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otterno11's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Scottish journalist Cal Flyn’s thought-provoking, intriguing 2021 book Islands of Abandonment provides much to consider about humanity's place on the planet during these fraught and unstable years. Flyn travels to various sites left abandoned by humans across the world, reflecting on how their rewilding shows the resilience of the environment in recovering from human disruption. Whether left alone by war, disaster, disease, or economic decay, from West Lothian, Scotland, the “green line” of Cyprus, to the city of Detroit, talking to people connected to them, the places Flyn visits are each deeply instructive.
Her descriptions of how these spaces quickly revert to a natural habitat are both disturbing and inspiring, and, as in many of these works, an apocalyptic theme runs through much of it, though Flyn’s focus provides a strange type of comfort that can often be difficult to express. As global warming bears down on us, and much more than a few malls will be abandoned in the face of climatic change, Flyn’s musings on the resilience of our planet, if not our society’s, is a topical, sobering read.
I continue these thoughts at Harris' Tome Corner discussing Dead Malls: Nostalgia in the Ruins.
Her descriptions of how these spaces quickly revert to a natural habitat are both disturbing and inspiring, and, as in many of these works, an apocalyptic theme runs through much of it, though Flyn’s focus provides a strange type of comfort that can often be difficult to express. As global warming bears down on us, and much more than a few malls will be abandoned in the face of climatic change, Flyn’s musings on the resilience of our planet, if not our society’s, is a topical, sobering read.
I continue these thoughts at Harris' Tome Corner discussing Dead Malls: Nostalgia in the Ruins.
lilyofthevalley's review against another edition
3.25
i hyped this up in my head so much for so long that i'm a little disappointed, but that's on me. that being said, some chapters are boring, and some are really great - real mixed bag. learned a lot of cool things!
saraheholtom's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
whyalwayz's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.0
I love the concept of this book, exploring abandoned places to understand what becomes of them and the power of nature to return and surprise us; however, I wasn’t able to fully embrace the book itself. It started from the very first chapter: Flyn’s prose is filled with unusual adjectives and poetic phrasing that created a distance between me and the places she described. As the book continued, there were countless mentions of the scientific names of flora and fauna that really meant nothing to me and just created more distance. Furthermore, though each chapter ostensibly focused on one abandoned place, Flyn often digressed into other stories that distracted me from the image she was painting of that place, as well as the point she was making about that particular type of abandonment. In fact, I felt that there were just too many chapters all together with too many abandoned places and not enough connections drawn between them. Flyn is a passionate, brave, devoted research, and I admire her commitment to her craft. Indeed, there were some beautiful moments and paragraphs throughout the book (I was particularly struck by the chapters about Verdun, Montserrat, and Swona) that I really enjoyed, that I learned from, and that I hope to remember. Overall, though, I found this disappointing, and all the more so because I was so excited for it.
juliette_21's review against another edition
DNF this book half way through.
I had high expectations for this book. I really love anything about Chernobyl as it really interests me so much. I was expecting to really enjoy reading about different places around the world that are left to their own devices.
What I like about the book :
- The theme
- The places chosen and talked about
What put me off:
- The writing felt off, very poetic and not really engaging.
- The author kept switching from past to present and from one place to another which could have been interesting but not the way it was written.
- The lack of pictures in each chapter. I struggled to picture what the author was going on about. I would have preferred more pictures lain out within the text.
- A lot of detailing about trees and shrubs and plants, but not knowing what most of them were I felt more bored than interested.
This book would have been better if it had more photos and maybe if the author kept to her chosen topic per chapter instead of going off on some other place description.
Very disappointed as I love non fiction and had high hopes for this book.
I had high expectations for this book. I really love anything about Chernobyl as it really interests me so much. I was expecting to really enjoy reading about different places around the world that are left to their own devices.
What I like about the book :
- The theme
- The places chosen and talked about
What put me off:
- The writing felt off, very poetic and not really engaging.
- The author kept switching from past to present and from one place to another which could have been interesting but not the way it was written.
- The lack of pictures in each chapter. I struggled to picture what the author was going on about. I would have preferred more pictures lain out within the text.
- A lot of detailing about trees and shrubs and plants, but not knowing what most of them were I felt more bored than interested.
This book would have been better if it had more photos and maybe if the author kept to her chosen topic per chapter instead of going off on some other place description.
Very disappointed as I love non fiction and had high hopes for this book.