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itsonlyfiction's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a masterpiece until the ending for me. It felt rushed and unsatisfying after such a long book. I still give this 4 stars because it was so well written and utterly believable (and terrifying). The multiple viewpoints all felt so distinct, not only because they had different narrators in the audiobook but because Markley has great skill in building characters who feel real. If the ending had been better (in my humble opinion), this would have been a 5 star read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, Gun violence, Violence, and Religious bigotry
One of the viewpoints is a first person narrative who uses a lot of bigoted language and slursdanaaliyalevinson's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I honestly don’t know how to talk about this book. It’s astonishing and monumental in scope. It’s meticulously researched. The very undertaking of a story like this and finishing it not just in a way that makes sense, but in a way that is dramatically satisfying is in and of itself a huge achievement.
The characters are beautiful. Markley does a wonderful job at anchoring this story about a crisis that could seem too didactic for literary tension in very real and three dimensional characters. And through this inherent tying of these people that I grew to love to the climate crisis, otherwise didactic developments like the failure or success of a bill, or an extreme weather event, or a working group to draft legislation, suddenly take on hugely important meaning. Like, sometimes I was like, why am I crying that they’re forming a working group to draft legislation? It was because Markley so deftly and completely drew the characters and the ways their lives revolved around trying to solve this crisis, and the way their lives had also been affected by it. So global developments felt startlingly personal.
I did occasionally find myself wrestling with the almost early aughts disaster movie plotting that occasionally cropped up, and more than one instance of characters being saved by deus ex machina. I also sometimes felt that the unraveling of the social order was painted in broad strokes.
But at the end of the day, these quibbles pale in comparison to the strengths of this novel, which manages to be prophecy and path forward. And through the deep humanity of its characters, manages to take a topic that could feel dry, and instead makes it startlingly alive and human.
The characters are beautiful. Markley does a wonderful job at anchoring this story about a crisis that could seem too didactic for literary tension in very real and three dimensional characters. And through this inherent tying of these people that I grew to love to the climate crisis, otherwise didactic developments like the failure or success of a bill, or an extreme weather event, or a working group to draft legislation, suddenly take on hugely important meaning. Like, sometimes I was like, why am I crying that they’re forming a working group to draft legislation? It was because Markley so deftly and completely drew the characters and the ways their lives revolved around trying to solve this crisis, and the way their lives had also been affected by it. So global developments felt startlingly personal.
I did occasionally find myself wrestling with the almost early aughts disaster movie plotting that occasionally cropped up, and more than one instance of characters being saved by deus ex machina. I also sometimes felt that the unraveling of the social order was painted in broad strokes.
But at the end of the day, these quibbles pale in comparison to the strengths of this novel, which manages to be prophecy and path forward. And through the deep humanity of its characters, manages to take a topic that could feel dry, and instead makes it startlingly alive and human.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Antisemitism, Animal death, Cancer, Classism, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Blood, Hate crime, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Colonisation, Drug abuse, and War
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