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mel_bee_421's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
The plot drives the book. Unfortunately, the plot is unrealized. There is random sexual imagery that is out of place. By the end I wasn't rooting for any of them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Vomit
Moderate: Murder and Alcohol
Minor: Violence and War
beatle426's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Murder
lizzym126's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Medical trauma, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Murder
kaylanoellesims's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
3.75
3.75 ⭐️ - intriguing and definitely gets you thinking - personally would have like more of a tied up ending but I guess that’s is also against the point of the book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Racism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
_fallinglight_'s review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child death, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, and Murder
emory's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
A horrifyingly amazing read, with a terribly inaccurate summary on the back! I was expecting a run of the mill thriller but was beyond satisfied with the shockingly relevant horror of two families facing what might be the end of the world.
The writing, while seeming unnecessarily ornate at the beginning of the novel (before the narrative reaches its point), is gorgeously poignant and haunting. My only complaint is the writing sometimes tilted into purple, with words clearly added only to show off the vocabulary of the author ("alee" to describe the inside of a Starbucks?), and the strange fixation and return to sex and what sex could metaphorically represent for these characters. Annoying, but not damning, and worth slogging through for the story itself.
The use of dramatic irony of knowing what is really happening while the vividly human portagonists stumble through figuring out what is going on, their dynamics with and what they owe to one another, and what course of action they have to take carries the novel to it's gut wrenching relevance and takeaway. A story couldn't be more frightening in the current climate of knowing how bad it is, knowing society's place perched on the edge of disaster, that something's about to give. Alam's masterful prose wanders through the particular scenario of a family finding out you can never really look away.
The writing, while seeming unnecessarily ornate at the beginning of the novel (before the narrative reaches its point), is gorgeously poignant and haunting. My only complaint is the writing sometimes tilted into purple, with words clearly added only to show off the vocabulary of the author ("alee" to describe the inside of a Starbucks?), and the strange fixation and return to sex and what sex could metaphorically represent for these characters. Annoying, but not damning, and worth slogging through for the story itself.
The use of dramatic irony of knowing what is really happening while the vividly human portagonists stumble through figuring out what is going on, their dynamics with and what they owe to one another, and what course of action they have to take carries the novel to it's gut wrenching relevance and takeaway. A story couldn't be more frightening in the current climate of knowing how bad it is, knowing society's place perched on the edge of disaster, that something's about to give. Alam's masterful prose wanders through the particular scenario of a family finding out you can never really look away.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, and War
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Genocide, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Excrement, Car accident, and Murder
The book is about an apocalyptic scenario that is very realistic and claustrophobic.ellenlemon's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I think I should preface this review by saying I’ve just finished this book in March 2022, when at current we are just coming out of a global pandemic and the prospect of a major war in Europe is all too real given the invasion of Ukraine. That said, for me personally, I struggle with anxiety and a sense of impending doom, this probably wasn’t the right book for me at the moment!
It’s a good book, well written (albeit too many fancy words used), and the story keeps you interested. I like the difference in the families and found the characters quite easy to imagine as actual real people. Honestly I think if I wasn’t such an anxious person right now I would rate this higher. I think I would recommend this but to the right kind of people.
It’s a good book, well written (albeit too many fancy words used), and the story keeps you interested. I like the difference in the families and found the characters quite easy to imagine as actual real people. Honestly I think if I wasn’t such an anxious person right now I would rate this higher. I think I would recommend this but to the right kind of people.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Child death and Murder
vlntnmz's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Why the author put so many sex references in the senteces when there was no ponit for it?
'
'
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, and Vomit
Minor: Cancer, Suicide, Medical content, and Murder
hmatt's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-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
2.0
Ummmm yeah I'm not sure what this was but it was not great. It's trying to be too literary, and there's a weird omniscient narrator and constantly switching perspectives, and then it just ends before you get any answers???
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Vomit
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Death and Murder