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amachattie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What a weird and uncomfortable and fascinating book! This was definitely a can't look away read for me, despite the darkness and body horror. The way observations about race and American culture, and the mundanity of so much of the book really anchored it for me, and the fact that you never really know what's going on (though frustrating!) really added to the intensity and realism of the book. I also LOVE the idea that YA can emotionally prepare you to be brave and action oriented in a crisis. Overall, very atmospheric, a bit sad, and deeply eerie, but in the end it mostly made me feel like the apocalypse is already happening.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Vomit
Moderate: Racism
moonlit_paperbacks's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Vomit
lanidon's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Have you read the summary? Good! You now know the entire book. Nothing happens in this outside of exactly what the summary says just,,,,, more. I guess, if you really like the writing style it's fine, but there's nothing to be gained from this book. I didn't come away from this book with anything I didn't go in with and the story is pretty much nonexistent.
Important note: this is not a thriller whatsoever, it's just vaguely pretentious literary fiction
The narrator of the audiobook does a great job though! Five stars for her
Important note: this is not a thriller whatsoever, it's just vaguely pretentious literary fiction
The narrator of the audiobook does a great job though! Five stars for her
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Vomit
tashadandelion's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I came to this book with high expectations after reading several rapturous reviews from high-end publications, but found myself ultimately disappointed. Like any good literary novel worth its salt, there's plenty of introspection around minute feelings and reactions, but that occurs to an extreme fault. The rhythm of the story is constantly interrupted by description of each person's reaction to each piece of dialog to the point where it grows distracting and bewildering almost from the start. Over time, as the mounting dread from the destructive (view spoiler) builds to a peak, Clay's and Amanda's behaviors, words, and reactions grow strangely more unclear and useless. I don't pretend to have survived an apocalyptic event just yet, but I've been in emergency situations before, and I don't recall humans behaving the way Clay and Amanda do, especially in reaction to (view spoiler). I mean, if the goal is to make this particular couple look like a pair of the most dithering idiots on the planet, then: goal achieved. It doesn't make for very interesting or engaging reading, though. The novel shows one couple (GH and Ruth) who has their sh*t together and is also empathetic and one couple who doesn't and is self-involved. It's hard to draw anything culturally meaningful from this, and I'm not entirely sure the author intended that to be done (maybe an interview somewhere states it clearly; I just don't know). I think I would have appreciated this story more if it hadn't just wandered off a cliff with no clear meaning given to anything.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Vomit
ls_1928's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I started this book thinking it would be a thrilling page turner, but the details and flawed humanness of the characters are what kept me reading. I appreciated the humor in Alam's prose, and the way he makes the reader simultaneously relate to the characters and cringe at their behaviors and thoughts. It was timely that I finished the book the morning of Election Day, because it made me reflect on how people act in times of crises - do we turn inward, band together in solidarity or some complicated mix of the two?
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content, Blood, and Vomit
hmann's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Confinement, Excrement, Vomit, and Medical trauma
emmrosa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Vomit
Minor: Body horror
nadia's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I listened to this on audio via @libro.fm's ALC programme. It was a decent story, with great narration, and though I was often intrigued while listening, I wasn't rushing to get back to it and I wasn't really invested in knowing what happened to the characters. Overall, good writing from Rumaan Alam and I liked the way he explores a mysterious national event and its aftermath, especially when strangers are forced to band together.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Vomit
wai's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.75
I don't think this (2020) was the year to publish this book, I think that was a very unfortunate coincidence that does not work in its favor whatsoever. I guess this is a satire of sorts - it doesn't make sense any other way. All of the characters are fundamentally unlikeable and that does not change as the book progresses. It is a book of annoying upper class people who live in New York City and foster all of the elitism that immediately jumps to your mind with just that minor description. Alam has decided throughout the novel that we need to hear all of their innermost thoughts, constantly switching between characters, often in a way that is disruptive and confusing. A lot of inappropriate thoughts and "they thought something racist that they would never reveal due to shame". Okay - I'd buy it if it actually tied into a cohesive plot or line of thinking, but of course, that is not the case here.
Now, there is a mystery here, and it never gets solved. Clay and Amanda are white, fairly upper middle class parents with their teenage children, Archie (15) and Rose (13). The only reason I point out the ages is because Archie is lamented for his burgeoning manhood whereas Rose is treated so childishly that I assumed she was 7/8 for at least 50 some pages until they finally say her age. The infantilization of women blah blah blah. They are renting out a reclusive summer house near the beach in Long Island from G.H. and Ruth, a black older couple who are just a bit more upper middle class than Clay and Amanda. Cue mentions of race and classism and such. They are so one dimensional and overt and nothing comes of it that it feels pointless. But no, perhaps that's the point - as they lose internet and cell phone access, they become lost puppies in the wilderness, useless and incompetent. Oh, what a scathing critique of our "addiction" to "The Internet(TM)". Oh, now society is crumbling! We're in shambles! There's a war going on involving fighter planes I guess! Everyone is selfish, uncaring for their neighbors, Humans Are The Real Demons All Along, etc.etc. This feels like a distillation of the majority of "Boomer Comics" that are not only cringey but inaccurate.
