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rin_dawg's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Vomit
Moderate: Racism
mosscovereddreams's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Racial slurs, Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol
nialiversuch's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Racism, and Sexual content
Minor: Child death, Suicide, and War
readwithbells's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Honestly, at the end of the day, I liked the concept but not the execution. It felt a little pretentious and pretty boring and by the time something truly horrifying happened to captivate my attention, the book was almost over. I was pretty excited for this book and wanted it to be better - it was written well and I think the author probably accomplished what they meant to but I just don’t think I liked it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Vomit
Moderate: Racism
writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam 🦌
🌟🌟🌟🌟✨
-
🏡 The plot: Clay and Amanda came to this secluded holiday home to escape their normal lives. But when the owners arrive in the middle of the night bringing news of a blackout in Manhattan, and they lose all contact with the outside world, they don’t know what is going on, or how suspicious they should be…
-
⚠️ Disclaimer: I highly recommend this book but think you should go in blind! If it sounds like your thing, skip to the read/avoid points in comments and save this post for later!
-
For a relatively anxious person, I love an end-of-the-world novel. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was probably my favourite book of 2020, and I loved Severance by Ling Ma when I read it earlier this year. Alam’s novel is somewhere in between these two books, but rather than being in a centre of action when disaster hits, Alam’s characters are hopelessly out of the loop, which made their situation even more tense.
-
I wish I could read this book without my 2021 goggles on! I found myself getting impatient with Clay and Amanda’s initial scepticism, forgetting how unreal the first few months of the pandemic felt - maybe there are some lessons you can only learn by living through.
-
Like Severance, LTWB’s central point seemed to be a critique of capitalism, but unlike almost any other apocalyptic novel I’ve read, Alam wasn’t willing to throw up his hands or invite his readers to appreciate our broken world for all its cracked beauty. Instead, he pointed his story back at the reader, stating emphatically that this is our problem, too.
-
The only real concession Alam gives is a Station Eleven-style omnipotence: the narrator tells us information the characters can’t know. Maybe this is just to keep us engaged (and it works) but maybe it’s also a sort of compromise. At the end of the world, we won’t know what’s going on. We will be confused and scared, tapping desperately at phones that bring no information, groping for instincts of animal survival that the daily rhythms of our lives suppress. Giving us closure on our questions is something only fiction can do, and it’s used well here - it chills and panics in equal measure.
🦷 Read if you loved either Station Eleven or Severance, and if you enjoy unlikeable characters and critiques of capitalism. Also the chapters are super short - great if you’re coming out of a slump!
-
🚫 Avoid it if you’re anxious about the state of the world right now or hate novels centred on unlikeable characters. Check the TWs for this book before reading, but the main ones I would highlight would be blood, vomit, death, and racism.
🌟🌟🌟🌟✨
-
🏡 The plot: Clay and Amanda came to this secluded holiday home to escape their normal lives. But when the owners arrive in the middle of the night bringing news of a blackout in Manhattan, and they lose all contact with the outside world, they don’t know what is going on, or how suspicious they should be…
-
⚠️ Disclaimer: I highly recommend this book but think you should go in blind! If it sounds like your thing, skip to the read/avoid points in comments and save this post for later!
-
For a relatively anxious person, I love an end-of-the-world novel. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was probably my favourite book of 2020, and I loved Severance by Ling Ma when I read it earlier this year. Alam’s novel is somewhere in between these two books, but rather than being in a centre of action when disaster hits, Alam’s characters are hopelessly out of the loop, which made their situation even more tense.
-
I wish I could read this book without my 2021 goggles on! I found myself getting impatient with Clay and Amanda’s initial scepticism, forgetting how unreal the first few months of the pandemic felt - maybe there are some lessons you can only learn by living through.
-
Like Severance, LTWB’s central point seemed to be a critique of capitalism, but unlike almost any other apocalyptic novel I’ve read, Alam wasn’t willing to throw up his hands or invite his readers to appreciate our broken world for all its cracked beauty. Instead, he pointed his story back at the reader, stating emphatically that this is our problem, too.
