Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

20 reviews

thatsssorachael's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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lizzieinmt's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.5


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beatle426's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25


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lauracollins096's review against another edition

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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


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ifoundcallie's review against another edition

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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.

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mlewis's review against another edition

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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

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campirebat's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

3.5

Beautifully written exploration of what happens when humans can no longer logic their way to safety, and the parental anxiety one feels having kids in times like these. 

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princessdana36's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book is crazy. The pretentious language holds up the meaning of this book. Plus there’s a whole chapter of someone’s grocery list. 

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grizzlysnack's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

The premise of Leave the World Behind is what got me into it. Having to be confined to a little space of land and having no clue what's going on around you, and having to trust complete strangers to reach some sense of normalcy. I feel as though the execution of that premise fell flat.

The omniscient narrator nonchalantly mentions the havoc the six main characters aren't aware of, which was meant to be used as a critical thinking tool for the reader. However, there seems to be no depth or fear that the outside world has on what's going on with our six protagonists. 

The mention of teeth falling out, the president being in a bunker, the premature babies dying in the neonatal care unit because of the power outages, the Thorne family never coming back to the house Rose broke into feels as though it's meant to make the reader feel jaded, more than putting any sort of depth or seriousness into the current events. The sex-related scenes were also a little jarring, they almost feel as though an 11 year-old wrote them
 

Leave the World Behind has an open ending, so take these 241 pages with that information if you're expecting a wrap-up chapter. It's a decent amount of detail without a concrete ending.

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_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Rumaan Alam did entirely too much with the writing style for this book. It felt like this was a play but switched to literary social/apocalyptic horror novel last minute. In the first 30-ish percent the writing is jarring, almost insulting (maybe part of the point?) with the weird metaphors and descriptors and detached ironic word play but once we get a few lines of what's happening to the world and even tiny glimpses of the future, it was very evocative and finally pulled me into the situation even if the characters were absolutely grating. (Also reading this right now while WWIII was trending on twitter and Putin is talking sh%t added to the scary scale.) This book is spooky, not stomach clenching scary, but unnerving just the same. In spite of the kinda atrocious writing I liked the experience of reading this. I did leave my world behind lol 

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