Dale Harcombe's Reviews > The Second Life of Amy Archer

Let me say at the outset that I do not believe in re-incarnation, but as a premise in the novel I was prepared to go along with it. I started this book really interested to see how it was going to progress. Any book that involves children going missing usually has me hooked, because it is a parent’s worst nightmare.
That’s where this one starts with the mother, Beth, living that nightmare in the area where her daughter Amy went missing ten years before. The playground has been replaced by a more modern play area and a number of courts for basketball and other sports. Unable to accept the loss of her daughter, Beth keeps going back to a psychic hoping to receive a message from Amy. One day she does receive a message but it doesn’t appear to make any sense. That is until a mother and child come into her life. The child not only looks like Amy, she shares many of her memories. But is it really Amy re-incarnated or some desperate ruse?
I really wanted to like this book. The first part of this book had me quite interested but the further it went on the less enthusiastic I became. Several times I nearly gave up. In the end I basically kept reading, skipping over some parts, to see how it ended. The ending was a complete let down and resolved nothing.
When I read the interview with the author at the end she admitted she couldn’t resolve it in her own mind so left it open. To me that’s not good enough. In my opinion, the author ought to at least know what they’re trying to do.
Consequently I found the book unsatisfying for that reason and also because I didn’t much care for any of the characters. There was something a little off-putting about each of them. However it is a debut novel so the maybe the author will rectify the problems inherent in this in the next novel.