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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
The audiobook was great - the narrator had the perfect voice for this book.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
DNF'd at 33%. This may have been a case of bad timing. I was coming off a fast-paced, action-packed fantasy. I listened to the audiobook for this title and the narration was so utterly boring that I found myself constantly trailing off. I went into this expecting to relate to the mc as a mother and be transported on an emotional roller coaster given the dire circumstances we find her in at the beginning of the book. The monotone narrator did nothing for me. I will likely give this book another try later though, because I have heard good things about it. Maybe reading it in my own voice will be a better experience.
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Pregnancy
As soon as I started this slim dystopian book I was swept away by the story of becoming a mother as the world falls apart.
Told in short staccato sentences and paragraphs, Megan Hunter really lets the rest fall away so just a heartbeat remains. There's no need to spell things out for the reader here.
I think that's the beauty of this book: Hunter trusts the reader to supply the necessary details to picture London underwater and the ensuing chaos that follows. It also enables her to zero in on what it's like to be a new mother with laser focus. It's gorgeously told, how she stacks up the lovely building-block images that define and shape the long days with a baby.
It seems that he is feeding me, filling me with a steady, orange light.
This is how his body curls: like a shrimp, like a spring, like a tiny human yet to straighten out.
I no longer worry about crushing him in my sleep. I sleep like a shark, swimming on through the night. Never stopping the movement, quick as fins in the dark, between complete terror and complete devotion.
There is nothing but this, their small bodies, time sliding now, losing form, turning one day into the next.
We walk through it. We pass our stories like spare change.
It's beautiful and haunting.
The only thing I didn't love was the italicized text scattered throughout the book that Hunter gleaned from religious and mythological writings. I found them to be clutter in the stark narrative.
Told in short staccato sentences and paragraphs, Megan Hunter really lets the rest fall away so just a heartbeat remains. There's no need to spell things out for the reader here.
I think that's the beauty of this book: Hunter trusts the reader to supply the necessary details to picture London underwater and the ensuing chaos that follows. It also enables her to zero in on what it's like to be a new mother with laser focus. It's gorgeously told, how she stacks up the lovely building-block images that define and shape the long days with a baby.
It seems that he is feeding me, filling me with a steady, orange light.
This is how his body curls: like a shrimp, like a spring, like a tiny human yet to straighten out.
I no longer worry about crushing him in my sleep. I sleep like a shark, swimming on through the night. Never stopping the movement, quick as fins in the dark, between complete terror and complete devotion.
There is nothing but this, their small bodies, time sliding now, losing form, turning one day into the next.
We walk through it. We pass our stories like spare change.
It's beautiful and haunting.
The only thing I didn't love was the italicized text scattered throughout the book that Hunter gleaned from religious and mythological writings. I found them to be clutter in the stark narrative.
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Well written. Characters developed nicely and I cared about them. The settings were interestingly described. Very interesting and unique take on the apocalypse theme.
Absolutely worth a read, super quick and pretty captivating story. Unique writing style that I surprisingly really enjoyed and thought it fit well with the happenings of the book. I did feel a sense of not really knowing what was going on but I appreciate that that is probably the point!
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
reflective
tense
fast-paced
It is bad, the news. Bad news as it always was, forever, but worse. More relevant. This is what you don't want, we realize. What no one ever wanted: for the news to be relevant.