-
The only real concession Alam gives is a Station Eleven-style omnipotence: the narrator tells us information the characters can’t know. Maybe this is just to keep us engaged (and it works) but maybe it’s also a sort of compromise. At the end of the world, we won’t know what’s going on. We will be confused and scared, tapping desperately at phones that bring no information, groping for instincts of animal survival that the daily rhythms of our lives suppress. Giving us closure on our questions is something only fiction can do, and it’s used well here - it chills and panics in equal measure.
🦷 Read if you loved either Station Eleven or Severance, and if you enjoy unlikeable characters and critiques of capitalism. Also the chapters are super short - great if you’re coming out of a slump!
-
🚫 Avoid it if you’re anxious about the state of the world right now or hate novels centred on unlikeable characters. Check the TWs for this book before reading, but the main ones I would highlight would be blood, vomit, death, and racism.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Blood, and War
julied's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Vomit, and Alcohol
Moderate: Racism and Islamophobia
Minor: Blood, Religious bigotry, and War
eunoia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This book is... different?!?! It's so creepy and tense to read but a real page turner. Also the ending is just perfectly made for a second part but like what?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Blood, and Vomit
booktwitcher23's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-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
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Vomit
Moderate: Cursing and Blood
Poor review from me as I failed to connect with the style of writing. Oddly I also struggled with its Americanism.nytefall_library's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.25
Where to begin…. (Potential spoilers)
This book was sold to me as a type of apocalyptic story that would be like a thriller and mystery with tense moments and a murder mystery feel. I don’t feel like I read that book. The adult characters in the story are horrible - all of them. They are arrogant, rude and so self absorbed to think they’re the most important people when they’re not. The children are the only ones to act as their age and the least annoying characters in this book. Amanda and Clay are beyond strange and when they meet the owners of the house I honestly didn’t know the story could get worse. G. H and Ruth are just as rude and selfish as Amanda and Clay - also who drives out of town to their holiday home knowing you have people staying there??? The subtle racism, fat shaming and sexism in the story was just so irrelevant to the whole story and some sentences were far too over descriptive and didn’t lend anything further to the story. The only interesting bit, where the story pace gets slightly faster and more interesting was right at the end. This is also where Ruth and Amanda started to act like actual human beings and not just a 2d version of themselves. If the rest of the book was like the last few chapters I may have rated this slightly higher. Also make sure you like abrupt endings because that’s all you’re left with. No answers - I just assumed they all died and the world ended.
This book was sold to me as a type of apocalyptic story that would be like a thriller and mystery with tense moments and a murder mystery feel. I don’t feel like I read that book. The adult characters in the story are horrible - all of them. They are arrogant, rude and so self absorbed to think they’re the most important people when they’re not. The children are the only ones to act as their age and the least annoying characters in this book. Amanda and Clay are beyond strange and when they meet the owners of the house I honestly didn’t know the story could get worse. G. H and Ruth are just as rude and selfish as Amanda and Clay - also who drives out of town to their holiday home knowing you have people staying there??? The subtle racism, fat shaming and sexism in the story was just so irrelevant to the whole story and some sentences were far too over descriptive and didn’t lend anything further to the story. The only interesting bit, where the story pace gets slightly faster and more interesting was right at the end. This is also where Ruth and Amanda started to act like actual human beings and not just a 2d version of themselves. If the rest of the book was like the last few chapters I may have rated this slightly higher. Also make sure you like abrupt endings because that’s all you’re left with. No answers - I just assumed they all died and the world ended.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Blood, and Vomit
Moderate: Sexism, Medical content, and Alcohol
Minor: Body shaming and Grief
vlntnmz's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Why the author put so many sex references in the senteces when there was no ponit for it?
'
'
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, and Vomit
Minor: Cancer, Suicide, Medical content, and Murder