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2 out of 4 stars
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Life Before by K.L. Romo chronicles the life of former prostitute, Eliza Darling, through the unique medium of her reincarnation. Told in alternating perspectives, the novel begins with Elaine Dearborn, a woman is immediately characterized as an "empty nester" as her youngest son has recently graduated high school. Now free to spend her time on activities she's been looking forward to for years, she finds herself seated before her laptop with plans to begin a novel. Before she can begin, however, Elaine finds herself pulled into her past life to experience the hardships she once faced as Eliza.
The very first line of this book grabbed my attention immediately. I recall pausing to make a note of how much I liked the introduction specifically so I could mention it later. From there, unfortunately, every single encounter we have with Elaine lacks depth and purpose. She becomes a fixture of boredom and annoyance, feeling underdeveloped and somewhat useless to the entirety of the book. Fortunately, Elaine's portion of the story is regularly short and rare. Much of the book is spent narrated by Eliza herself or in the third person point of view of five other characters.
I enjoyed the narration of the minor characters infinitely more than I liked either of the main characters. While I do feel certain that Romo lost sight of the book she was trying to write by switching to these point of views, I am deeply glad that she did. I have a feeling I would have enjoyed reading this book much less had it not been for this digression. Where Eliza's story is underdeveloped and unrealistic, the stories of both Mamie and Rosa were not only extremely well developed, but they left me feeling as though the author had truly done her research prior to writing the book.
Eliza regularly appeared to contradict herself as her personality and opinions on prostitution regularly switched back and forth between feeling ashamed of her decision or feeling annoyance that other people could not see the work she did as a respectable occupation. I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she had a hard time reaching her own conclusion on the matter. The manner through which she found herself becoming a prostitute however, was quite unrealistic, especially when compared to the stories of both Mamie and Rosa.
Eliza was rarely ever shown actively making efforts to improve the lives of other prostitutes as the book had implied was her goal, but rather she remained focused on a single girl. Later, that girl would inspire her to take action and help other young girls but Eliza did not spearhead the efforts herself. I found this disappointing, and it only furthered to increase my distaste for the main character.
I feel that the author has done a decent job of creating a few characters to adequately portray what many women went through as prostitutes during this time period. Life Before touches on very sensitive topics, and while I applaud the author in her desire to bring awareness to what the lives of these women were like, I found several scenes excessively graphic and disturbing. It is my belief that this book should probably include a trigger warning for its readers.
The ill-conceived romances within the story were thoroughly disappointing. Almost every time one was attempted it felt poorly developed and also took away from the overall message that I believed the author was trying to achieve. The inclusion of a random coupling that screamed of what is commonly referred to as insta-love seemed incredibly pointless and only took away from the more important and developed themes of the book.
Overall, I've decided to give Life Before 2 out of 4 stars. If the reincarnation plot and Elaine herself were removed entirely, Eliza were only a minor character, and the book had focused more on Mamie and Rosa I am positive I would have appreciated Romo's novel much more. I definitely believe this book could appeal to some who enjoy reading historical fiction and additionally would recommend it to anyone looking to read an account of what life may have been like for the prostitutes in that time period. I would not recommend this to anyone who has been raped or is sensitive to this topic as the novel definitely does not make accommodations for those who my feel triggered by these topics.
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Life Before
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. It's a good "bait," I think. I may be too cynical but I feel people are more likely to watch a movie about a commentary on the lives of these women when it's "hidden" under the guise of some magical time-traveling story. Like tricking kids to eat their vegetables.
