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adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-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:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Rape
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don’t really know how I feel about this book.
The story follows Kirsten, a young woman who, as a child, survived a horrific flu pandemic that killed off most of the human race and left them small, isolated communities without electricity, mass communication or modern medicine. A child actor before the pandemic, Kirsten is now part of a group of actors who travel from community to community, performing Shakespeare and playing music. Though she loves performing as much as she always did, Kirsten is otherwise a person dramatically changed by her experiences, and the trauma of the years since the pandemic hangs heavily over her. On an otherwise routine trip through the town of St Deborah by the Water, Kirsten and her fellow performers encounter the Prophet, a religious fanatic and cult leader. When they leave the town, they accidentally take with them something the Prophet considers his, and his menace follows them.
The plot of this book is meandering, following a whole host of different threads. There is the main plotline, with Kirsten and her friends on their journey, pursued by the threat of the Prophet. Then there is the story of Arthur Leander, a famous actor who died on stage during a performance of King Lear, right in front of Kirsten, on the night the pandemic came to North America. Some sections of the book are dedicated to Arthur’s own life; other chapters go his best friend, Clark, his ex-wife Miranda, a comic book artist, and to Jeevan, the former paparazzo turned EMT who tried to save his life. Some of these chapters tell us what happened to these characters during the pandemic, or, for those who survived, in the years after; others go back years before, to when life was still mundane. These stories are all connected, but not in the sense that there is a single through-plot to them. Rather, all these characters impacted each other’s lives in one way or another, sometimes through obvious relationships, sometimes in ways they never knew about, second hand or through their art.
There is a lot to like about this book. The author has an incredible gift for setting a scene - not just in the way she paints the picture of the post-apocalyptic world after the pandemic, full of abandoned cars that stopped when their drivers ran out of gas or died and houses that are sealed up time capsules of a world people like Kirsten can barely remember - but also in the more ordinary scenes of the pre-pandemic world, like a painfully awkward dinner party that the story returns to again and again, or a snowy night in a city. She is equally deft with character. There is a lot we don’t end up knowing about many of these characters, but I had a full sense of them anyway, just from the details the author chose to reveal. And the tone of the book is one of longing for something you can’t quite imagine, one that hangs over every moment of the story.
Art, stories, and the meaning we put into them is a major theme of this book. Kirsten’s group claim they perform Shakespeare because he, too, lived in a time of plague; they impose meaning onto his stories to help them in their own lives. Kirsten carries with her a comic book called Station Eleven, a story of isolation and loss of home and lonely travel; it was written long before the pandemic, but its themes echo in the lives of the survivors, though not in the way they did for the author. Because Arthur’s death looms large in her life, her last memory of the pre-pandemic world, she also collects any artifacts she can about him and his family, carrying around clippings of gossip magazines, trying to recreate the story of a man she only briefly knew. One of her friends clings to the memory of Star Trek episodes he saw twenty years ago. Not all this searching for meaning is positive - one character looks for such meaning in the Book of Revelations, to terrible effect - but it is all extremely human.
With all this, though, I ended the book feeling vaguely dissatisfied. While I understood that the point of the story was the distant connections between the characters, the way they impacted each other’s lives without even knowing, the main plotline was also seemingly building to a climax, and when that came, the story faltered. By the end of the book, I was sure that two things would happen - the actors would have a confrontation with the Prophet that would have some kind of deeper meaning, and Kirsten would meet Clark and learn the significance of Station Eleven - and technically both did, but neither had the payoff I was hoping for.
Spoiler thoughts about the ending: The confrontation with the Prophet fell flat for me, not just because it devolved into random violence, but because Kirsten finally met someone else who knew Station Eleven, only for him to die immediately. However, I knew she still had the meeting with Clark ahead, so I wasn’t too disappointed. But then when the story got to Clark, whatever conversation they had about Arthur, Miranda and the Prophet happened entirely off-page, and I found that frustrating. It was one thing to have characters with connections cross paths and not know it; it’s another thing when it is obvious they do know it - Kirsten left Station Eleven with Clark, and he knew it was Miranda’s work, at minimum, and probably could make the connection to the Prophet - and yet we are deprived of seeing them discuss the connection. We are left to wonder if they shared the full connection between their lives, if Clark told her who the Prophet probably was. It was nice that their other connection - that Clark had read the interview with her years before they met, and remembered her fascination with electricity - was addressed, and I suppose it was more important to see them looking to the future of a world with electricity again rather than dwelling on the past of Arthur and Miranda, but it was still frustrating. Having said that, I did love Clark finding the dinner party scene in Station Eleven and recognizing it for what it was. After so many examples of people imposing meaning onto art, it was neat to see someone reach back through the years to recognize what an artist was actually saying .
