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adventurous
dark
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It took me awhile to feel ready to read the pandemic novel everyone was talking about, but I'm so glad I did. I finished it and just wanted to sit with the feeling for awhile, even to start back at the beginning. I don't always love too many POVs in novels, but in this case, each perspective added to the world the author was building.
Fair warning for the few who haven't read it yet: this book isn't just post-pandemic, but contains a lot of description of how the pandemic unfolded that you (like me) might find harder to read in its familiarity.
Fair warning for the few who haven't read it yet: this book isn't just post-pandemic, but contains a lot of description of how the pandemic unfolded that you (like me) might find harder to read in its familiarity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Grief
Moderate: Suicide
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Suicide, Kidnapping, Murder
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Murder
Moderate: Suicide, Medical content
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"First we only want to be seen, but once we're seen, that's not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered."
Emily St. John Mandel taps into something sublime with Station Eleven, something that manages to speak to a particular moment in time while also capturing something universally timeless about living. The narrative and its characters may not have always resonated with me, but Mandel's beautiful writing and thematics quickly and repeatedly struck a nerve with me.
I usually latch onto the characters in a story, so while I liked the casts Mandel shifts between, I never felt as invested in them as I wanted. For example, I kept waiting for the story to peel back layers on specific characters or ideologies in the "present-day" sections, but those insights never really came. After all of the rich character development and exploration of the "flashback" stories—which, while familiar, are written with aching honesty and vulnerability—the present-day sections felt somewhat lacking.
That's not what's going to stick with me, though. The stories of lonely people discovering and fighting for their found families, the enduring hope they create together, the capacity for art and conviction to be what saves our souls in the end—that's what I'll remember about Station Eleven. I don't think the book even says anything profoundly original, but the unique angles it uses to approach those familiar ideas and genres make them feel new. Or, if not new, then timely and maybe even necessary.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Violence
Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Vomit, Stalking, Death of parent, Abandonment
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence
challenging
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:
Complicated
"He woke to quiet voices. This had been happening more and more lately, this nodding off unexpectedly, and it left him with an unsettled intimation of rehearsal. You fall asleep for short periods and then for longer periods and then forever."
Compellingly written prose with a well-developed cast of characters. Whilst I wish Kristen's storyline had more events within it, I really liked the book and I think it is both hopeful and unsentimental about humanity, in a way that I suspect might be altered in the TV adaptation.
This book has a lot to say about art and community-building and the role these will play in coming crises. It felt resonant with ecological anxieties about climate change and social anxieties in the age of COVID-19. Some of the passages about process and industrialisation felt a tad oversimplified and neoliberal - surely an Amazon delivery driver or a factory worker making snowglobes has complex, nuanced feelings about their labour and their lives that goes beyond gratitude for a job - but everything else was thoughtful, interesting, well-paced and moving. I loved Kirsten and Miranda. What wonderful characters.
Compellingly written prose with a well-developed cast of characters. Whilst I wish Kristen's storyline had more events within it, I really liked the book and I think it is both hopeful and unsentimental about humanity, in a way that I suspect might be altered in the TV adaptation.
This book has a lot to say about art and community-building and the role these will play in coming crises. It felt resonant with ecological anxieties about climate change and social anxieties in the age of COVID-19. Some of the passages about process and industrialisation felt a tad oversimplified and neoliberal - surely an Amazon delivery driver or a factory worker making snowglobes has complex, nuanced feelings about their labour and their lives that goes beyond gratitude for a job - but everything else was thoughtful, interesting, well-paced and moving. I loved Kirsten and Miranda. What wonderful characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The threads of different lives are woven together across different eras - in a non-chronological arrangement of chapters that somehow flows beautifully, rhythmically, like a song.
This book is basically a meditation on a quote from Star Trek, which is a mantra often repeated by the characters themselves: "survival is insufficient." It's about why the human need to create art and tell stories is worth braving the danger of an unpredictable post-apocalyptic world. It's also about the choice to let go of what we've lost vs the drive to rebuild it, or how to balance both. I ugly cried more than once.
Three of the main characters are sympathetic, compelling, interesting. If there's any flaw in this book it's that the one character that glues the others together - the first character mentioned in the opening line - is self-centered, boring to read about, and doesn't grow. Defeating the villain is only a small sliver of the story; the main goals of the main characters are to survive a post-apocalyptic world, to uncover missing truth, and to create something worth surviving for.
This book is basically a meditation on a quote from Star Trek, which is a mantra often repeated by the characters themselves: "survival is insufficient." It's about why the human need to create art and tell stories is worth braving the danger of an unpredictable post-apocalyptic world. It's also about the choice to let go of what we've lost vs the drive to rebuild it, or how to balance both. I ugly cried more than once.
Three of the main characters are sympathetic, compelling, interesting. If there's any flaw in this book it's that the one character that glues the others together - the first character mentioned in the opening line - is self-centered, boring to read about, and doesn't grow. Defeating the villain is only a small sliver of the story; the main goals of the main characters are to survive a post-apocalyptic world, to uncover missing truth, and to create something worth surviving for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Trafficking, Alcohol
Murder, killing out of self-defense, and death from natural causes are depicted with some detail and are central to the story.
The main villain of the story intends to traffick ("marry") a child but she escapes before he can.
Suicide, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence are mentioned, but with very few details.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide
Minor: Alcoholism
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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:
No
The description of the start of the pandemic are a bit too spot on now that there has been a pandemic.. although it really highlights how lucky we’ve been that covid-19 was much less deadly!
The book has a nice pace, and just ambles through the lives of various survivors loosely connected to each other before the pandemic hits
The book has a nice pace, and just ambles through the lives of various survivors loosely connected to each other before the pandemic hits
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief
Moderate: Ableism, Violence, Kidnapping
Minor: Child death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder
While the book describes a post apocalyptic world which is clearly more lawless and violent, it doesn’t go into unnecessarily detailed descriptions and is more about what happens to people’s minds and personality to live in such a world
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Infidelity, Rape, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail