Jay Kristoff is one of my absolute favorite humans. PERIOD. He knocks it out of the park every time and this one is no exception!

Is LIFEL1K3 my favorite dystopian YA novel I've ever read? No. Is it my favorite Jay Kristoff novel? No. Was it still an immensely enjoyable dystopian with plenty of Jay Kristoff's signature wit and enough twists to keep me turning pages until I finished it? ABSOLUTELY. I would read anything he puts out into the world, and this was a fun departure from his other work --- plus, it's been a while since dystopian YA was leading the pack, so I thought it was good fun to jump back into a dystopian series and feel like a true teen again (which I was back when The Hunger Games made allllll the YA want to be dystopian for a while, lol).

Jay Kristoff's books are very polarizing for me. I either love them or I don't. Unfortunately, this one falls in the I don't like this category. The thing is I'm having a hard time figuring out why I don't like it. I don't mind the characters but I don't love them either. Something about it is rubbing me the wrong way so I ended up DNFing it around the 38% mark.

LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike) by Jay Kristoff was interesting enough while I was reading but ultimately mostly forgettable and I skim read most of it. I do want to give this book another try when I'm not in a reading slump though.

Eve lebt in einer kaputten Welt, beherrscht von Tech-Companies, gesetzlosen Gangs und religiösen Fanatikern. Mit ihren kleinen Roboter Cricket, ihrer besten Freundin Lemon Fresh und ihrem Blitzhund Kaiser an ihrer Seite bestreitet sie ihren Alltag. Bis ein Zufall ihr eines Tages eine Begegnung mit einem Lifelike beschert, einem lebensechten Roboter mit künstlicher Intelligenz und übermenschlichen Fähigkeiten. Aber ist Ezekiel, wie er sich nennt, Freund oder Feind?
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Lifelike von Jay Kristoff ist ein unterhaltsamer SciFi YA-Roman, der mit (fast schon zu) hohem Tempo und viel Action aufwartet.
Die Figuren sind sympathisch und es gibt einige spannende Twists. Für Fans schneller Action und düsterer SciFi Welten.

Hmmm can’t say this really grabbed me. It had a lot of potential but didn’t have the same bang as some of his other series did. I didn’t really connect with the main character either which probably didn’t help.

I was going through my books I need to send feedback on and I was like wait, I read this so why did I never send feedback?! Anyways, I really enjoyed this book and play to reread this and finish the rest of the trilogy some time this year.

***Note: Deciding not to review this book since I am no longer interested in books the author in light of recent events, and I just need to get this book off my feedback list.***

I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately while reading it I realized I didn't enjoy it as much as i had hoped and ended up DNFing. Thank you for approving me for an early copy.

Coming in blind to books is always such a wild ride and this one continued that for me. I didn’t know what to think coming in, but wow was this a fun ride.

Eve lives with her grandfather in a post-apocalyptic world and to pay for his meds, she fights robots at night. After a fight lands them in trouble where Eve discovers she can disable machines with her mind, Eve and her best friend, Lemon are wanted by everything. On their way home, they find a likelike android named Ezekiel.

LikeL1k3 starts off with action and adventure and never slows down. It has the ability to capture you and keep you glued to the world. Kristoff managed to create a captivating world. I loved all the robots and the language even seemed to flow with everything well.

On top of the well built world, this book also has well built characters. Lemon had to be my favorite. She was just perfect really. I loved her so much that I don’t know how to put it into words, really. Lemon and Eve had a wonderful friendship.

There was just so much to love about this book and I’m so happy that I picked this book up.

I really enjoyed this book! I was not let down by Kristoff's writing and thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely recommend!

Ok, ya'll probably know my love of YA Sci-fi by now. I think, for me, this book excelled in it's world building! I did like the characters and I did enjoy the plot/premise etc., but the world building was just top shelf! I know, in discussion with a friend about this book, she had some issues with the reality of who the main characters love interest is. I think it begs some thought (and would cause some spoilers) so I won't get in to it here, but it might put some people off. But things to change and Kristoff is excellent a tossing in twists so...maybe hold your thoughts to the end?

All in all, I did enjoy this book. I found, however, that the ending was....not what I expected. In some ways it was disheartening for me and in others it was the perfect propellant to the next book.

