Where to find it: should be available anywhere you can buy books!
What is it, in summary?: A novel by Claire North about individuals who live their lifetimes over and over. The book follows, as the title suggests, the first fifteen lives of one Harry August, how he comes to realise what he is, how he learns more about this secret society of sort-of-timetravelers he is a part of, and how he met Vincent Rankis, a man Harry finds himself fascinated by, but who also may or may not be bringing about the end of the world sooner and sooner…
What do you love about it?: I found myself really drawn in by the very personal and intimate narration of Harry’s lives, and fascinated by the glimpses we get through his POV of the larger society of these functionally-immortal people. In many places this book is very tragic, and there is something bittersweet to how time and existence work for Harry, how the way he views other people shifts the more often he lives the same life again. And then, of course, there’s Vincent. The way Harry describes his relationship with him has something repressed and unreliable, while also being oddly intimate - there’s some measure of attraction and kinship there, as much as Harry might not want to acknowledge this, and deliberately sets himself apart from Vincent in his narration. They’ve done horrible things to each other, and yet… And Yet. Also, there’s some measure of attempted (Vincent doesn’t know it failed, and Harry does his best to not let on) memory erasure, and the identity porn/subterfuge resulting from that is just *delicious*.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I find the relationship between Harry and Vincent fascinating on various levels, so probably something shippy, but would also just generally enjoy something from Vincent’s perspective - Harry is a rather unreliable narrator, after all, and we never truly know what is happening in Vincent’s head. So I’d love a missing canon scene, a post-canon scenario, pre-canon Vincent, or a canon scene from Vincent’s POV…
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: it’s *really* not ideal to read only parts, as the narrative tends to jump and circle around, this is a book best enjoyed in its entirety - however, if absolutely necessary, the final fifty pages (starting from Chapter 74) mmmmight suffice to fulfil my request? Chapters 52-58 (~40 pages) also provide a great deal of context as the lowest point of Vincent and Harry’s relationship.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): this is a rather dark book - it’s also been a while since I last read it in full, so please take this as an incomplete list. There are obviously multiple deaths, violence, and severe injuries suffered by Harry August himself or other characters in the narrative (this includes some suicides). Furthermore, there’s attempted mind manipulation/gaslighting, attempts to nonconsensually remove memories, torture of the protagonist, and terminal illness, both the cancer that frequently ends Harry’s life, and once, towards the end, by radiation poisoning which is quite vividly described. At the very beginning of the book, Harry also briefly recounts the rape of his mother.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North
Media: book
Approx. length: 400 pages
Where to find it: should be available anywhere you can buy books!
What is it, in summary?: A novel by Claire North about individuals who live their lifetimes over and over. The book follows, as the title suggests, the first fifteen lives of one Harry August, how he comes to realise what he is, how he learns more about this secret society of sort-of-timetravelers he is a part of, and how he met Vincent Rankis, a man Harry finds himself fascinated by, but who also may or may not be bringing about the end of the world sooner and sooner…
What do you love about it?: I found myself really drawn in by the very personal and intimate narration of Harry’s lives, and fascinated by the glimpses we get through his POV of the larger society of these functionally-immortal people. In many places this book is very tragic, and there is something bittersweet to how time and existence work for Harry, how the way he views other people shifts the more often he lives the same life again.
And then, of course, there’s Vincent. The way Harry describes his relationship with him has something repressed and unreliable, while also being oddly intimate - there’s some measure of attraction and kinship there, as much as Harry might not want to acknowledge this, and deliberately sets himself apart from Vincent in his narration. They’ve done horrible things to each other, and yet… And Yet.
Also, there’s some measure of attempted (Vincent doesn’t know it failed, and Harry does his best to not let on) memory erasure, and the identity porn/subterfuge resulting from that is just *delicious*.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I find the relationship between Harry and Vincent fascinating on various levels, so probably something shippy, but would also just generally enjoy something from Vincent’s perspective - Harry is a rather unreliable narrator, after all, and we never truly know what is happening in Vincent’s head. So I’d love a missing canon scene, a post-canon scenario, pre-canon Vincent, or a canon scene from Vincent’s POV…
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: it’s *really* not ideal to read only parts, as the narrative tends to jump and circle around, this is a book best enjoyed in its entirety - however, if absolutely necessary, the final fifty pages (starting from Chapter 74) mmmmight suffice to fulfil my request? Chapters 52-58 (~40 pages) also provide a great deal of context as the lowest point of Vincent and Harry’s relationship.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): this is a rather dark book - it’s also been a while since I last read it in full, so please take this as an incomplete list.
There are obviously multiple deaths, violence, and severe injuries suffered by Harry August himself or other characters in the narrative (this includes some suicides). Furthermore, there’s attempted mind manipulation/gaslighting, attempts to nonconsensually remove memories, torture of the protagonist, and terminal illness, both the cancer that frequently ends Harry’s life, and once, towards the end, by radiation poisoning which is quite vividly described. At the very beginning of the book, Harry also briefly recounts the rape of his mother.