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sapphire_mayo's review
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The characters in this are very vivid but I found that I just didn't care that much about the plot. A very emotion-based plot structure as the forefront and then the events were more just there to get us there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Suicide attempt
lucystolethesky's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Abandonment, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, and Gaslighting
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.sheeky's review against another edition
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
5.0
I'm in love with this novella. There's something so compelling about a story that leads up to a decision--I think from the start, the exact ending was fairly easy to assume, but that didn't matter one bit because this is one of those stories that is very much "about the journey." Premee Mohamed is an incredibly gifted writer, and her words ebb and flow with a stoic lyricism that mirrors both Reid's emotional journey and the throb of the fungus beneath her skin.
And that's what I mean when I say this novella is "emotional--" not that it will necessarily make you cry (though I did,) but that it fully captures the complexity of a "simple decision." It understands what leaving truly means when you're in community, the tension between the individual and the together and how and where those lines blur. It understands rings of family and left-behind mothers and growing pains and not knowing what you want. It also understands anger, the rage of being handed the remains of a world someone else failed to save. In Reid and Henryk and the rest of the town, Mohamed has written a very clear picture of what we might look like once the climate apocalypse has truly ravaged us, privileged bubbles and all.
The body horror bits of this book are also very good. I won't say too much for fear of spoiling, but: very, very good.
I tend not to buy books until after I've read them; this is 100% something I want on my shelf!
And that's what I mean when I say this novella is "emotional--" not that it will necessarily make you cry (though I did,) but that it fully captures the complexity of a "simple decision." It understands what leaving truly means when you're in community, the tension between the individual and the together and how and where those lines blur. It understands rings of family and left-behind mothers and growing pains and not knowing what you want. It also understands anger, the rage of being handed the remains of a world someone else failed to save. In Reid and Henryk and the rest of the town, Mohamed has written a very clear picture of what we might look like once the climate apocalypse has truly ravaged us, privileged bubbles and all.
The body horror bits of this book are also very good. I won't say too much for fear of spoiling, but: very, very good.
I tend not to buy books until after I've read them; this is 100% something I want on my shelf!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Ableism and Pedophilia
crossbun's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-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
5.0
I loved this book so much. It's just experimental enough to keep me interested without distracting from the excellent pacing and characterization. I felt so immersed the worldbuilding from human society to the natural environment. Mohamed has an eye for detail and tight, carefully crafted descriptions that pack a punch and tell you so much. The weather and bird motifs were well done throughout: begging Reid for movement, for finding a way forward.
Take a look at the content warnings but as someone who's sensitive to a lot of the things on this list, it was all handled with respect and care and didn't feel gratuitous or out of place.
Loved the ending:I am a bike lover and yelled in delight when her community came through and gave her one. It was such a surprise to see a bike come back after just an offhand mention of bikes being like treasure earlier in the book. It just made me so happy to see bikes as so meaningful in the apocalypse!!
I really thought the book was going to be about her journey and not what it took for her to leave (like a typical adventure story) and it was such a delightful surprise to see that her story was about the choice to take the journey and not the journey its self. It's a story I needed.
I would love a follow up to this, I adored it.
Take a look at the content warnings but as someone who's sensitive to a lot of the things on this list, it was all handled with respect and care and didn't feel gratuitous or out of place.
Loved the ending:
I really thought the book was going to be about her journey and not what it took for her to leave (like a typical adventure story) and it was such a delightful surprise to see that her story was about the choice to take the journey and not the journey its self. It's a story I needed.
I would love a follow up to this, I adored it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Minor: Death of parent, Ableism, Abortion, and Medical content
mapscitiesandsongs's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I am once again left unsatisfied by a novella. It felt more like the first part of a new dystopian series. Great ideas, but it could have been so much better if the author hadn't decided to tackle so many different topics at once. I would be interested in a continuation though since we never got see the actual 'university' in the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicide attempt and Torture
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(?)ksenia_'s review
The prose was so overburdened and clunky, I had a hard time getting through this novella length book. After 3 chapters I gave up trying.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
perditorian's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Body horror
rorikae's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
'The Annual Migration of Clouds' by Premee Mohamed is a thoughtful novella that discusses the decision and emotional process that goes into leaving all that you know behind for an unknown future.
Reid lives in a post apocalyptic world where humanity has had to come together in small pockets to sustain life. A fungus has started to infiltrate the population, curbing reckless behaviors as it takes over the lives of its hosts. People are expected to live in their small communities, contributing to help everyone survive. But when Reid gets a letter inviting her to university across the country, she will have to decide if she will give up everything she has known to take advantage of this opportunity.
Mohamed does a great job of peering into the specifics of hard decisions as seen through every day interactions. Reid is faced with the people around her and their different opinions. Some think that she would be out of her mind to not take the opportunity while others think that she will be betraying her community and more specifically her mom. The quiet moments of contemplation, including her conversations with her friends and family, add emotional gravity to the story even though it is relatively short. The small glimpses of Reid's world do a good job of creating the world while leaving more that could be explored and expanded on. I would love for Mohamed to write a sequel that explores what happens after the end of this initial story as where it leaves off does leave some questions unanswered.
Reid lives in a post apocalyptic world where humanity has had to come together in small pockets to sustain life. A fungus has started to infiltrate the population, curbing reckless behaviors as it takes over the lives of its hosts. People are expected to live in their small communities, contributing to help everyone survive. But when Reid gets a letter inviting her to university across the country, she will have to decide if she will give up everything she has known to take advantage of this opportunity.
Mohamed does a great job of peering into the specifics of hard decisions as seen through every day interactions. Reid is faced with the people around her and their different opinions. Some think that she would be out of her mind to not take the opportunity while others think that she will be betraying her community and more specifically her mom. The quiet moments of contemplation, including her conversations with her friends and family, add emotional gravity to the story even though it is relatively short. The small glimpses of Reid's world do a good job of creating the world while leaving more that could be explored and expanded on. I would love for Mohamed to write a sequel that explores what happens after the end of this initial story as where it leaves off does leave some questions unanswered.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence
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