Boy, I was not a fan of The Many Lives of Ruby Iyer. I never DNF, but I was tempted to give up on this one quite a few times throughout the first half, but I forced my way through and then decided I was too far in to abandon it so late in the game.

There's just so much about this book that vexes me.

A superhero story with a severe lack of realism, I first started rolling my eyes when Ruby broke her friend Panky's arm - in front of a doctor - and he reacted like "Oh, you broke my arm". The doctor didn't respond, Panky wasn't in any kind of pain, he simply showed up a few chapters later with his arm in a sling and the next time he appeared? Ping, the sling is gone! Miraculous. It makes sense that Ruby heals quickly because of her 'powers', but this just felt like an overlooked aspect of the plot.

Then there are Ruby's 'powers', which become stronger when she self-harms. I'm not a fan of glorifying self-harm, and for this book to not only do that but address the fact that it's doing it and double down to try and justify it fills me with rage.

I also wouldn't call this young adult, because even though Ruby is 18 she seems like a much older character. It feels like a paranormal romance, and with the relationship between Ruby and Vikram developing towards the end of the novel it certainly felt as though it was travelling in a saucier direction (but there's no way I'm going to subject myself to reading book two, so I'll never know).

The copy that I read was an ARC via NetGalley, but even for an ARC the editing was horrendous, with random, commas spliced in regularly making it difficult to understand the meaning of some sentences. That, combined with a stilted lack of contractions and an awful lot of repetition, made it a very draining book to read. There was also an awful lot of explanation for terms that the character wouldn't need to describe because they're part of her every day life. Describing 'idlis or rice cakes as Ma preferred to call them' is so unnatural: I would have preferred to have been challenged into looking up what idlis was and furthering my knowledge of Bombay culture, rather than having the answer handed to me on an extremely contrived plate.

The 'twist' at the end was obvious as soon as the big bad Dr. B appeared, the relationship between VIkram and Ruby was one of the least compelling I've ever encountered and the lack of explanation behind exactly what Youthenasia had me rolling my eyes yet again.

I had lost interest in reading The Many Lives of Ruby Iyer, which is why it's taken me so many years to read and review it, but my partner chose it as my next read so I valiantly trudged through. I'm now regretting letting him have a look at my Kindle...

I couldn't get into The Many Lives of Ruby Iyer, and I've been struggling to find out why. Ruby gets electrocuted and while she's physically okay, from that moment she feels the power of the electricity through her body.

After that things start to get confusing. The setting is Bombay, which is very nice since you don't often read about it, but it is also very unknown and chaotic. The writing here also starts to get more confusing as bad guys and Ruby and her sort of cop buddy are running loose and it is difficult to see what the end game is going to be. I also couldn't connect with the characters, which will not have helped. It seemed interesting but in the end wasn't for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!