As I mentioned before, Kristoff is just amazing at tossing in twists and turns - something I greatly admire about his writing - so I think that is where the 4* rating comes in. But there were other times where I felt like things were either a little cliche or extremely blown out of proportion which dropped me to the 3.8*.

I'd say if you like science fiction and can get past some of the dialect (because it's an acquired taste) then you might just love this series!

My rating: 3.8-4*
*There is language in this one.

Thanks to NetGalley for gifting me a copy of this book. My opinions are my own!

I tried reading this book but sadly I didn't make it very far while reading this book. I think that the different point of views made it a bit difficult to understand . I usually love this author's books and I hoped that this one would work out for me.

Kristoff creates a world where people and machines work together to create a sort of dystopia that we haven't really seen yet. The world that he creates reminds you a little of like Iron Giant if Iron Giant was about a girl who built machines to battle and then found herself in trouble. The story just grows and grows as he creates the world that will build into a series that will surly become a classic sci fi from our time.

3.5*
Kristoff has once again added to his reputation as a talented writer of creative science fiction. Here, In a post-apocalyptic world, there are humans who are struggling to exist in a barren, desolate landscape. Even the author uses comparisons to Mad Max and one will see the similarities as Eve flees across a wasteland pursued by bounty hunters.

Eve lives in ruins with her grandfather. She likes to build robots with junk she finds in the trash and ruins. She is quick-witted and loyal. Unfortunately, the bounty hunters who are pursuing her will bring trouble for her grandfather. When Eve is forced to flee with her good friend Lemon, they find a discarded android. He shouldn’t exist since they are illegal, but they get him operational and find he’s unusually receptive to people. His name is Ezekiel and he and the two girls set off on a mission to find answers to Eve’s burning questions.
The action is heated – not just because of the landscape, but because of the threats that are always just a step away. Eve, Lemon and Ezekiel are a fascinating trio. They each have special capabilities and are eternally loyal. Their quest for truth leads them right into danger where they must use their wits to survive.

Lifel1k3 is fun and exciting – a fantastic beginning to a new landscape created by Kristoff’s mind.

Jay Kristoff can do no wrong!!! Likel1k3 was such a wild ride! I'm pretty sure there's nothing that Jay can't write.

I don’t know if it is a coincidence of events that before I did read this book, I happened to finish watching first a tv series entitled Humans. If some of you know this show, I think you might take a guess how my imagination works while reading the book then or… not. Anyway, after aligning my views between the two, they are much pretty different to say. Humans is a show about robots – Synth (what they call to them) and how they become essentially part of human lives. Though the twist is that there are several Synth who are much human as they can just think on their own and feel emotions. Fortunately, the book is much more to give – badass scenes and well, action.

I’m a fan of a robot (not the collector or obsessive type, just fascinated-on-how-robot-is) that I love how extraordinaire and advanced they can be to the human world. But to say, they are worthy is to think well hard as they can be also a risk to our humanity. The irony is, sometimes human wishes to be a robot when a robot can also wish to be a human. Lifelike, as a post-apocalyptic book, envisioned some scenarios robots are in great help and disaster. As you progress deep into the book, you will bound to see a truth that even you don’t wish for it, you got no options to take and that’s what you will know for sure to Eve.

Lies. Bloody. False life. AI. Android. Robot. Things you’ll encounter about this book and many more but that’s how mostly I recognized this book. Yet the humor in the midst of the look of things is a great addition just not to make all very serious and a thing I like even for zombie apocalypse theme movie. Thanks to Cricket and Lemon Fresh I still got to laugh from time to time.

Warn you, folks, there are lots of violence and brutal picture here. So better be prepared for it, though. I also observed the biblical sense of the book with the names, and the tower which is likely noticeable but put a smile on me because of Supernatural reference (not for the author but for me).

This is my first Jay Kristoff’s book to read and I’m not disappointed that I took the chance on giving this a try. The mesmerizing and amazing exploit of the whole story is indeed great and intricately the best. The ending is a must to follow with the revelation and the journey to continue. Definitely on the waiting list for the next book to this.

