My Second Life

by Faye Bird

Overview

Fifteen-year-old Ana has a good life—she has friends and a boy she likes and a kind mother—but still, she's haunted by her past; she knows that she lived once before as Emma and still misses her old family. When, by chance in her life now, she meets a woman she knew then, a terrifying memory flashes through her mind of a young girl drowning. Was Emma responsible? And should Ana pay the price? Consumed by guilt, Ana sets out to find out as much as possible about the person she was before and what she had done, only to discover that the family she misses so deeply had dark secrets of its own. To come to terms with her life now, she finally figures out how to let go of the past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250104380
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	01/01/2025
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Faye Bird worked as a literary agent representing TV and film screenwriters before becoming a writer herself. She lives in London with her husband and their two children. My Second Life is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

"The fateful night's magnetic pull will have readers staying awake until the very end. A page-turning mystery with a spot-on emotional core." —Kirkus Reviews

"Readers looking for a twisty mystery will find this an enjoyable diversion." —Booklist

From the Publisher

10/05/2015
What if you could be reborn to atone for the sins of your previous life? That’s the idea behind this languid mystery from first-time author Bird. Emma Trees died at age 22 only to be resurrected six years later as Ana Ross. Now 15, Ana remembers her previous life with some longing, but it isn’t until a chance meeting with a woman she knew as Emma that Ana realizes that she might have been brought back for a reason—to seek forgiveness for the death of a child. Guilt-ridden and confused, Ana seeks to learn more about her life as Emma and the accident she believes she was responsible for, but she winds up unraveling a decades-old secret that leaves her reeling. Bird’s story is slow to build, and though the concept is intriguing, little is done to flesh out Ana’s character, or Emma’s, beyond the traumatic event around which the story revolves. Ana’s relationship with a boy from school evolves quickly but seems unnecessary, and what is meant to be the explosive revelatory scene doesn’t pack the intended emotional punch. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Ana has always known that in a previous life she was a girl named Emma. Dealing with her past experiences was something she could balance until she unexpectedly encounters a woman named Frances. The chance meeting brings long hidden memories to the fore, forcing Ana to confront the dark visions of a young girl’s death. Balancing her current life while reconnecting with Emma’s drives a wedge between Ana and her mother and threatens to derail her budding romance with a longtime friend. Emma’s parents and Frances are not forthcoming with information until Ana begins to recall clear images that reveal the whole picture of an unfortunate accident and Emma’s own untimely death. An interesting take on the philosophical tenet of reincarnation, this book has a very distinctive outlook. Despite its philosophical grounding, however, the text shies away from all ethical discussions, even those directly related to the plot, including conversations of death, family relationships, love, and forgiveness. Without this thoughtful depth, what remains is a thriller; however, that aspect seems lackluster. With adult characters that take center stage, the continual revisiting of similar emotional states, and a quickly resolved climax, the whole story lacks a basic cohesion between plot and character development. Overall, lack of a clear theme and purpose makes it hard to figure what kind of reader might engage with the text, even though there is some sense of horror and adventure that genre fans may find enjoyable here. Reviewer: Rachel Wadham; Ages 12 to 18.

VOYA, December 2015 (Vol. 38, No. 5) - Rachel Wadham

11/01/2015
Gr 8 Up—Emma was born, Emma lived, and Emma died. Ana was born, Ana lived, and Ana remembers her first life as Emma. These memories of her first life aren't happy, and they don't help Ana understand boys or cope with teenage angst. Instead, these memories remind her that when she lived the first time around, she may or may not have had a hand in the death of someone close to her. When a person from her past life shows up in her current one, Ana has to figure out how to deal with her past choices while living her current ones. While the concept is intriguing and the mystery of just what Ana did while she was Emma is captivating, the story itself is slow to unfold and often drags. The exciting moments and plot twists are not enough to distract from overwrought melodrama and cliches. Overall, despite a unique concept of reincarnation and multidimensional characters, the book would be hard pressed to find a readership in most libraries. VERDICT A supplemental purchase.—Paige Garrison, Aurora Central Public Library, CO

School Library Journal

2015-09-16
A teen living her second life is haunted by having killed someone in her first. Fifteen-year-old Ana was born in the year 2000 to Rachel, who loves her deeply. But Rachel "doesn't feel like Mum" to Ana, because Ana's not really Ana: she'd been born before, in 1972, and died at age 22. She used to be—and still feels like—a girl named Emma, and she pines for her original mum. A chance encounter with an old woman named Frances sends Ana spinning down a frantic path. When she was Emma, Ana killed a little girl—Frances' daughter. Ana begins to visit Frances on the same street where Emma grew up, equally desperate to find clarity about the drowning and to avoid that clarity, because it's all too painful and Frances is cold as ice. Ana's sleepless due to fear and trauma, but she's not hallucinating, and Bird includes no fantasy elements beyond the reincarnation. Tormented by memory scraps and powerful feelings still alive from her first childhood, Ana begins to put the pieces together, but full comprehension is impossible until Frances and Ana sit down with Emma's parents. Ana's first-person narration wraps heart-wrenching feelings—jealousy, yearning, grief, hatred—in plainspoken prose. The fateful night's magnetic pull will have readers staying awake until the very end. A page-turning mystery with a spot-on emotional core. (author's note) (Mystery. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews