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The Infinite Life of Emily Crane
Emily Crane doesn't want to die, but what she's been doing for the past seventeen years can't really be called “living,” so when a tragic event cuts her teenage life short, she feels nothing for the loss. But when she awakens only hours later, very much alive and without a single injury on her body, she is thrust into an existence that she never thought possible. Confronted with government scientists, beautiful assassins, and secrets that may threaten every mortal on the planet, Emily's new life is suddenly more exciting, more dangerous, and more meaningful than she could have ever imagined.
When Emily Crane dies, her life finally begins.
When Emily Crane dies, her life finally begins.
- GenresEbooks
232 pages, Paperback
First published September 5, 2012
12 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Jaron Lee Knuth
17 books27 followersJaron Lee Knuth was born in western Wisconsin in 1978. Suffering from multiple illnesses as a young child, he was forced to find an escape from his bedridden existence through the storytelling of any media he could find. Science fiction and fantasy novels, television programs, films, video games, and comic books all provided him with infinite worlds for his imagination to explore. Now he spends his days creating stories and worlds in the hope that others might find somewhere to escape as well.
He would love to reply to any questions or comments you may have for him at jaronleeknuth@gmail.com
He would love to reply to any questions or comments you may have for him at jaronleeknuth@gmail.com
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 2, 2013
Really enjoyed this one. A bit of "Heroes" - specifically the cheerleader character, but more satisfying. You had me hooked with "Emily".
May 17, 2019
The Infinite Life of Emily Crane by Jaron Lee Knuth
I like this book it's written well. What I had trouble with is following the development of the main character but there's an identifiable reason for this.
This book is a slow starter and comes off as a Young Adult teen angst story. Then it sort of digresses to shock fiction and then segue's into some philosophical fluff. So it's really three stories and that's where I got confused because it made it difficult to connect the three character personalities in the story.
As the story begins we have the angsty overweight possibly Plain Jane teen Emily Crane who is lucking in having had a boyfriend, but unlucky in having lost him to a car accident. She's trying to deal with that along with being an outcast in school. She also has to deal with the fact that she had just broken up with the boyfriend prior to his accident and that she witnesses other students being abused by the peers in a fashion perhaps worse than she has been abused. She does nothing about it.
This leads to disaster when the twins get tired of the abuse and go on a killing rampage and Emily is in the way and is one of the casualties. Emily dies, but that's not the end. Emily is an immortal and can't be killed so easily.
The next part of the story is a rather gruesome piece involving everything that a certain secret group of government funded people do with Emily to try and understand what makes her different. Were talking worse things than what happened with Stephen King's Firestarter - and everyone knows how that worked out for those people. Emily is trapped in a nightmare situation with no way out. Emily does get a buff body out of it but it not as funny or entertaining as Bette Midler in Ruthless People.
The last or third part is of course the escape and the people who are like Emily who come to save the day. But are these people any better than the one's who have systematically tortured her for over twenty years?
The one single troublesome detail I found was created by the very gruesome nature of the second part of this novel. What it involved is Emily's road to recovery from those long years of torture- yes at the beginning she wants to kill them all but she gets over way too quickly and I'm not sure I understood how or why she lost her anger despite recognizing the toll it was taking on someone who was becoming close to her..
To say anything more would be too much spoiling.
This story is a good tale of the transformation of Emily- not from mortal to immortal but from angsty teenager to a well rounded woman and is not a bad tale all the way around and this book gives me one of the few times I can honestly say that the end has TMI. I think as a reader the transformation of Emily was the story and that diatribe wrap-up at the end seemed a distraction.
The place in the middle with all the abuse has it's place but is overplayed and should result in a Firestarter ending. But to understand or disagree with this you are going to have to read the story. That's a good thing because it's entertaining and mostly well paced.
For once I'd have been happy to have been left hanging there as to how the rest of the story was about to pan out.
Interesting Science Fiction Fantasy read for all lovers of that Genre: contains elements of horror that make it questionable for Young Adults.
J.L. Dobias
I like this book it's written well. What I had trouble with is following the development of the main character but there's an identifiable reason for this.
This book is a slow starter and comes off as a Young Adult teen angst story. Then it sort of digresses to shock fiction and then segue's into some philosophical fluff. So it's really three stories and that's where I got confused because it made it difficult to connect the three character personalities in the story.
As the story begins we have the angsty overweight possibly Plain Jane teen Emily Crane who is lucking in having had a boyfriend, but unlucky in having lost him to a car accident. She's trying to deal with that along with being an outcast in school. She also has to deal with the fact that she had just broken up with the boyfriend prior to his accident and that she witnesses other students being abused by the peers in a fashion perhaps worse than she has been abused. She does nothing about it.
This leads to disaster when the twins get tired of the abuse and go on a killing rampage and Emily is in the way and is one of the casualties. Emily dies, but that's not the end. Emily is an immortal and can't be killed so easily.
The next part of the story is a rather gruesome piece involving everything that a certain secret group of government funded people do with Emily to try and understand what makes her different. Were talking worse things than what happened with Stephen King's Firestarter - and everyone knows how that worked out for those people. Emily is trapped in a nightmare situation with no way out. Emily does get a buff body out of it but it not as funny or entertaining as Bette Midler in Ruthless People.