Another stellar read from Jay Kristoff. From someone who has never watched Mad Max, this book gave me inklings of the game Fallout and it was fantastic. Gritty world-of-story, characters that come off the page, banter that excites and is prone to laughter from the reader. For a post-apocalyptic world, I wouldn't be opposed to jumping into the world of LIFEL1K3 for good. As long as Lemon Fresh and I can be the best of friends.

THIS REVIEW IS AN EXCERPT FROM A BOOK TOUR POST

Before we get too far into this review I want to point out that the synopsis does a pretty good job of spoiling the first section of the novel. So if you’re looking to read it keep in mind that you’ve got a fairly good idea of what’s going to happen at the very beginning. Don’t let that discourage you, though. There’s tons more to see and a lot more to Lifelike than just that.

One of the things I enjoyed the most about Lifelike is how evident it became from the very beginning that this story felt like something I could have been watching. It’s a very cinematic story and Jay Kristoff does a great job of bringing readers into the story. He creates a very unique world with that has basically been destroyed and rebuilt several times over after different wars and catastrophes resulting in a very dog-eat-dog sort of society. It’s a familiar setting but with his own take on things. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to Borderlands and Fallout in other reviews and that’s certainly true.

But for whatever reason to me Lifelike feels like it would be right at home as a anime series. Maybe it was the giant mech vs. logika fighting in the beginning or the somewhat creepy sci-fi Western vibes that came from later parts of the story. (There’s also a bit of Anastasia thrown in for good measure and I’m old enough for that to have been a major animated movie moment in my childhood.)

The characters in Lifelike are great. Eve Carpenter, our main character, is a very intriguing character whose life is defined by tragedy from the very first pages. As we continue reading, though, we find that whatever memories she has of her past only scratch the surface. Kristoff leads her down a very dark path of self-discovery as she delves deeper into her own past and the history of the ‘Lifelike’ line of androids that the book takes it’s name from.

Eve is joined by an imaginative cast of characters. From Cricket – a mismatched robot built from an array of spare parts – to her best friend, Lemon, and her cyborg dog “Kaiser,” Eve at least has a pretty great support system. Those characters may not be the focus of the story but they get some decent development and they get some pretty great moments of their own. I was a little less interested in Ezekiel – the robot boy she finds in the wastes – at first but he really does develop a lot as a character throughout.

Some of the twists are a little predictable — especially if you’ve read a fair number of books in a similar vein. You can probably see some of it coming. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a great book. Kristoff’s writing is very compelling. It’s very easy to lose yourself in his story. He keeps things moving at a quick pace and builds a world so weird and wonderful you can’t help but be enthralled.

I ended up calling it quits on this book 50% through.

The short: There's nothing terribly wrong with this book, other than that I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters and after not reading it for many days, I realized I didn't give a shit about what happened in the plot.

The longer: Initially, I liked the tone of this one right away. It’s a sort of post-apocalypse futurescape where advanced robotics are everywhere. Eve battles in giant mech-suits, which was cool. And the dialect was very much comprised of slang, but still easy to understand and surprisingly not tiresome to read. When action was happening (mech fights, gang wars, robots fighting gangs, robots fighting each other while fighting gangs), I was interested.

But then came the plot. This is an Anastasia retelling (this isn’t a spoiler if you know the bare minimum about the Romanovs) and once Eve figures out her past, there’s a huge info-dump of the whole story. Honestly, as long as you know the Romanovs were murdered and Anastasia secreted away, you don’t need a big backstory and I think Kristoff could have done some creative cutting here.

After the info-dump, the plot hit the brakes so Eve/Ana could be shocked about her past and come to terms with her memories. It was at this point that I started skimming and eventually just put the book down for good. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.

As with most YA reads, there were several moments that pulled me out of the story because of the apparent need to focus on the visual descriptions of the characters. Specifically, in this story it was hair color and Zeke’s general appearance.

Lemon’s cherry-red hair was described as such 3 times by the 13% mark and then I noticed one blood-red before I called it quits. We’re often reminded Eve is blonde and we’re definitely hit over the head with how perfectly, godly, amazingly, beautifully handsome Zeke is. Gag. I get it! Please stop beating me over the head with details like these!

I read the rest of the plot off Recaptains and I’m all set – I think I would have been exasperated by the ending (and probably would have seen some twists coming) and I’ve no interest in carrying on with the series. Just not for me!