Alive: Death of an Idol
Author: Fernando A. Torres
Genre: YA/Coming of Age/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: ****
Review: I didn’t know much about More than Alive, but it is set in Japan and I love anything about Japan, Memoirs of a Geisha, Glass Geisha, and Ink are some of my favourite novels set in Japan. We are introduced to Alice Suzuki as she confesses her love to her childhood friend, Keiji but he does not give her an answer right away. The next day they are going on a trip with Alice’s family when their automated car crashes and drives into river, killing Alice and her parents but it seems like Keiji survives. Alice arrives in a strange place where she meets Vegas Jack and Clement, these people remind me of Grim Reapers as they are collectors of souls but they are all people that have died and taken the opportunity to live again but in a different way. Alice takes this opportunity to see Keiji again but to also find out why she and her parents were killed. Jack is also supposed to be training her as his replacement, but he does not seem to have any intention of doing this. Jack also gets their next assignment or thread which is an idol band named the Genki Girls.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we follow Alice and Jack as they get to know each other and at first they don’t really like each other but their humorous banter is amazing to read and I know by the end of this novel, they are going to be good friends. We are also introduced to the Okada family, the father, George has moved up in his company since the death of Alice’s father and his daughter is also one of the girls in the idol group, Genki Girls but we don’t know which one yet. Alice also learns that her best friend, Yuki is part of the group, but everyone is focused on Akari as she is the main girl. Akari even manages to convert a VR otaku named Taka, to her idol group. He becomes the group’s biggest fan and even asks Akari out which she declines. We know from the synopsis that one of the girls is going to die in a VR system, and I have a feeling it might be Akari, Saori or Yuki as these are the girls focused on the most. We follow the idol group for a little while more and see the discourse between the group as they don’t make any money and Akari is determined to be the centre and doesn’t want anyone moving in on her spot but Yuki seems to do that by just breathing. When it is revealed that Akari is taking the enhancing drugs I was 100% sure she is the one going to die. As Alice and Jack enter the VR café, they are sucked into Akari’s game where they encounter the oni or demon named Solak who is trying to kill Akari and he succeeds but Alice harvests Akari’s soul before Solak can get to it. After leaving the game, Jack immediately makes the connection between Akari’s death and the pills she was taking but he has not made a connection to Solak yet, but it does not take long. While Alice is tied up with Taka as he is sure one of the other members organised Akari’s death, Jack is heading to another death where Solak is around and enhancer has been used.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, seeing Alice acclimatize to her new role and her new abilities was amazing as is her budding relationship with Jack but have learnt nothing about her own death yet but the mystery surrounding the enhancer are building and I can’t wait to see where it goes. Alice ends up going with Taka to Yuki’s house and is worried she will be recognised but she uses a disguise however, she is offered a position with the Genki Girls since they now have an opening but she is worried since she can’t sing or dance. Jack tells her this is the perfect opportunity they need since the Genki Girls are their assignment and she reluctantly agrees. Jack in the meantime found her family’s car and they both head to retrieve the black box which records all the information from the automated car but it isn’t that simple since they come across a yakuza car which Akari’s brother had been tampering with to verify his story of being attacked by a rival family when it appears like he shot that man himself. We also get two more significant scenes as Alice goes to find Keiji and can’t find him and she also has an encounter with Solak who tells her that Jack is lying to her which sparks a lot of questions in my mind especially since Jack seems to have an agenda of his own regarding his old mentor. As we are getting close to the halfway mark in the novel, I have a lot of questions that I hope are going to be answered by the time we reach the end of the novel.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the more time Alice spends with Jack and the most interactions she has with Solak serve to prove how little she knows about what she has gotten herself into. Solak claims that he is a preserver of life and that Jack is cold and callous and has no regard for life which we have seen. However, Jack claims the opposite and while I am inclined to believe neither, I do believe that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Throughout all this we see the yakuza and how Haruto is mixed up with them and how Akari’s brother is doing everything he can to make sure his sister is honoured properly since he was the one peddling the drugs after his demotion. We also know that Sho’s boss knows that the story he told him was a lie but since Akari’s death gained media attention they cannot do anything about it except keep him alive and loyal for now. As we get closer to the halfway point we see a lot of the sub-plots become tangled together with the main point which tells me as a reader that every details from the sub-plots might also have some major significance to the main plot, so you really have to pay attention. As Alice tries to figure out what is going on with the Genki Girls, Yuki almost suffers the same fate as Akari and she discovers the pills in Momo’s purse which makes me think she might be killing off the others in order to gain the centre spot which is coveted among the group. Meanwhile, we start piecing together Jack’s history and motives, but nothing seems clear yet although the pieces are starting to move together.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, the links seems to be coming together slowly although I am still a bit confused about certain sub-plots. It seems that Solak got hold of Akari’s soul and has transferred it in Momo’s body, although we don’t know why as he is extremely vague about it at the same time Akari’s brother, Sho has been sent to kill someone in the company where Alice’s father used to work. It seems that the enhancer comes from the company which is leading to deaths like Akari’s and warranted the involvement of the yakuza, but I might be proven wrong as the novel progresses further. Momo’s soul hasn’t moved on as it still follows around her body and she is furious that Akari has robbed her of everything she wanted. It also turns out Alice has been lying as she tells Jack that she let him harvest her in Keiji’s place as that was who he was supposed to harvest which creates a whole new mess that they now have to deal with as Alice wasn’t meant to die in the first place, but she and Jack are also beginning to piece the mystery of the enhancer together. It seems that Solak wants control of the company Alice’s father worked for as it helps manufacture the enhancer that give Solak more power. Solak can only enter people’s dreams but he can’t kill them in reality, with the enhancer he can do that and is ensuring it is delivered the mass market at any cost and now all the characters we have been introduced to so far are all caught up in it. Alice uses her influence with the Genki Girls to hold a fundraiser for Keiji’s spinal surgery and Taka wins the raffle meaning they have a VR session where Akari in Momo’s body is hurt quite badly and could end up dying for real this time.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, there seems to be an attempt to build tension as we move towards the climax of the novel but everything still feels really confused and up in the air and that is most likely due to the constant perspective shifting and the small amounts of time where we are actually following the key plot rather than sub-plots. We get some more interactions between Alice and Solak which does result in a slight confrontation with Jack but not nearly what I was expecting and the scenes where Akari is causing mayhem in Momo’s body and Momo is trying to stop her just seemed a little unnecessary as we already know the kind of person Akari is from the beginning of the novel. As the author begins to wrap up the loose ends, I felt like certain elements of the story that I had been really invested in were being rushed and were not fleshed out enough to give a satisfying conclusion. For example, the yakuza storyline and the enhancer company were really small snippets throughout the novel and when they were finally given some proper page time everything was rushed and confused which just didn’t feel right for the tone the novel had been building. With those sub-plots now wrapped up, we shift focus onto the Alice and Keiji plot which fell really flat for me although her goodbye to him was beautiful and she leaves behind a small message for her friends to remember her by. The author then moves onto closing the final plot which is the Genki Girls and harvesting Akari once and for all, restoring Momo to her own body and dealing with Solak.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, the Genki Girls are heading for their first live performance with Yuki as the centre and at the same time Alice and Jack are preparing to harvest Akari’s soul and tie up all the loose threads. While the final battle with Solak was interesting and I was not expecting the reveal at the end of the novel, I was a little disappointed. As I mentioned some of the sub-plots were not given the time to develop and some of the characters that were centrally to the plot were not fleshed out enough for my liking. I felt More than Alive: Death of an Idol had real potential and the Japanese setting was divine as it really delves into a niche part of Japanese culture but it certain areas it did fall a little flat and the pacing was quite off in place. Overall, I would recommend More than Alive to fans of Japan and Japanese culture but it could have used a little bit more development in places.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from YA Bound Blog Tours.
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