Second Lives by Kevin Jared Hosein is a Caribbean writer from Trinidad and Tobago is his second novel, following the award winning Hungry Ghosts. That novel was an historical epic, exploring some major themes and won him many plaudits. For his second, he has come right up to the present, with a novel that explores video-game and internet culture, and it's impact on Lenore, a poet suffering the loss of her husband and son.

I'm not a gamer and I suspect this novel will resonate more profoundly if you are. What did resonate with me was how Kevin Jared Hosein portrayed Lenore and her stages of grief. She has been made unlikeable by grief, and she is desperately trying to claw her way out of the darkness - a very human experience we can all identify with.

I liked that Jared Hosein has attempted to do something very different to his debut, and such ambition should be absolutely applauded. There is a lot to like in Second Lives, even when it's background isn't something you know anything about.

Thank you to the publisher Netgalley for the ARC.

This is a very raw and sometimes shocking tale of a woman on the edge. I felt Lenore's pain and understood how the grief had taken over, going day to day just trying to survive. Her story (reflected in various emails she sends) follows the path back to living, which is long and emotionally destructive at times.

The prose flows well, making it a joy to read. This is a new author to me, one to follow for sure!

I was really impressed by Second Lives. Having previously read Kevin Jared Hosein’s Hungry Ghosts, I was intrigued to see what he would do next, and this is a very different novel in many ways, but one that I found just as compelling.

At its heart, this is a story about grief and what happens when someone is left trying to find a way forward after experiencing an unimaginable loss. Lenore has withdrawn almost completely from the world following the deaths of her husband and teenage son, and much of the novel explores her attempts to process what has happened and find some kind of connection with life again.

What I particularly liked was the way Hosein explores grief without making it feel simplistic or predictable. Lenore is a complicated, often difficult character, and her journey feels messy and believable rather than following the usual path towards neat resolution. The letters she is encouraged to write provide an intimate window into her thoughts, memories and relationships, while the seemingly unusual storyline involving the video game her son left unfinished becomes surprisingly meaningful.

There is also something very clever about the title, which takes on greater significance as the story develops. This isn't simply a novel about death; it's about what it means to carry on living afterwards, and whether it is possible to discover a different version of yourself when the life you once knew has disappeared.

Hosein writes beautifully, but this never felt like a book where the writing was more important than the story. There is a real emotional depth here, with themes of grief, family, guilt, love and the complicated ways we try to make sense of loss.

Second Lives is very different from Hungry Ghosts, but it confirms Kevin Jared Hosein as a writer who isn't afraid to take risks and explore difficult subjects in unexpected ways. Thought-provoking, poignant and quietly powerful, this is a novel that stayed with me long after I finished it.

After a heartbreaking loss, poet and teacher Lenore has isolated herself at home in Trinidad for over a year. After dismissing a selection of therapists, organized by her concerned and bossy sister, she eventually finds one she can work with who recommends she writes a letter each day and it’s through these, many of which are to her dog Keats, we learn of her life and difficulties before the tragedy and subsequently her slow journey to healing.
Her son was involved with gaming and she joins an online video game which she becomes obsessed with. Like her grief she struggles to progress in it and it’s clever the way the author parallels her attempts to drag herself towards a resolution both with her life moving forward and the game.
I loved Kevin Jared Hosein’s previous novel ‘Hungry Ghosts’ and although I applaud him for trying something very different, because I’m not a gamer a lot of that part of the book was lost on me.

Many thanks to NetGalley & Bloomsbury Publishing UK for the ARC