Who Wants To Live Forever by Hannah Thomas Uose

In Who Wants to Live Forever, Hanna Thomas Uose delivers a haunting and elegant debut that bridges speculative fiction and literary introspection. Set across three continents—London, Tokyo, and California—this is a novel less concerned with plot twists or dramatic spectacle and more with what it truly means to love, age, and make peace with mortality in a world that suddenly no longer requires it.

At the heart of the story are Yuki and Sam, soulmates in their twenties, certain that their love will last a lifetime. But what happens when lifetimes are no longer finite? The release of Yareta, a revolutionary drug that halts biological ageing, tears the couple apart when Sam chooses longevity over life with Yuki. What follows is not just the dissolution of a romance, but a layered, multi-perspective narrative that considers the reverberations of that decision across decades, societies, and identities.

Uose’s concept is undeniably compelling, placing the reader in an alternate reality that feels terrifyingly close to our own. The parallels to current social trends—the obsession with youth, the commodification of wellness, the way new technologies are first adopted by the elite—are sharply drawn, yet never over written. Yareta is not just a drug in this story; it’s a societal fault line, cleaving humanity into those who take it and those who do not, those who ‘live’ forever and those who simply live.

The novel's narrative structure is ambitious, hopping back and forth through time and shifting perspectives with precision. While this complexity may challenge readers—especially in audiobook form—it allows Uose to explore the theme of immortality from a richly diverse cast: across ages, classes, races, and geographies. The characterisation is astute, with each voice feeling emotionally authentic. Standout among them is Yuki, who emerges as the novel’s quiet moral core—steadfast in her beliefs even as the world around her changes beyond recognition.

For all its speculative elements, this is deeply character-driven fiction. The speculative conceit functions to probe the reader with existential questions. Would immortality free us, or trap us in endless self-curation? Would we become more compassionate, or more self-serving? Uose resists instruction on what to do, offering no easy answers—only questions that linger.

Though the pacing dips slightly in the final quarter, and the ending may divide readers, it is undeniably powerful. Rather than offering closure, Uose gifts us something more unsettling: the raw emotional fallout of a world in which time no longer heals all wounds.

This is not a conventional romance—there is no happily-ever-after—but it is a profound love story nonetheless: of lovers, of ideals, of human limitation. In its tender, incisive prose and philosophical weight, Who Wants to Live Forever echoes with emotional intelligence and speculative daring. It is an astonishing debut that marks Hanna Thomas Uose as a literary voice to watch.

Reviewer: Chris Reed

Hachette