The concept is so creative. The Ups and Downs of Being Dead by @marshacornelius
The Ups and Downs of Being Dead
by M. R. Cornelius
Follow @marshacornelius
Cover links to Amazon
Fifty-seven year old Robert Malone is the CEO of a successful clothing store chain and married to a former model. When his doctor tells him he is dying of cancer, he refuses to go quietly. Instead of death, Robert chooses cryonics. He knows it's a long shot. His frozen body will be stored in liquid nitrogen for the next seventy-five years, and then he'll wake up in the future. That is, if technology develops a way to bring him back.
He's willing to take that gamble.
What he doesn't realize is that he won't lie in some dreamless state all that time. His soul is very much awake, just like the others who were frozen before him. And like these souls in limbo, Robert begins a new kind of life outside his physical body.
He discovers that he can ride in the cockpit with the pilots, but he can't turn the page of a magazine. He can sit in the oval office with the president, but he can't prevent a child from dashing in front of a car. He doesn't work, or eat, or sleep. He can't smell, or taste, or touch. These obstacles make it difficult to experience love, and virtually impossible to reconcile with the living.
Over the next several decades, Robert Malone will have plenty of time to figure out The Ups and Downs of Being Dead.
Praise for The Ups and Downs of Being Dead
You don't fall in love with Robert right away, rather, it's a process. In life, and initially when first dead, he is vain, selfish with his family, a workaholic, shallow and not a little mean-spirited. He wooed a woman who married him for his money. He has little use for his 26 year old son who has never worked a day in his life and lives off money given to him by his mother. When he first meets Suzanne he is dismissive of her looks, her clothing and who she is as a person. He spends time with her because he has nothing better to do. However, this gradually changes and as time goes by you see Robert develop and mature into the warm, humerous, family oriented man he never was in life. It is this metamorphosis which helps make the book so intriguing - Robert's second opportunity to live his life (while dead).
The author is very creative and has many unexpected twists and turns in the book which kept me reading with delight. Her exploration of ways to savour life, while dead, such as tasting, touching, enjoying a good drink, and yes, even how to make love, are imaginative and entertaining. The end result is a warm, humerous tale that leaves you wishing the book would never end. In the past, upon finishing a good book, I would hold it against my heart as I bade it farewell, many times waking in the morning with the book still clutched to my chest. I now read on my iPad but at the end of this story I had my iPad clutched against my heart as I said goodbye to Robert, Suzanne, Maggie, Joe, Robbie, Rachel and Angie and Sam.
I loved every minute of this book! The concept is so creative and the author did a great job conveying the absurdity of being dead, but not dead. There are some really painful moments involving watching the family left behind, but it's not melodramatic - it's very realistic. This story kept me glued to my phone (Kindle app) because I was dying to know how things would turn out. This is by far one of the best books I've read this year.
The author is very creative and has many unexpected twists and turns in the book which kept me reading with delight. Her exploration of ways to savour life, while dead, such as tasting, touching, enjoying a good drink, and yes, even how to make love, are imaginative and entertaining. The end result is a warm, humerous tale that leaves you wishing the book would never end. In the past, upon finishing a good book, I would hold it against my heart as I bade it farewell, many times waking in the morning with the book still clutched to my chest. I now read on my iPad but at the end of this story I had my iPad clutched against my heart as I said goodbye to Robert, Suzanne, Maggie, Joe, Robbie, Rachel and Angie and Sam.
I loved every minute of this book! The concept is so creative and the author did a great job conveying the absurdity of being dead, but not dead. There are some really painful moments involving watching the family left behind, but it's not melodramatic - it's very realistic. This story kept me glued to my phone (Kindle app) because I was dying to know how things would turn out. This is by far one of the best books I've read this year.
Author Bio
Like thousands of others, I thought I could write romance, but soon discovered I was a dismal failure. I did increase my repertoire of adjectives such as throbbing, pulsing, thrumming, vibrating, hammering, pumping...
I live in the country north of Atlanta with my husband, and two molly-coddled cats. My two grown sons occasionally visit for clean laundry and a hot cooked meal.
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