Reviews

After watching Alzheimers rob her of her educated, kind father over the course of 10 years, Kay and her husband Cyril make a pact to commit suicide on Kay's 80th birthday, in order to go on their terms and take the pressure off of the NHS. The question is, do they follow their plan through?

It's a fresh interpretation of the will-they-wont-they dance, but this time it's suicide instead of lovers.

We follow their journey through 12 different alternative realities, where they deal with the consequences of whether they've followed the plan through. Some universes felt very outlandish, even boarderd on sci-fi, with them sign up for Cryogenic preservation, or the UK disintegrating and being taken over by migrants...

Before reading this, I was huge fan of Shriver's original and dark writing style.

She isn't afraid to dive into complicated topics such as morataility, but something about this felt off... In some places, this book was xenophobic, fatphobic transphobic and homophobic.

A really interesting concept, but Shriver's offensive opinions where intertwined through out.

djon100ecc's review

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

lomedae's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It was a good concept well executed in the first half of the book. Sadly, the second half of the book was thoroughly redundant and served to undermine the central point. It just scrapes by as a 3* on the strength of the second quarter of the book which was brilliant. The second half of the book had me almost DNF multiple times, and I certainly will not read more of this writer.

The silly and ham-fisted episode with the awakening after cryo was cringe to the max and makes me question whether the writer knew what they were doing in the first place and it's the prevailing instance in the book that makes me refrain from recommending it. And the endless Brexit nonsense of course.

sohva's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

The themes the book explores are interesting: when is life worth living, how to have control over it, how to deal with aging and mortality. I even enjoyed the exploration of Brexit as a mirror for the conflict between the couple. However, I felt like the book didn't explore its themes as much as it could've. The beginning was essentially the strongest, but the later chapters started to feel rather surface level and gimmicky. Also, what on earth was going on in that mass migration chapter...?

messad's review

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funny lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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