Stopgap by Liam Card

Stopgap by Liam Card
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Luke Stevenson was always preoccupied with death and what happens after death. When Luke is cheated out of his life by an unfortunate accident he meets the Bookeeper who gives him the choice of finishing out what should have been his life on Earth as a ghost or continuing on to What’s Next. Luke chooses to return as a ghost and part of that involves mentoring another incoming ghost after he himself has been trained.

When Sofia shows up to be mentored by Luke it is found that through her anger she can affect the living. Sofia then decides that it’s her mission to stop all violence on Earth and she forms Operation Stopgap with Luke to terminate anyone attempting a violent act. But just how far will Sofia go and should Luke stop her or what she doing the right thing?

Stopgap is certainly a bit different in what I would normally read so I was a little hesitant on how I wanted to rate this book with not having much to compare it to. I wasn’t a huge fan of the overall writing style in the book but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad, just different to what normally would appeal to me.

However, I did for the most part enjoy the story. There are certainly plenty of funny parts but along with that it really gets you thinking. The whole afterlife in the story was certainly creative and the story only got more intriguing as it went along.

In the end I decided on three stars, I did enjoy this as something different, a bit of a dark comedy that gives one a bit to think about with human nature.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.