Lifeforce
Annie Rodriguez
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Annie Rodriguez’s debut novel Lifeforce, a YA novel published by Green Place Books, is set in the backdrop of a hospital, allowing for the humanization of its three most important but somewhat inhuman characters: a witch, a lycan, a vampire. The narrative takes place in 2013 with flashbacks briefly placing the reader in a field medical tent for wounded soldiers during the United States-Afghan war. The three characters humanize negative associations often found in popular culture of witches, lycans, and vampires, as their lives center on healing and helping in their medical professions. Two universal thematic concepts are developed throughout this novel. First is the emphasis placed on family. In Lifeforce, the protagonist witch Gillian, along with her two most trusted allies, a lycan amply named Forrest Wolfe and a vampire named Addy, willingly choose extreme sacrifices for each other, strengthening their familial bonds that transcend the characteristics of their species. A second important thematic concept within this book stresses the importance of accepting past losses. At one point in the narrative, Gillian is strongly reprimanded when she tries to use her magic to find her dead mother: “No amount of magic will bring her back! You’re giving up your energy, your lifeforce, for just a few minutes with her—and you’re not even getting that!” (60). The novel testifies to the importance of resolving issues with losses of loved ones because only when one accepts the loss of loved ones is one more willingly and robustly able to embrace the life that is before us. |
Annie Rodriguez, a twin from birth, was born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Her debut novel, Lifeforce, was published in February, 2019, but she has been an avid reader and writer from a very early age.
Lifeforce is a publication by Green Writers Press. Click here to purchase.
Lifeforce is a publication by Green Writers Press. Click here to purchase.
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