This is one of those books that I find hard to rate. The themes of love and father/daughter bond are strong and I thought the ideal of telling Hawley's story through his scars to be unique. But I found it is be too hard to find much of the story plausible. Loo is violent to a degree that no talking to the principle should excuse her. She is seemingly blind to her father's past despite seeing his body is covered in bullet holes and he is missing half an ear. How big a shock could his story be to her really??

The omniscient voice is mostly good, though not my favorite. I thought the plot well devised overall and the threads neatly pieced together by the end.

Overall, I liked it, but it didn't touch me as it seems to have others.

Thanks to a Goodreads giveaway, I received a paperback advanced reading copy of The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti! I also received a NetGalley arc from Dial Press in exchange for a fair review!
Loo lives with her father Hawley as they travel from place to place without settling down for long in any one town. That is until they go to the town where Loo's grandmother ( Loo's mother Lily's mother) lives. Lily drowned when Loo was quite young, so it's just her and Hawley. Loo's grandmother refuses to see or speak to them, but Loo and Hawley decide to buy a house and live in the town anyway. More than anything else, this book made me realize that every person has a story. Each chapter alternates between the present with Hawley and Loo and then to Hawley and his younger past. Each trip into the past explains how Samuel Hawley received another gunshot wound and scar. This story is sad in the fact that Loo and Hawley struggle with belonging and with lasting relationships besides their own. They are both lonely and seem somewhat lost in their presence and their place in the world. Loo tries to befriend others, but she has a temper and becomes physically angry too often. Hawley seems like he is just trying to get through and raise Loo in the best way he knows how. He is very lonely and misses his wife, Lily daily. Loo sees this loneliness. It's almost like Loo and Hawley are stuck in a never ending cycle of danger and wrong choices. This book left me feeling how life is just a fleeting moment that passes too quickly. 4 stars.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

This is a story about love and redemption and how sometimes you can't control where life takes you. Samuel Hawley might have been a man that made bad decisions and did bad things, but he was also a man that loved his wife and daughter deeply and was willing to take care of them the only way he knew how.

It is a violent story, and it may seem gratuitous to some of us because that is not the type of life we live, but it's Hawley's and Loo's story and they're both doing the best they can with what they have.

I want to point out that this is the first time in a very long time that a female teenage character doesn't annoy me with self centered whining and navel gazing. If you're looking for sappy romance or hot teenagers saving the world, this is not the story for you.

Thank you to Random House and Hannah Tinti

A different and interesting book. The 12 lives refers to the bullet scars that Samuel Hawley has on his body and the book tells you how Samuel received those scars. Samuel and his friend, Jove, used to be what they called themselves "takers". That's what they did. They would get paid to take. It was something they did for many years starting when they were very young until one day Samuel met Lily. He still took some, but not as much. Then when Lily got pregnant with Loo, Samuel could see that his taking days were over.

The books goes back and forth between the scar stories and life with Lily and Loo. It's a great story and one that I really liked a lot. A family story with a lot of emotion, sadness, loneliness, death, bad guys, moving (literally) and just a really, really great story. I was really sad when the book ended. I had become attached to these characters and did not want to say goodbye.

Huge thanks to Random House for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti. I don't know, this one has received some five star reviews, but as I read and when I finished, my personal thoughts were inconclusive. There was some cleverness in the twelve bullet wounds that Samuel Hawley sports and in the recurring motif of watches/clocks/time. But when I got it on second mention, the rest felt contrived.

The book is well-written, and I had no inclination to put it aside, and yet, my feelings about the book were always ambivalent.

I like this quote from another reviewer: "I felt like I was reading a mashup of John Green and Quentin Tarantino more than once." :) Does that give you a feel for the novel?

I guess this is a wishy-washy view of the novel, but I do think the author is talented.

Blog review scheduled for March 1

NetGalley/Random House

Mystery. March 28, 2017. Print length: 400 pages.

This is not your typical father-daughter story. The story shifts seamlessly from the present to the past. This book has it all - love, violence, parenthood, coming of age, running from your past, dealing with the present and confronting the future. I found Hannah Tinti's book engaging and mesmerizing. This is a wonderful book, which I found difficult to put down,

For all the pre-publication hype The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley has received, I thought it would be better. Loo and her dad definitely have an atypical relationship and Tinti runs with that throughout the novel. Loo knows her mother died very on in her life and she and her father have made abrupt moves to different states throughout the first 13 or so years of her life. What she doesn't quite realize is that her father's life prior to her birth featured a lot of business dealings gone bad that resulted in death, money hidden in toilets, and a life on the run. Tinti hops back and forth between Loo and Hawley's current life and the stories that explain how Hawley's bullet holes, now scars, came to be. These sections, at least to me, deter from the story. Tinti includes a clock motif that mostly pops up in these chunks, but it wasn't fully fleshed out and that was a shame. None of the characters were particularly relatable, so you don't find yourself rooting for any one of the characters. As a Reference Librarian who people consult for reading recommendations, I probably wouldn't suggest this one.

Although it is clearly said that Samuel Hawley was shot, you are still kept in a tense state because you don't know how he got shot. Every new bullet is a surprise, both because it lets you learn more about him, but also because you most certainly don't see it coming.

My favourite parts were those where Lily, his wife was present. She is a well-constructed character, and she seems to be the one holding Hawley in one piece. Loo, too, is a good character, and though she is a developing one, you can tell she has complexity and can be a stand-alone protagonist. She is my favourite character, with her quirks and shortcomings, her attempts to get by and add another day to her life. My least favourite character is Marshall. He is not good enough for Loo.

I read in the interview with the author, interview you can read at the end of the book, that the structure of the book was well thought - each Bullet Part had the same recurring elements: the bullet, the woman, the watch to point to love, time, death. I didn't think of this as I was reading the book, but you sense the tension created by these three elements. I find this very smart and so very good!

I strongly recommend this book to those who like suspense, but without the detective and police drama, mystery and alternating perspectives, as the book shifts from present to past to tell the story of each bullet. With each new bullet story you can't help but wonder where the new bullet will take you, since each shooting took place in a different part of the country. It was a good read, indeed! I look forward to reading more from this author.

The story of father and daughter and what we do for our family was very well written, very sad at times but overall a beautifully written story of family love.

This was a really well written, interesting story. Loved the characters.

I read about 25% into the book and couldn't get into it. Sorry.

(3.5 stars) I'm clearly in the minority here as I see this novel has received mostly 5 star reviews. I did like it, but I didn't *love* it. There are brilliant aspects and some are less so.

Samuel Hawley's body is covered with twelve bullet wounds from the twelve times he was shot. His daughter Loo doesn't know the secrets of his violent past and he tries to protect her from the truth of her mother's death. The novel is told in alternating chapters of past and present, weaving through time with Hawley and Loo, and Hawley's past to reveal how he received the twelve bullet wounds. The structure is magnificent and one of the things that works really well. The stories of the twelve bullets echo the twelve labors of Hercules, and I loved how the book was rich with symbolism and metaphor. The marriage between love and violence is brought together in the novel in a very interesting and beautiful way.

At times the prose left something to be desired. Tinti uses the omniscient voice in this book, which is very tough to do well. I wouldn't say it's done poorly, yet there are times we hop into someone's head in an almost random or haphazard fashion, which can be jarring. There were a few instances when the prose was slightly clunky, though I read an ARC and perhaps the language will get tightened before publication. My other issue was that the Hawley bullet stories became a bit repetitive. I was immersed in the story, but the further I went into it the more I felt like the air had slowly been let out. Inside of tension building, it seemed to gradually dissipate.

Overall it's a really interesting novel. I loved Hawley and Loo and was interested to see what would become of them. I loved the depth contained within these pages. At its core The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is a beautiful story about a father's love for his daughter.

Somewhat interesting, but failing to get involved in characters and their lives. Some readers may be put off by time shifts

A father-daughter story that moves back and forth between the past and present. While the title emphasizes that it is the father's story (Samuel Hawley), it is also his daughter Loo's story. And it also a bit of a husband-wife story and a daughter-mother-grandmother story. At times tragic, at times insightful, at times funny, at times a bit unbelievable. It is only Samuel's love for Loo that allows one to like him., while it's easy to like Loo at all her stages. A good read overall.

Thank you very much to Dial Press and Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! It was a trip.

I really enjoyed this story, even if it did teeter a bit close to the YA genre that I normally try to avoid. It is told as a series of flashbacks and present day moments, interspersed. For each chapter in the past you get a chapter in the present, and while I don't mind this sort of narrative, after a while I was really chomping at the bit to figure out the truth of what happened to Loo's mother! The pacing was really really great, but like I said, at some points I had wished for just a bit more. I liked the mechanic of utilizing bullet scars as jumping off points for memories.

I was also very grateful that there was much weight placed on the romance aspect of the story. The fact that the author chose to have them separate was actually surprising and I'm glad that she decided to show that aspect of a high school relationship. Thank god, because I really enjoyed the relationship of Sam Hawley and Loo a lot more. I initially read the sample chapter before receiving the book, and it also happens to be the lead off chapter in the book, which I'm glad for, because it was so strong. Hawley teaching his daughter to shoot a gun- it was so beautifully described with intermixed dialogue that fit the tension of the scene so well. I think that one will haunt me for a bit.

Unfortunately, the ending was entirely predictable. I had called it an entire two chapters before we got there, and sort of had to roll my eyes and truck onward. It wasn't disappointing, though! Just a little frustrating when juxtaposed with a strong first chapter.

I found myself wishing for more of Loo and her grandmother. I enjoyed their dynamic and felt like she had a legitimate reason for acting the way that she did (kudos to the author for beautifully rendering these sort of complex relationships between her characters without sacrificing their sense of 'family' toward each other).

It looks like a few readers were disturbed by the violence- I wasn't, but then, I wasn't disturbed by Gone Girl either. So, word of warning I guess.

All in all, I rated this book 3.5/5 stars, but I don't round up or down, so 3 stars on Goodreads it receives.

The review will be posted on Inked Epiphanies https://inkepiphanies.wordpress.com/ on the date of publication with appropriate quotes included.

My eyes, my heart, my soul. Everything is hurting from the beauty of The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. I cried, I laughed, I grieved, I loved. I got stuck in a never-ending cycle of find, love, lose, grieve. I couldn't let go and let go a million things at the same time. I feel like a lived a life or two while reading the novel. I feel like I had some sort of rich spiritual experience and by turning the last page of Sam Hawley's story, I finished an important journey. I feel like Loo was under my skin. She was me and I was her. I feel like The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is magic in its true form.

It's hard to actually decide what I want you to know about Sam and Loo Hawley because everything and nothing is important. Everything because every little detail of their lives has so much meaning. Nothing because all that meaning is going to be wiped out by Hawleys as they disappear into the night. They don't leave anything behind. No personal belongings, no fingerprints, no friendships. They live in their own world and that world is so embarrassingly intimate. There is no room for anyone else there.

However, everything changes as they move to Olympus, Massachusetts. Loo learns to grow side by side with other people. Sam learns to let other people peek at their world. Yet, one thing stays the same. Grief over the loss of Lily, the mother and the wife. Her dead presence is everywhere: in the house, on the clothes, on the back of the tongues. That is absolutely heartbreaking. The entire novel is soaked in that grief and it's dripping with it. I see people talking about violence, but really? There is so much more to it. There is so much more to love about The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley.

I am eternally grateful for Loo, for example. That girl is so real. Hot blood and ice-cold bone, that's Loo. The girl knows how to handle guns since she's 12. She isn't a flaky type. She's strong. She's the one who will flourish with love. She's difficult. She's so complex. Just like Samuel. They are so very well written that I feel like I can touch them. That blood and bone, hot and cold under my touch. I am 100% positive in saying that those two will stay with me forever.

I am also very impressed by the way Hannah Tinti handled their relationship. It's rather marvelous and fascinating, really. So simple yet very much complex. Many talked about child's love for parents and extent of their forgiveness. However, I don't think that's the case here. Loo and Hawley are so tight together, sometimes it feels like they are one whole human. Again, that blood and bone - they're the same. There isn't any question of forgiveness. In the end, there would never be anything to forgive.

I haven't read anything so utterly compelling and, silly to say, heartfelt. I am not sure why and how but I was affected so deeply by The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. I devoured the novel very slowly to give myself sleep on a chapter or two, to really think about what I've read. Powerful, haunting and crookedly beautiful. I think it has the power to change lives.

I absolutely loved this book! Tinti has created an iconic duo in Hawley and Loo, a father/daughter pair trying to both run from the past and assimilate in the town that started their story. The novel unwinds through alternate chapters of Haley and Loo's arrival in the town and what becomes of them there and chapters that tell the story of each of the twelve bullet wounds Hawley experiences both before and after becoming a father. This highly imaginative story will appeal to mystery lovers, adventurer seekers, and those who enjoy images of small town life. Hawley and Loo are unlikely heroes who will stay with you long after you have finished the book. And if you haven't read Tinti's THE GOOD THIEF, I highly encourage you to read that one as well!

I liked this book, more than most I have read lately. Samuel Hawley is trying hard to be a good dad, although he hasn't always been a good man. I like the set-up of the book, moving from present day to the past. Loo was a realistic teenager to me, being set apart because of the life she had led, but still starting to behave at times like a normal teenager. The language was descriptive, but without being overly so. This book has stayed with me.

Loo and her father have a strange relationship that pulls them together, yet sets them at odds. It's a complex plot that pulls the reader along to figure out how her father's twelve scars interact with their present lives. Intriguing!

This is a book about a career criminal and his young daughter and how throughout their life together he desperately tries to protect from his former life but it keeps catching up with them no matter what he tries. The love and bond they share is beautiful and despite all that is thrown in their way they still cling to each other as though one cannot survive without the other. The past and the present are interwoven with the recounting of the bullets he has received and how they appear to be landmarks in his life and all future decisions he makes. Despite the violence throughout the book and especially the ending this is a book worth reading and was difficult to put down.