Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately I have been unable to get into it. DNF @ 16%.

I read this shortly after The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - a book with a very similar theme - and unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much in comparison. The philosophy of the novel was interesting but tended to drag down the narrative, bringing a much slower pace to the book. However, the writing is lovely and really pulls together in the end.

Received from Netgalley for honest read and review.
The premise sounded really good for this book,but I found it really hard to get into.
It just seemed very bitty,jumping about a lot and I could not really focus on the story at all.

I loved the concept of the book, but the implementation missed the mark for me . In many ways it was like watching the TV show Lost. Lots of questions but unsatisfactory answers that just led to more unanswered or irrelevant questions. Got to a point where what happened next was no longer important to me. Still, the writing was very good and engaging, I just wish it had gone somewhere different.

I really couldnt get into this book and found it confusing so after a few tries I had to stop amd did not finish it

I'm sorry this book was not for me. I tried to get into the story and instead of being curious and excited to follow the story, I was confused and distracted. Perhaps at a later date this book will work for me, but at this moment in time, I did not finish, but thank you for the opportunity to read.

I don't know about this one... There were some exceedingly strong elements - I really LOVED the main story about Sancha, Maria, and of course Tres/Aaron. I flew through those portions of the book. The concept was intriguing, the characters were great - the whole thing worked beautifully. Then there were the portions in the Apart, with Saig and Fei - those did not work so well for me... They felt very repetitive and I skimmed large swathes of that text. It just felt like they kept telling Aaron/Tres the same thing over and over, with even very little variation in how they said it. I understand the importance of the concepts they were relaying, and even understand how in reality one might have to hear such things numerous times before they actually sunk in and were understood. But in a novel, they rather severely slowed the pace of what was otherwise a really strong and interesting plot...

The initial premise of the book is an interesting one, but it has been done many times before -  I just recently read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.

Nevertheless, Justine Avery has taken this premise and expanded it into the examination and philosophising of existentialism, spiritualism and reincarnation. Blending these disparate conceptual doctrines into a unique world that is The One Apart.

The extremely short chapters and the frenetic jumping between scenes within the chapters themselves jars and disrupts the narrative flow of the book.

The repeated philosophising, particularly in the middle of the novel, further slows the pace and becomes a chore as the same concepts are incessantly reiterated. The word "corporeal" and derivatives thereof are repeated in excess of 200 times in the novel.

The final chapters of the novel shine bright. Justine Avery pulls the entire narrative together and beautifully concludes her story in a deeply emotional and satisfying way - there is indeed a strong payoff to persevere through the middle and come out the other side.