My Life as a Bench by Jaq Hazell

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 234
Publisher: Nowness Books
Released: 2nd of May 2017

'There are so many benches lining the riverside, each and every one tragic in its own way.'

Ren Miller has died aged seventeen and yet her consciousness lives on, inhabiting her memorial bench by the River Thames in London.

Ren longs to be reunited with her boyfriend Gabe, but soon discovers why he has failed to visit. Devastated, she must learn to break through and talk to the living so she can reveal the truth about her tragic end.

What I Have to Say 

This book was so good! I think I would have read it in one sitting if it wasn't an eBook. Ren was such an interesting character, though maybe the fact that she was stuck as a bench had something to do with her. Still it was interesting to hear how she had run away from Devon to find her father and how she coped with living in London.

But the most important part was the bench. It's just such an interesting take on the afterlife, bringing the idea of ghosts and memorials together to have a person inhabit the object with their plaque on, leaving them to observe the world and relive their memories until they find release from the limbo they're stuck in.

The book would have been dull however, but for the mystery surrounding who had killed Ren and how exactly she had died. I liked the way Hazell teased the reader, throwing out several different hints about how she might die. The way he threw out the idea of gangs and knives and guns which could easily be foreshadowing or just a red herring.

This is definitely a book that I would recommend. It's just such an interesting premise and it was so well executed.

My thanks go to Netgalley and Nowness for providing me with this copy for review.