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kkbray's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
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? It's complicated
4.0
A truly disturbing look at how climate change and political unrest may alter our collective future. I knocked a star off because the ending felt rushed and unsatisfying to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Murder, Death, Xenophobia, Suicide, Police brutality, Violence, and Mass/school shootings
dolores153's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.0
Brutal. Do not read if you are already anxious about climate change or US politics.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Terminal illness, Genocide, and Addiction
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Stalking, Abortion, and Religious bigotry
apackage's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
An incredible book. Probably the most important book I will ever read. If you are human, you should read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Misogyny, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Gore, Islamophobia, War, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Violence, Abortion, Xenophobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Cancer, Classism, and Hate crime
itsonlyfiction's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a masterpiece until the ending for me. It felt rushed and unsatisfying after such a long book. I still give this 4 stars because it was so well written and utterly believable (and terrifying). The multiple viewpoints all felt so distinct, not only because they had different narrators in the audiobook but because Markley has great skill in building characters who feel real. If the ending had been better (in my humble opinion), this would have been a 5 star read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, Gun violence, Violence, and Religious bigotry
One of the viewpoints is a first person narrative who uses a lot of bigoted language and slursajavadi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gun violence
Minor: Sexual content and Vomit
laurenkd89's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I'm floored by this book. A sprawling, epic, immersive story told through a mosaic of diverse and intricately woven perspectives, The Deluge is the seminal novel about climate change. I know that this book won't be for everyone - particularly due to its nearly 900-page length - but it certainly was for me. Not only is this the most impactful and effective speculation on what our world will come to if we do nothing about our interrelated environmental and social disasters, but it's a fundamentally human story: about life's hardest and most joyful moments, about sacrifice, about camaraderie, about fighting for what you believe in, about the long arc of justice.
Told over the span of more than 25 years, the book looks at the world's worsening climate crisis through the lens of several different and seemingly unrelated actors: a brash, passionate, outspoken climate activist; a savant data analyst; a single mom-cum-ecoterrorist, and so many more. Following these characters from 2013 to 2040, we see their own evolution against the backdrop of a burning Los Angeles, a drowning Midwest, a record-breaking heat wave in D.C., a global famine, a burgeoning radical right-wing terrorist movement, and so many other crises.
I truly think Markley is a master of his craft. The fact that he's able to spin this tale, a tale that felt so realistic that I wanted to Google the fictional events and read more about their history, told by probably ten rotating characters that each felt distinct and personal, and keep me completely engrossed the entire - THE ENTIRE - time? That is truly impressive.
This is by no means an easy book to read, not just for its length, but for its depressing look into our inevitable planetary future and for some of the truly dark fates that befall our characters. But it's important, urgent, and as applicable to our lives as ever a novel could be. Please read this book.
" [One day my daughter will ask:] 'Was it worth it? Was a raped and murdered world worth it for a few decades of excess? How did you let this happen? You all knew, everyone knew!'" [...] All I'll be able to tell her is, 'Some of us tried, baby. Some of us fought like hell.'"
Told over the span of more than 25 years, the book looks at the world's worsening climate crisis through the lens of several different and seemingly unrelated actors: a brash, passionate, outspoken climate activist; a savant data analyst; a single mom-cum-ecoterrorist, and so many more. Following these characters from 2013 to 2040, we see their own evolution against the backdrop of a burning Los Angeles, a drowning Midwest, a record-breaking heat wave in D.C., a global famine, a burgeoning radical right-wing terrorist movement, and so many other crises.
I truly think Markley is a master of his craft. The fact that he's able to spin this tale, a tale that felt so realistic that I wanted to Google the fictional events and read more about their history, told by probably ten rotating characters that each felt distinct and personal, and keep me completely engrossed the entire - THE ENTIRE - time? That is truly impressive.
This is by no means an easy book to read, not just for its length, but for its depressing look into our inevitable planetary future and for some of the truly dark fates that befall our characters. But it's important, urgent, and as applicable to our lives as ever a novel could be. Please read this book.
" [One day my daughter will ask:] 'Was it worth it? Was a raped and murdered world worth it for a few decades of excess? How did you let this happen? You all knew, everyone knew!'" [...] All I'll be able to tell her is, 'Some of us tried, baby. Some of us fought like hell.'"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Rape, and Torture
danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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? It's complicated
4.75
I honestly don’t know how to talk about this book. It’s astonishing and monumental in scope. It’s meticulously researched. The very undertaking of a story like this and finishing it not just in a way that makes sense, but in a way that is dramatically satisfying is in and of itself a huge achievement.
The characters are beautiful. Markley does a wonderful job at anchoring this story about a crisis that could seem too didactic for literary tension in very real and three dimensional characters. And through this inherent tying of these people that I grew to love to the climate crisis, otherwise didactic developments like the failure or success of a bill, or an extreme weather event, or a working group to draft legislation, suddenly take on hugely important meaning. Like, sometimes I was like, why am I crying that they’re forming a working group to draft legislation? It was because Markley so deftly and completely drew the characters and the ways their lives revolved around trying to solve this crisis, and the way their lives had also been affected by it. So global developments felt startlingly personal.
I did occasionally find myself wrestling with the almost early aughts disaster movie plotting that occasionally cropped up, and more than one instance of characters being saved by deus ex machina. I also sometimes felt that the unraveling of the social order was painted in broad strokes.
But at the end of the day, these quibbles pale in comparison to the strengths of this novel, which manages to be prophecy and path forward. And through the deep humanity of its characters, manages to take a topic that could feel dry, and instead makes it startlingly alive and human.
The characters are beautiful. Markley does a wonderful job at anchoring this story about a crisis that could seem too didactic for literary tension in very real and three dimensional characters. And through this inherent tying of these people that I grew to love to the climate crisis, otherwise didactic developments like the failure or success of a bill, or an extreme weather event, or a working group to draft legislation, suddenly take on hugely important meaning. Like, sometimes I was like, why am I crying that they’re forming a working group to draft legislation? It was because Markley so deftly and completely drew the characters and the ways their lives revolved around trying to solve this crisis, and the way their lives had also been affected by it. So global developments felt startlingly personal.
I did occasionally find myself wrestling with the almost early aughts disaster movie plotting that occasionally cropped up, and more than one instance of characters being saved by deus ex machina. I also sometimes felt that the unraveling of the social order was painted in broad strokes.
But at the end of the day, these quibbles pale in comparison to the strengths of this novel, which manages to be prophecy and path forward. And through the deep humanity of its characters, manages to take a topic that could feel dry, and instead makes it startlingly alive and human.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Antisemitism, Animal death, Cancer, Classism, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Blood, Hate crime, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Colonisation, Drug abuse, and War
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