There are only brief moments of clarity, such as oblique mentions to very real issues, such as disabled people who rely on ventilators and other machinery dying within minutes of a widespread blackout (as had happened in California when power companies scheduled blackouts without allowing for evacuation time), or the deaths of so many prisoners abandoned in the wake of the situation (something that happens during every major natural disaster). But rather than putting forward a critical analysis of these types of issues, it's all just distilled down to Why Humans Are Useless And Selfish And Evil. It's treated shallowly to underscore the shallowness of the comfortable upper middle class, obviously!!! Sorry, but that's just lazy writing. You can't carry out that trope without giving the readers some kind of buy in to you doing this deliberately and for a point, but there is none of that here. And quite frankly, I think the time for that trope has past. It's too oblique and too uncertain for the reader.
Anyways, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book frustrates. It's unendingly cynical without a single reprieve. It reeks of every Reddit bro that self describes as a libertarian/truth seeker and that quote retweets your social justice tweet like "Ah, but I see you tweeted from an iPhone! You participate in the system! Ergo you are just as much at fault as those that you criticize!!! I am very smart." Every other sentence is an analogy to some weird sexual thing, like "she looked for her child in disbelief that they could be missing as if she was looking for her ear or her clitoris" shut UP. If the world was truly pointless and the only pleasures are sex and death, then why are there still so many good people ? Why do we keep hearing stories of people helping each other just because ? Every day someone makes the choice to buy a cup of coffee for a stranger or take care of their groceries when their card is declined. There will always be good people and it's not smart or witty or cool to write 241 pages of whiny cynical garbage about why we all suck deep down inside, especially during a global pandemic that continues to show us the full spectrum of the bad AND the good within our own humanity. This book is depressing and I do not recommend it.
Now, there is a mystery here, and it never gets solved. Clay and Amanda are white, fairly upper middle class parents with their teenage children, Archie (15) and Rose (13). The only reason I point out the ages is because Archie is lamented for his burgeoning manhood whereas Rose is treated so childishly that I assumed she was 7/8 for at least 50 some pages until they finally say her age. The infantilization of women blah blah blah. They are renting out a reclusive summer house near the beach in Long Island from G.H. and Ruth, a black older couple who are just a bit more upper middle class than Clay and Amanda. Cue mentions of race and classism and such. They are so one dimensional and overt and nothing comes of it that it feels pointless. But no, perhaps that's the point - as they lose internet and cell phone access, they become lost puppies in the wilderness, useless and incompetent. Oh, what a scathing critique of our "addiction" to "The Internet(TM)". Oh, now society is crumbling! We're in shambles! There's a war going on involving fighter planes I guess! Everyone is selfish, uncaring for their neighbors, Humans Are The Real Demons All Along, etc.etc. This feels like a distillation of the majority of "Boomer Comics" that are not only cringey but inaccurate.
There are only brief moments of clarity, such as oblique mentions to very real issues, such as disabled people who rely on ventilators and other machinery dying within minutes of a widespread blackout (as had happened in California when power companies scheduled blackouts without allowing for evacuation time), or the deaths of so many prisoners abandoned in the wake of the situation (something that happens during every major natural disaster). But rather than putting forward a critical analysis of these types of issues, it's all just distilled down to Why Humans Are Useless And Selfish And Evil. It's treated shallowly to underscore the shallowness of the comfortable upper middle class, obviously!!! Sorry, but that's just lazy writing. You can't carry out that trope without giving the readers some kind of buy in to you doing this deliberately and for a point, but there is none of that here. And quite frankly, I think the time for that trope has past. It's too oblique and too uncertain for the reader.
Anyways, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book frustrates. It's unendingly cynical without a single reprieve. It reeks of every Reddit bro that self describes as a libertarian/truth seeker and that quote retweets your social justice tweet like "Ah, but I see you tweeted from an iPhone! You participate in the system! Ergo you are just as much at fault as those that you criticize!!! I am very smart." Every other sentence is an analogy to some weird sexual thing, like "she looked for her child in disbelief that they could be missing as if she was looking for her ear or her clitoris" shut UP. If the world was truly pointless and the only pleasures are sex and death, then why are there still so many good people ? Why do we keep hearing stories of people helping each other just because ? Every day someone makes the choice to buy a cup of coffee for a stranger or take care of their groceries when their card is declined. There will always be good people and it's not smart or witty or cool to write 241 pages of whiny cynical garbage about why we all suck deep down inside, especially during a global pandemic that continues to show us the full spectrum of the bad AND the good within our own humanity. This book is depressing and I do not recommend it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Blood, and Vomit
Characters have sexual thoughts and there are a few sex scenes throughout, but not as graphic as it could be. The adult characters drink heavily throughout including to the point of sickness, but are not explicitly seen as having an issue with alcohol. One character becomes ill, including vomiting, coughing up blood, and losing teeth.