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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
A dark tale, beautifully written
An excellent dystopian novel today that is beautifully written. It manages to present an epic story in a very personal way. It's especially prescient, given the currently depressing political situation in the U.S., where the plot threads appear all to plausible. I'm not usually drawn to apocalyptic storylines but this novel held me spellbound from the beginning to the end.
An excellent dystopian novel today that is beautifully written. It manages to present an epic story in a very personal way. It's especially prescient, given the currently depressing political situation in the U.S., where the plot threads appear all to plausible. I'm not usually drawn to apocalyptic storylines but this novel held me spellbound from the beginning to the end.
This was engrossing and terrifying at the same time. While the suicide bombings, displacement into camps, and radicalization point to what’s happening in the Middle East, reading this 2 years into the Trump administration this feels like completely plausible future US History. In many ways, it feels like it has already started. Did I get how Sarat ended up the way she did? Absolutely. Do I think it can happen in the US? Absolutely and that is terrifying.
Book club book. This book was engaging and made me think. It has a lot of words that apply to our current division within the US, while also telling the story of a family and how they navigate a civil war on the losing side.
An interesting, horrific tale of America after another Civil War. Mexico has annexed the southwest, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi have seceded, and South Carolina is quarantined due to biological warfare.
While most of the individual story was quite compelling, the motivations and cause of the civil war seem absurd and too simplistic. The issue is gasoline. It's not nuanced or the last straw, or even about economics. The United States bans anything gas powered, and the south secedes.
Then the ending. The whole story leads up to a big, heaping, pile of nothing. Like something is trying to be said but really missing its mark.
I did love a quote in the book. Someone dealing with a horrible past is told, "I don't have to live with what happened to you. I have to live with you are now." It made me think hard about how we can feel sorry and love someone who have had horrific things happen to them, but still set boundaries and not allow destructive behavior.
While most of the individual story was quite compelling, the motivations and cause of the civil war seem absurd and too simplistic. The issue is gasoline. It's not nuanced or the last straw, or even about economics. The United States bans anything gas powered, and the south secedes.
Then the ending. The whole story leads up to a big, heaping, pile of nothing. Like something is trying to be said but really missing its mark.
I did love a quote in the book. Someone dealing with a horrible past is told, "I don't have to live with what happened to you. I have to live with you are now." It made me think hard about how we can feel sorry and love someone who have had horrific things happen to them, but still set boundaries and not allow destructive behavior.
It was, all of it, a lie—and the worst kind of lie: a charade of normality at a time of war.There was a lot to like here. Taking place towards the end of this century and beyond, a few southern states in America make the decision to leave the Union, triggering a second Civil War. There's some great world-building, in parts, and it does seem scarily plausible. Having said that, I am not American, so my background knowledge in American politics and history may be lacking compared to other readers, but, still, to me it seemed believable. I loved the use of excerpts from historical/factual documents and, to be perfectly honest, I think I would have preferred a whole book of these, rather than what we got, which was a focus on one person, Sarat's, wartime story. There was something off about the narrative and plot surrounding Sarat. I think part of it was pacing, which definitely crawls at points, another was the fact the reader knows the ending/history from the start, and finally it's a fairly one-sided look at the war, because this is the perspective from just one person. The historical excerpts help a little with this, by giving some larger context and hints into the political mechanics that led to this reality, but as I said before, I almost wanted more of that. I think at least one other perspective was needed, to really get deep into this alternate history/future. And Sarat is a difficult protagonist in many ways, sometimes falling into the usual norms of a dystopian hero, while at other times just feeling like a vehicle for the plot which is already known to the reader. It sounds like I'm making a lot of complaints here, when really I did enjoy it a lot, but certainly didn't love it entirely.
Intriguing but ultimately underwhelming. At its best, the novel is a decent portrayal of how (nationalist-inspired) violence breeds violence. And despite its premise, "American War" hardly feels dystopian, inasmuch as the future in which it is set is an entirely credible, if muted, representation of what climate change will bring. However, with uninteresting characters and an uncreative and underrealized world (FM radio? photographs? in 2086??), the book fails to deliver on both an emotional and dramatic level. And for a novel predicting future societal tensions, I would have appreciated some commentary on such things as the rise of neo-fascism, nationalism, racism, and anti-refugee sentiments—the limited focus on climate change felt thin.
Absolutely fantastic! I loved and hated Sarat, but loved the book. I found it fascinating and such a page turner. I listed to this book in English via audiobook and truly enjoyed the voice acting. I really loved how this book made me think about how people can be good people and do bad things due to circumstances and how their life plays out based on trauma inflicted upon them. I also appreciate the author bringing events (before and during war) that have occurred in other parts of the world (Arab Spring). I think many of us (US Citizens) forget that war is an atrocity because we’ve not had it on our soil in centuries. I appreciate the author’s writing.
Terrifying in its relation to and prediction of events in current times.