Date Read: April 25 – 26 2013
Release Date: May 1st 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Source: Bought
Genre: Sci-Fi
My rating: 
Synopsis:
“Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.
“Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.
Until now, that is...
For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives.
Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the
same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different
friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the
other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect
boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about
her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the
arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.
With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of
increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life
she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?”
---
"Because some
things are so real you can feel them to your core. It doesn't matter where you
go, they go with you. Anywhere."
From nearly the beginning I had my suspicions and from the
middle I had a feeling about how things were going to end. But the way
everything played out. WOAH. Absolutely amazing!
I loved all the characters, Sabine was smart, practical and
I loved her voice. She was so believable and relatable - and that's something
really hard to achieve in a story like this. I followed her through each of her
lives perfectly; I felt her qualms about each life, what she liked about them
and the love she had for each of the people in them.
“I want to live each
day once, to the best that I can live it.”
Secondary characters like Sabine’s little sister Maddie (my
absolute favourite) really enhanced the story and added to the difficulty of
Sabine's conflicting emotions for each of her lives. I think it's rare to see
such a loving sister bond between siblings with a 12 year age gap. Despite her
rich friends in her Welleseley life having a materialistic exterior, I saw that
underneath they really did care for each other. I really liked Sabine's family
in her Welleseley life, hiding behind the money and clothes, her mother really
cares for her and her brothers would come to her aid at any time. I loved that
about them.
“If things feel right
for you, then they probably are. But if they don’t, I know you’ll listen to
that too.”
I can't come up with a fitting word to describe Ethan. Wise?
Caring? Sweet? Selfless? Amazing? Loving? Yes all of them and many more! His
role in the book was perfect - forget the fact that he's the love interest - he
taught Sabine the beauty of living, showed her that what she has isn't a curse,
but a gift. The power of living. Gah everything he said was so quotable!
“We only exist because
others see us.”
What I really loved was the juxtaposition Between the Lives
provided. On one hand, Sabine is living two lives, having lived twice as much
as everybody else but she's sick of the living. On the other hand we see how
ephemeral life is - how easy death can come about. We want to live, but is it
worth living every day twice like Sabine? If death is the answer, is it the RIGHT answer?
This book portrayed all these things perfectly, especially in regards to
choices and existentialism – how would Sabine’s choices in her lonely world affect her future?
“What if you’re giving
up something you don’t even have yet, a future in this world that would give
you more happiness than you could have ever imagined?”
The perfect love. Ethan. Again Shirvington shows how
fleeting everything in life is. But what wonderful things can bloom in such
fleeting moments. Ethan and Sabine’s romance is one of these. The course of the
book doesn’t play over very long but during that time, the bond that develops
between Ethan and Sabine is amazing. They’re so very different yet so perfect
for each other. There was no insta-love, but there was definitely attraction
and slight hostility during the beginning. In a way, the two of them needed
each other – to show one another what they’re missing in life – but there was
never any co-dependence. The encouragement to live because of yourself was
always there. Their romance was sweet and Ethan was always there supporting
Sabine even when she didn’t know it.
I can’t find a single thing wrong with this book. The pace
was perfect, the characters all amazing and the plot was so original I loved
it! I also love books that have a cyclic nature so that by the end, it becomes
full circle and I have this completed feeling in me – that all the questions
and things that got mentioned in the beginning get answered create a perfect
ending. And this book did exactly that.
Between the Lives made me think, it made me really
appreciate life, it made me cry (A LOT, for like 30 pages straight) for what could have been but also gave me hope
for the future. Jessica Shirvington never disappoints.
“I was lost. But you found me, between the lives.”
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