Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Leave the World Behind

What a weird, layered, compelling read! I had absolutely zero expectations going into this, and it seems that I missed a lot of the hype. I could not put it down and was mad at myself for starting it at night because it meant that I had to go to sleep halfway through and finish it in the morning.

I love that there's no resolution, I love that everything is still a mystery at the end, I love that this book doesn't fit neatly into a single genre, I love that almost everyone is unlikable in some way cuz that's how humans are, I love that this is a snapshot of humanity when everything falls apart, I love that I learned a bunch of new words.

I will almost certainly be re-reading this at some point.

Content Warnings

astereads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

There are three possibilities why my rating is rather low:
one, it's not my cup of tea
two, I had a lot of expectation
three, I just don't understand

The thing is, the premise sounds really promising. I thought that it's totally the kind of book I'd enjoy. It's a thriller book sets in isolated place, where you don't have signal, your tv doesn't work so you don't know what actually happened in the world, and the distance between you and your nearest neighbor is too far. That, usually the thing I love.

I need to open the dictionary a lot of time because I don't understand a lot of terms, but that's totally on me.

The narration is too long, which usually is not a problem for me, but this one feels rather boring. I need some time to get into the story every time I open the book.

The description is rather vague until the end, which I don't like. I still can't understand whether it's the end of the world or there's a war going on, or something else. And I don't like that the explanation never came out until the end.

I was really looking forward to the ending but it gave me nothing. I probably should give this book another chance some time for a re-read, maybe I'll get different perspective then.

Content Warnings

bodiesinbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

Content Warnings

sarrasegway's review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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julieastarr's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-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

2.5

Content Warnings

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a book I keep hearing about so I wanted to find out for myself what it was like. I don't read many thrillers and certainly don't think I've read many like this but I really enjoyed it. The writing style took some getting used to and while it certainly felt overwritten at times, I ended up enjoying the third person omniscient narrator. However, despite being inside all the character's heads you don't get to know them very well; instead there's more emphasis on the vague, unsettling atmosphere. It's relatively slow paced but the subtle sense of dread meant I read it in under 24 hours. I was desperate to know what was going on but I'm also glad I knew it had an open ending because otherwise I'd have been disappointed. In terms of atmosphere and how much it explained it reminded me of Annihilation, though they are quite different books genre-wise.

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