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adancewithbooks's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Ever since its release I'd heard a slight buzz around this novella. I wasn't quite sure if this was going to be one for me as dystopia so very often can be a miss for me. But I was pleasantly surprised and I ended up really liking it.
We meet Reid just as she has received her invite to a further education, a mission. She lives in an old university with her mom and a whole community. This invite means she has to leave everyone behind. There is even the question if it is even real. It is a hard decision, and where some congratulate her, others show their dislike.
What I loved about this book was how it showed how the community worked, the explanations and the idea behind the ending of our known world. And in a way it makes a lot of sense. The resources of our planet isn't going to last forever and we certainly don't have a solution for that yet. Then there is the CAD which adds a whole other dimension to their troubles. Its not bad enough that they might starve or not have enough water or the sand storms. The CAD can kill them.
But mostly what I really liked about this book were the feels. The conflict Reid had about whether or not to go. The grief for her fathers loss, the grief for having the disease of CAD, the duty she feels towards her mother and the community. The guilt that this decision brings with it. It is a very well written story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Suicide
Moderate: Gore
Animal Huntinghanz's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Theoretically super interesting setting and contemplation on more mundane post-apocalyptic life and bodily autonomy, but unfortunately pretty underdeveloped in practice -- definitely feel like the concepts would fit better in a longer work with more fleshed out characters and relationships.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Animal death
Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Violence, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Pedophilia, Ableism, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Abortion, and Suicide
Parasitic infection.bessjoyce's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Poetically written unqiue but quite possible imagining of our future at the hands of climate change
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Death of parent
liminallyhuman's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
preset's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
hmatt's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I expected to really like this, and it didn't disappoint.
- Canadian setting that is foolproof (i.e. I can look up locations on Google Maps and they're exactly as described. This is one of my favourite things to do in nonfiction and it was such a delight and added so much credibility to this fictional narrative.)
- Really rich world-building that doesn't feel like its being over-explained
- Nothing happens. Like, things do happen, but the story is mostly about this kind of liminal time in the protagonist's life. It's a very tense, unsure time, and I loved how we were just getting a little glimpse of a bigger world.
- SHORT, ohmygod, I love a short book where nothing happens. 2022 is the year of short stories and novellas for me. This was great to tote around on a couple weekends away where I wanted to travel light, and it's helping me combat a 2-month-long reading slump.
- So many little (but painful) quotable passages, which I will now insert some examples of:
For generations we have waited for it to become normal. And it has not. We are still horrified.
It was not instantaneous, the "end of the world," the way it is in nightmares. The sky didn't tear open around an asteroid, the earth didn't swallow us up. And of course, the world did not end at the same time for everyone. No one back then would have been able to say: This is the day our world ended. Or even: This is the year.
On a human scale it was slow enough that for a long time it did not seem truly dire; on a geological scale it seemed that nothing was happening; till suddenly the feedback cycles tipped over, became too front-heavy to regulate themselves.
I wonder what they do in the domes if they catch someone like this. Or do things like this simply not happen there? No, they must have a system. People are people wherever you go; and they aren't any better than us.
I'm an infrequent Readerly user, but sometimes you just gotta do "book maths", so here's my gist: https://www.readerly.com/gists/4079816 - and here's the maths bit:
- Take the eeriness of the unknown phenomena in Annihilation
- Add the teen-girl body horror of Wilder Girls
- Set it in Canada(ish, lol) and in an established post-apocalyptic society like in Station Eleven
- Throw in a mysterious "other place" that the protagonist is drawn to - same vibes as The Giver
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Chronic illness
Minor: Torture and Suicide
"Chronic illness" tag used in reference to the fictional parasitic infection that is passed down genetically(?)onemamareads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Read my full review here: https://onemamassummer.weebly.com/book-reviews/the-annual-migration-of-clouds
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Death of parent and Suicide
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