None of this ruined the book for me, and maybe my slight sense of a story unfinished was the point. I haven’t stopped thinking about this book since I finished it.
A warning: there is a TV adaptation of Station Eleven. I haven’t seen it, but I was curious about the actors chosen for the various roles, so I looked up the cast list on IMDB when I was only about halfway through the book. Don’t do this! There is a character in the book whose identity is a mystery and that mystery will be spoiled for you by the cast list, where they are listed by their true name. I don’t usually care about spoilers, but this is a mystery that isn’t ever explicitly solved in the book, though the clues are there, and while I think I would have figured it out if I hadn’t known ahead of time, I’m annoyed that I’ll never know.
Also, a second warning: If you’ve never read The Passage by Justin Cronin and you want to, be aware that a character in this book spoils the big twist of that one.
The story follows Kirsten, a young woman who, as a child, survived a horrific flu pandemic that killed off most of the human race and left them small, isolated communities without electricity, mass communication or modern medicine. A child actor before the pandemic, Kirsten is now part of a group of actors who travel from community to community, performing Shakespeare and playing music. Though she loves performing as much as she always did, Kirsten is otherwise a person dramatically changed by her experiences, and the trauma of the years since the pandemic hangs heavily over her. On an otherwise routine trip through the town of St Deborah by the Water, Kirsten and her fellow performers encounter the Prophet, a religious fanatic and cult leader. When they leave the town, they accidentally take with them something the Prophet considers his, and his menace follows them.
The plot of this book is meandering, following a whole host of different threads. There is the main plotline, with Kirsten and her friends on their journey, pursued by the threat of the Prophet. Then there is the story of Arthur Leander, a famous actor who died on stage during a performance of King Lear, right in front of Kirsten, on the night the pandemic came to North America. Some sections of the book are dedicated to Arthur’s own life; other chapters go his best friend, Clark, his ex-wife Miranda, a comic book artist, and to Jeevan, the former paparazzo turned EMT who tried to save his life. Some of these chapters tell us what happened to these characters during the pandemic, or, for those who survived, in the years after; others go back years before, to when life was still mundane. These stories are all connected, but not in the sense that there is a single through-plot to them. Rather, all these characters impacted each other’s lives in one way or another, sometimes through obvious relationships, sometimes in ways they never knew about, second hand or through their art.
There is a lot to like about this book. The author has an incredible gift for setting a scene - not just in the way she paints the picture of the post-apocalyptic world after the pandemic, full of abandoned cars that stopped when their drivers ran out of gas or died and houses that are sealed up time capsules of a world people like Kirsten can barely remember - but also in the more ordinary scenes of the pre-pandemic world, like a painfully awkward dinner party that the story returns to again and again, or a snowy night in a city. She is equally deft with character. There is a lot we don’t end up knowing about many of these characters, but I had a full sense of them anyway, just from the details the author chose to reveal. And the tone of the book is one of longing for something you can’t quite imagine, one that hangs over every moment of the story.
Art, stories, and the meaning we put into them is a major theme of this book. Kirsten’s group claim they perform Shakespeare because he, too, lived in a time of plague; they impose meaning onto his stories to help them in their own lives. Kirsten carries with her a comic book called Station Eleven, a story of isolation and loss of home and lonely travel; it was written long before the pandemic, but its themes echo in the lives of the survivors, though not in the way they did for the author. Because Arthur’s death looms large in her life, her last memory of the pre-pandemic world, she also collects any artifacts she can about him and his family, carrying around clippings of gossip magazines, trying to recreate the story of a man she only briefly knew. One of her friends clings to the memory of Star Trek episodes he saw twenty years ago. Not all this searching for meaning is positive - one character looks for such meaning in the Book of Revelations, to terrible effect - but it is all extremely human.
With all this, though, I ended the book feeling vaguely dissatisfied. While I understood that the point of the story was the distant connections between the characters, the way they impacted each other’s lives without even knowing, the main plotline was also seemingly building to a climax, and when that came, the story faltered. By the end of the book, I was sure that two things would happen - the actors would have a confrontation with the Prophet that would have some kind of deeper meaning, and
Spoiler thoughts about the ending:
None of this ruined the book for me, and maybe my slight sense of a story unfinished was the point. I haven’t stopped thinking about this book since I finished it.
A warning: there is a TV adaptation of Station Eleven. I haven’t seen it, but I was curious about the actors chosen for the various roles, so I looked up the cast list on IMDB when I was only about halfway through the book. Don’t do this! There is a character in the book whose identity is a mystery and that mystery will be spoiled for you by the cast list, where they are listed by their true name. I don’t usually care about spoilers, but this is a mystery that isn’t ever explicitly solved in the book, though the clues are there, and while I think I would have figured it out if I hadn’t known ahead of time, I’m annoyed that I’ll never know.
Also, a second warning: If you’ve never read The Passage by Justin Cronin and you want to, be aware that a character in this book spoils the big twist of that one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence
Moderate: Infidelity, Suicide
Minor: Child abuse
The main plot involves a deadly pandemic and there are graphic scenes of characters dying. A character commits suicide off-page. A case of an adult having sexual relationships with children is discussed.
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Violence
Minor: Rape, Suicide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Violence, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Infidelity, Suicide, Grief, Medical trauma
Minor: Child death, Rape
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Station Eleven is one of my favorite books of all-time. I read it for the first time 6 years ago and since have read it at least 4 times. Emily St. John’s prose is beautiful, and the way the stories of all of the different characters weave together to spin one cohesive tale is amazing.
This book is a perfect example of how our lives are woven together. How the little things you do or say might have a huge impact. And despite taking place in what could be considered a post-apocalyptic world, this books is far from hopeless. There is always hope to be had, and this books proves it. From the quote on the wagons of the Traveling Symphony to the very end of the book, there is hope everywhere.
Also, the writing of the book is amazing. This might be the best example of prose as pure art I have ever seen. There are so many scenes, phrases, and quotes that stick in my brain, even months or years after reading this book. (In fact, I am heavily considering getting a quote from this book as a tattoo.)
My words don’t do this book justice. Please just read it for yourself.
This book is a perfect example of how our lives are woven together. How the little things you do or say might have a huge impact. And despite taking place in what could be considered a post-apocalyptic world, this books is far from hopeless. There is always hope to be had, and this books proves it. From the quote on the wagons of the Traveling Symphony to the very end of the book, there is hope everywhere.
Also, the writing of the book is amazing. This might be the best example of prose as pure art I have ever seen. There are so many scenes, phrases, and quotes that stick in my brain, even months or years after reading this book. (In fact, I am heavily considering getting a quote from this book as a tattoo.)
My words don’t do this book justice. Please just read it for yourself.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Terminal illness
Minor: Violence, Death of parent
I mean, it does deal with a disease that wipes out most humans on Earth. Even having read it before it made me a bit anxious reading it again in early 2020. While description of the actual suffering of those infected is not graphically described, there is a lot of mentions of death and the devastating effects of this disease.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A post apocalyptic read delving into what it means to be human in world full of chaos. There is hope, there is loss and there is dignity. I did find myself liking this book, but it did take me a long while to get to that point. I feel that the final third of the book is where this book really shines.
The characters are likeable (I have favourites in Kerstin, Miranda, and Clark), and the author intertwines their worlds’ nicely. This booked didn’t quite hit me or land where I wanted it to, but I still found good moments in it…
The characters are likeable (I have favourites in Kerstin, Miranda, and Clark), and the author intertwines their worlds’ nicely. This booked didn’t quite hit me or land where I wanted it to, but I still found good moments in it…
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Rape, Violence
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, War
Adult/minor relationship warning is partially for a couple who met when one was a minor. Ableism warning is for the trope of a disabled character dying as part of an abled character's story. Colonisation warning is just in case, for discussion of Israel in a normalized light.
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:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Death, Violence, Murder
Minor: Rape
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ok I could've given a 3.75 but I think it was truly a 4, so I gave it a 4. Just a bts look at my rating lol.
The beginning was a bit boring but necessary. Emily St John Mandel builds storylines and characters so well. And she overlaps and intertwines them all in such a satisfying way. Once things start to come together and materialize, the book gets really good. The last 1/3 of the book is what truly shines and makes it a 4 not a 3.75 ;) I liked how some discoveries are left purely to the reader while some are shared with the characters in the book. I also enjoyed pretty much every character which is interesting because I'm not sure how "likeable" many of them even are. Interested in how they did the tv show bc I really don't know how the book would translate on screen but I'll almost definitely watch eventually.
The beginning was a bit boring but necessary. Emily St John Mandel builds storylines and characters so well. And she overlaps and intertwines them all in such a satisfying way. Once things start to come together and materialize, the book gets really good. The last 1/3 of the book is what truly shines and makes it a 4 not a 3.75 ;) I liked how some discoveries are left purely to the reader while some are shared with the characters in the book. I also enjoyed pretty much every character which is interesting because I'm not sure how "likeable" many of them even are. Interested in how they did the tv show bc I really don't know how the book would translate on screen but I'll almost definitely watch eventually.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Rape, Violence, Murder
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Murder