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jdhauk's review
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Sexual content and Vomit
frozenheartv's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
3 stars
🌕🌕🌕
🌕🌕🌕
🧠My thoughts
I’m very disappointed with this book. The premise was promising, the tension-building was done pretty well too, at least it kept me reading to see what was going to happen next. The prose was interesting to read because I haven’t seen this kind in many books but sometimes it could be dry and there were useless fancy words as well. However, it failed to deliver any meaningful details to me, it all fell flat at the end.
It felt to me that the book tried to be deep but couldn’t get there. Maybe there were too many things to talk about but nothing was resolved. The first half of the book felt a bit unrelated to the second half as well. The first half tried to dig into the problems related to racism, political issues, sexism, classism, and so on. However, the second half was more about the story itself, and how the situation developed.
I checked the movie right after reading the book and I thought the movie is far much better. At least, the movie explained why things in the book happened without the disturbing and unrelated sexual scenes. For example, in the movie they mentioned that Amanda’s work was all about convincing people to buy stuff they didn’t need so that she could sell stuff. This made her become a terrible person as she was, she just hated people and her work. Moreover, the scene where Clay abandoned the Spanish-speaking woman when she was begging him to help her lead to the fact that Ruth didn’t trust white people and she told G.H. to be careful with these people because they might abandon them too if things happened. Even the ending when Rose found the Friends DVD and sat there to watch the series ending was more meaningful. She told Archie before that the world was sad anyway, if there was something happened to it, at least, she wanted to know what happened to Ross and Rachel because Friends made her happy and she was done waiting. That was so relatable and made me feel nostalgic, in the book it was not portrayed like this. There were more things to talk about here but I think these details are enough to tell you that the movie makes more sense.
đź‘Ť What I like
- Interesting premise
- The prose when it’s bearable
đź‘Ž What I don't like
- Weird and unrelated sexual scenes
- Nothing is resolved, try to be deep but fail to do so
- Falls flat and the end
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Vomit, and Classism
phantomgecko's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
An interesting character study. I didn't like any of the characters. But their actions and thoughts were interesting to see.
Defos living lives that I cannot relate with.
idk, obvs the point of the book is the people and not what is happening to them, and their personalities are fleshed out and believable. I'd rather have read about what happened than these particular unlikeable character tho.
Defos living lives that I cannot relate with.
idk, obvs the point of the book is the people and not what is happening to them, and their personalities are fleshed out and believable. I'd rather have read about what happened than these particular unlikeable character tho.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Racism, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Classism
ddclarke's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-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? Yes
3.25
A literary novel written to sound like a literary novel. Really love the concept and it was pulled off, but without anything that really stood out to me.
Likely hurt by having watched the movie first, which was very faithful and left me little to discover in the pages.
Likely hurt by having watched the movie first, which was very faithful and left me little to discover in the pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Death, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, War, and Classism
lauracollins096's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Vomit
Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Genocide, Racism, Blood, War, and Classism
Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
maggiemcfly's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Racism, Sexual content, and Classism
Minor: Suicide
hail_archangel's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The best part of this book is the gorgeous cover art.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Alcohol
Minor: Vomit, War, and Injury/Injury detail
ifoundcallie's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I feel like if you read this book as a literacy fiction novel with a lens towards social commentary in America, it is stunning. The layers and layers of metaphor on discomfort and humanity—so good! The author’s craft leads readers through a sociological exercise where they is forced to grapple with what it means to be part of the human race, particularly in the context of individualism in Western culture. The fact that the author took ALL OF THAT, and weaved it within the unraveling of a literal apocalypse (of which specifics are vastly unknown)….So. Damn. Good. I had chills multiple times and ran out of ink in my highlighter.
Very reminiscent of Stephen King, particularly “Under the Dome”. If you liked that, you’ll love this. For people SOLELY looking for a thriller or commentary on race/social class, turn elsewhere…this book intentionally subverts the expectations of those genres.
I love how the omniscient narrator stingily portioned out information, which shamefully left me feeling the same desperate NEED for information that the book was critiquing!
There are a few times in this book where the writing could use some trimming/adjusting towards purpose—the heavy emphasis on certain carnal images felt self-righteous and cheap for the rest of the story. Honestly, this is the only thing that keeps this book from being a “perfect” book for me. This pitfall is reminiscent of Stephen King’s writing, again, which makes sense knowing that the author reread Pet Semetary while editing this book. I can only read so many descriptions of bored and worn out married couples “tumbling into the only comfort: of flesh smacking against flesh” or teenage male characters and their detailed descriptions of “spit-in-hand, spurting release”, or adult men who are dumbstruck by their unexpected “large load of vitality and youth long gone”. I felt disappointed every time the book swung back to these tropes, faithfully. Yawn.
There are many passages/chapters in this novel that blew me away and can easily stand on their own as brilliant pieces of art. I would love to sit and analyze some of the turn-of-phrase, allusions, and imagery handpicked by this intelligent author. I was giddy with annotation, and this book rewards you for paying attention to these nuances of craft. Overall, I’m so glad I was recommended this book. It itched an “am I spiraling and paranoid or is the world ending” scratch that is often not done well.
Bravo, Rumaan Alam.
Very reminiscent of Stephen King, particularly “Under the Dome”. If you liked that, you’ll love this. For people SOLELY looking for a thriller or commentary on race/social class, turn elsewhere…this book intentionally subverts the expectations of those genres.
I love how the omniscient narrator stingily portioned out information, which shamefully left me feeling the same desperate NEED for information that the book was critiquing!
There are a few times in this book where the writing could use some trimming/adjusting towards purpose—the heavy emphasis on certain carnal images felt self-righteous and cheap for the rest of the story. Honestly, this is the only thing that keeps this book from being a “perfect” book for me. This pitfall is reminiscent of Stephen King’s writing, again, which makes sense knowing that the author reread Pet Semetary while editing this book. I can only read so many descriptions of bored and worn out married couples “tumbling into the only comfort: of flesh smacking against flesh” or teenage male characters and their detailed descriptions of “spit-in-hand, spurting release”, or adult men who are dumbstruck by their unexpected “large load of vitality and youth long gone”. I felt disappointed every time the book swung back to these tropes, faithfully. Yawn.
There are many passages/chapters in this novel that blew me away and can easily stand on their own as brilliant pieces of art. I would love to sit and analyze some of the turn-of-phrase, allusions, and imagery handpicked by this intelligent author. I was giddy with annotation, and this book rewards you for paying attention to these nuances of craft. Overall, I’m so glad I was recommended this book. It itched an “am I spiraling and paranoid or is the world ending” scratch that is often not done well.
Bravo, Rumaan Alam.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Blood, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Racism, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, Alcohol, War, and Classism
Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, and Colonisation
mlewis's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gore, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Racism
lukests's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Classism