The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano

The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano ~ Donna Freitas

Rose does not have children. She has never wanted children. She has always been very clear about this, to herself, to her family, her friends, and her partners. She marries Luke, who also does not want to have children, never has. Until a few years into their marriage, his parents convince him that life is meaningless without kids, and now suddenly it is the most important thing ever for him. He’s a complete dick to her, and piles on the pressure, despite knowing that she doesn’t want kids, despite knowing (I assume) how much money and work goes into being a parent, despite knowing how much of the work of parenting will fall on Rose. He does not care, HE WANTS A CHILD. In an effort to appease asshole Luke, Rose agrees to take pre-natal vitamins, but then she does not do so, which results in a big blowout argument. From this beginning (not that it’s in order, the book goes back and forth in time and the fight keeps happening in different realities), we get 9 different outcomes. They divorce, they stay married, he cheats, she cheats, they have a child, they don’t have a child, etc.

I wanted to like this book, I generally like stories where we see different outcomes of decisions made. Not this time. I kept wanting there to be a version where I didn’t hate Luke, but there wasn’t one. I felt like I needed a spreadsheet to follow the different versions of her story, which was annoying. Some of the realities had different characters with the same name, which was dumb and confusing. I think I would have liked it more if they hadn’t gone forward and backward between different lives…like, give me life 1, then life 2, etc. The best part about the book was her relationship with her parents, and that it wasn’t overly long.

This book gets a lot of great reviews, but it was not for me. Not recommended.