The last or third part is of course the escape and the people who are like Emily who come to save the day. But are these people any better than the one's who have systematically tortured her for over twenty years?
The one single troublesome detail I found was created by the very gruesome nature of the second part of this novel. What it involved is Emily's road to recovery from those long years of torture- yes at the beginning she wants to kill them all but she gets over way too quickly and I'm not sure I understood how or why she lost her anger despite recognizing the toll it was taking on someone who was becoming close to her..
To say anything more would be too much spoiling.
This story is a good tale of the transformation of Emily- not from mortal to immortal but from angsty teenager to a well rounded woman and is not a bad tale all the way around and this book gives me one of the few times I can honestly say that the end has TMI. I think as a reader the transformation of Emily was the story and that diatribe wrap-up at the end seemed a distraction.
The place in the middle with all the abuse has it's place but is overplayed and should result in a Firestarter ending. But to understand or disagree with this you are going to have to read the story. That's a good thing because it's entertaining and mostly well paced.
For once I'd have been happy to have been left hanging there as to how the rest of the story was about to pan out.
Interesting Science Fiction Fantasy read for all lovers of that Genre: contains elements of horror that make it questionable for Young Adults.
J.L. Dobias
January 19, 2019
This book was like 3 in one. You've got the teen angst book, then the mystery of her death and then the thriller with after her death. The first bit was OK, then it got a bit better, but the ending was so rushed and there didn't really seem much point. Shame because the premise was very interesting.
July 13, 2013
I would give a 3.5 star rating if this was an option.
This started out as a typical angsty teenage story. After a high school shooting, and the main character died, I was confused. Quite confused. Then, we learn a little bit about what is happening.
Emily starts out as a teenage girl on the heavy side of the weight scale, growing up in the eighties. After she is brutally killed in a school shooting, her cells regenerate her body and she walks out of the morgue with her toetag still attached.
Jumping ahead, the government does everything in their power to kill her, but each time her body regenerates and adapts. Over two decades, her body becomes lean and she doesn't require food, air, or exercise. Her body rebuilds itself into "the perfect body" and evolves to become nearly indestructible.
SIDE NOTE: Although I understood the conditions she was under, I was a bit disheartened to see that the author decided Emily's "perfect body" had to be lean enough for skinny jeans, tight tops, and slinky dresses. Was she not good enough to remain her normal self?
Emily quickly develops feelings for Adrian, her rescuer and fellow immortal, whom is centuries older than she. She knows very little about him, but he's quickly turned into a love interest.
There were a few giggle worthy moments-such as, seeing a man looking very much like a Mario brother-and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip back through the eighties.
It was interesting enough to get me to read through the entire story, but I didn't find it intriguing enough to want to know more about these immortal beings. The story had it's conspiracy theories, a power-hungry man-child, alchoholism, neglect, etcetera, and I simply deduced that the immortal existence was a form of evolution that was taking centuries for the human body to adapt to-which, given the ending, may have been on the money.
This started out as a typical angsty teenage story. After a high school shooting, and the main character died, I was confused. Quite confused. Then, we learn a little bit about what is happening.
Emily starts out as a teenage girl on the heavy side of the weight scale, growing up in the eighties. After she is brutally killed in a school shooting, her cells regenerate her body and she walks out of the morgue with her toetag still attached.
Jumping ahead, the government does everything in their power to kill her, but each time her body regenerates and adapts. Over two decades, her body becomes lean and she doesn't require food, air, or exercise. Her body rebuilds itself into "the perfect body" and evolves to become nearly indestructible.
SIDE NOTE: Although I understood the conditions she was under, I was a bit disheartened to see that the author decided Emily's "perfect body" had to be lean enough for skinny jeans, tight tops, and slinky dresses. Was she not good enough to remain her normal self?
Emily quickly develops feelings for Adrian, her rescuer and fellow immortal, whom is centuries older than she. She knows very little about him, but he's quickly turned into a love interest.
There were a few giggle worthy moments-such as, seeing a man looking very much like a Mario brother-and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip back through the eighties.
It was interesting enough to get me to read through the entire story, but I didn't find it intriguing enough to want to know more about these immortal beings. The story had it's conspiracy theories, a power-hungry man-child, alchoholism, neglect, etcetera, and I simply deduced that the immortal existence was a form of evolution that was taking centuries for the human body to adapt to-which, given the ending, may have been on the money.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2013
The beginning of this book and up through about 40% had me really excited and then it just.....fell...apart. Horribly. The only reason I finished it was because it was relatively short but it was just bordering on painful. I really wanted the early momentum to continue but it fell completely flat and I didn't give one iota for the love story involved. Other than that, the very last few pages were ok. *sigh* It actually reminded me a great deal of The Watchmen, but with a lot of teen drama at the end. I wish it had stayed in the realm of adulthood for sure.
September 18, 2015
Cool...
Really! It's C-O-O-L !
Really! It's C-O-O-L !
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews