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robynbookworm's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Racism, and Excrement
ifoundcallie's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I feel like if you read this book as a literacy fiction novel with a lens towards social commentary in America, it is stunning. The layers and layers of metaphor on discomfort and humanity—so good! The author’s craft leads readers through a sociological exercise where they is forced to grapple with what it means to be part of the human race, particularly in the context of individualism in Western culture. The fact that the author took ALL OF THAT, and weaved it within the unraveling of a literal apocalypse (of which specifics are vastly unknown)….So. Damn. Good. I had chills multiple times and ran out of ink in my highlighter.
Very reminiscent of Stephen King, particularly “Under the Dome”. If you liked that, you’ll love this. For people SOLELY looking for a thriller or commentary on race/social class, turn elsewhere…this book intentionally subverts the expectations of those genres.
I love how the omniscient narrator stingily portioned out information, which shamefully left me feeling the same desperate NEED for information that the book was critiquing!
There are a few times in this book where the writing could use some trimming/adjusting towards purpose—the heavy emphasis on certain carnal images felt self-righteous and cheap for the rest of the story. Honestly, this is the only thing that keeps this book from being a “perfect” book for me. This pitfall is reminiscent of Stephen King’s writing, again, which makes sense knowing that the author reread Pet Semetary while editing this book. I can only read so many descriptions of bored and worn out married couples “tumbling into the only comfort: of flesh smacking against flesh” or teenage male characters and their detailed descriptions of “spit-in-hand, spurting release”, or adult men who are dumbstruck by their unexpected “large load of vitality and youth long gone”. I felt disappointed every time the book swung back to these tropes, faithfully. Yawn.
There are many passages/chapters in this novel that blew me away and can easily stand on their own as brilliant pieces of art. I would love to sit and analyze some of the turn-of-phrase, allusions, and imagery handpicked by this intelligent author. I was giddy with annotation, and this book rewards you for paying attention to these nuances of craft. Overall, I’m so glad I was recommended this book. It itched an “am I spiraling and paranoid or is the world ending” scratch that is often not done well.
Bravo, Rumaan Alam.
Very reminiscent of Stephen King, particularly “Under the Dome”. If you liked that, you’ll love this. For people SOLELY looking for a thriller or commentary on race/social class, turn elsewhere…this book intentionally subverts the expectations of those genres.
I love how the omniscient narrator stingily portioned out information, which shamefully left me feeling the same desperate NEED for information that the book was critiquing!
There are a few times in this book where the writing could use some trimming/adjusting towards purpose—the heavy emphasis on certain carnal images felt self-righteous and cheap for the rest of the story. Honestly, this is the only thing that keeps this book from being a “perfect” book for me. This pitfall is reminiscent of Stephen King’s writing, again, which makes sense knowing that the author reread Pet Semetary while editing this book. I can only read so many descriptions of bored and worn out married couples “tumbling into the only comfort: of flesh smacking against flesh” or teenage male characters and their detailed descriptions of “spit-in-hand, spurting release”, or adult men who are dumbstruck by their unexpected “large load of vitality and youth long gone”. I felt disappointed every time the book swung back to these tropes, faithfully. Yawn.
There are many passages/chapters in this novel that blew me away and can easily stand on their own as brilliant pieces of art. I would love to sit and analyze some of the turn-of-phrase, allusions, and imagery handpicked by this intelligent author. I was giddy with annotation, and this book rewards you for paying attention to these nuances of craft. Overall, I’m so glad I was recommended this book. It itched an “am I spiraling and paranoid or is the world ending” scratch that is often not done well.
Bravo, Rumaan Alam.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Confinement, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Sexual content, War, Excrement, Cursing, Vomit, Racism, and Classism
Minor: Suicide, Gore, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Incest, Gun violence, Colonisation, Torture, Car accident, Child death, Misogyny, Hate crime, Genocide, Homophobia, Dementia, Cancer, Xenophobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Suicide attempt
jamie_rich's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I enjoyed this story more than I expected, even with the (mostly) cliffhanger ending.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, and Vomit
epeolatri's review against another edition
slow-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
1.5
Okay, I can see what this book was trying to do. It’s rare to read books about the start of the end of the world, and for that it’s unique and interesting. The characters were terribly boring and so one-dimensional. I didn’t care even a bit about any of them. The use of the third person omniscient narrator had its purpose when it could give us small bits of information on what was happening in the world outside these two families, but other than that I feel like it did a disservice to the story. Had it been written in first person maybe the urgency of the situation and the terror the characters felt would’ve seemed more real to the reader. I was mostly annoyed at their choices and the way they only ever seemed to talk about what they should do but never actually did any of it. This book needed more action and less words.
On that note, the author really really likes his metaphors and similes. Without them this book could’ve been about 100 pages shorter. An entire two or three pages were just a list of what a woman bought at the grocery store. The author also seemed weirdly obsessed with sex. At least three times I was made to read through a paragraph of a character masturbating, one of which was a minor. There was a description of a thirteen year old in a bathing suit that made me very uncomfortable. I’m not sure why the characters genitals were deemed so important to the plot.
This book should have been a lot of things, but ended up just a weird, overly wordy mess that I barely managed to get through. Maybe the netflix movie will be better.
On that note, the author really really likes his metaphors and similes. Without them this book could’ve been about 100 pages shorter. An entire two or three pages were just a list of what a woman bought at the grocery store. The author also seemed weirdly obsessed with sex. At least three times I was made to read through a paragraph of a character masturbating, one of which was a minor. There was a description of a thirteen year old in a bathing suit that made me very uncomfortable. I’m not sure why the characters genitals were deemed so important to the plot.
This book should have been a lot of things, but ended up just a weird, overly wordy mess that I barely managed to get through. Maybe the netflix movie will be better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Confinement, Addiction, Excrement, Classism, Vomit, Sexual content, and Racism
Minor: Violence, Suicide, War, Xenophobia, and Death
grizzlysnack's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
1.5
The premise of Leave the World Behind is what got me into it. Having to be confined to a little space of land and having no clue what's going on around you, and having to trust complete strangers to reach some sense of normalcy. I feel as though the execution of that premise fell flat.
The omniscient narrator nonchalantly mentions the havoc the six main characters aren't aware of, which was meant to be used as a critical thinking tool for the reader. However, there seems to be no depth or fear that the outside world has on what's going on with our six protagonists.
The mention of teeth falling out, the president being in a bunker, the premature babies dying in the neonatal care unit because of the power outages, the Thorne family never coming back to the house Rose broke into feels as though it's meant to make the reader feel jaded, more than putting any sort of depth or seriousness into the current events. The sex-related scenes were also a little jarring, they almost feel as though an 11 year-old wrote them
Leave the World Behind has an open ending, so take these 241 pages with that information if you're expecting a wrap-up chapter. It's a decent amount of detail without a concrete ending.
The omniscient narrator nonchalantly mentions the havoc the six main characters aren't aware of, which was meant to be used as a critical thinking tool for the reader. However, there seems to be no depth or fear that the outside world has on what's going on with our six protagonists.
Leave the World Behind has an open ending, so take these 241 pages with that information if you're expecting a wrap-up chapter. It's a decent amount of detail without a concrete ending.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit and Racism
Moderate: Child death, Sexual content, and Death
Minor: Confinement and Excrement
bootsmom3's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Vomit, and Cursing
Moderate: Racism, Terminal illness, and Sexual content
Minor: Animal death and Excrement
emory's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
A horrifyingly amazing read, with a terribly inaccurate summary on the back! I was expecting a run of the mill thriller but was beyond satisfied with the shockingly relevant horror of two families facing what might be the end of the world.
The writing, while seeming unnecessarily ornate at the beginning of the novel (before the narrative reaches its point), is gorgeously poignant and haunting. My only complaint is the writing sometimes tilted into purple, with words clearly added only to show off the vocabulary of the author ("alee" to describe the inside of a Starbucks?), and the strange fixation and return to sex and what sex could metaphorically represent for these characters. Annoying, but not damning, and worth slogging through for the story itself.
The use of dramatic irony of knowing what is really happening while the vividly human portagonists stumble through figuring out what is going on, their dynamics with and what they owe to one another, and what course of action they have to take carries the novel to it's gut wrenching relevance and takeaway. A story couldn't be more frightening in the current climate of knowing how bad it is, knowing society's place perched on the edge of disaster, that something's about to give. Alam's masterful prose wanders through the particular scenario of a family finding out you can never really look away.
The writing, while seeming unnecessarily ornate at the beginning of the novel (before the narrative reaches its point), is gorgeously poignant and haunting. My only complaint is the writing sometimes tilted into purple, with words clearly added only to show off the vocabulary of the author ("alee" to describe the inside of a Starbucks?), and the strange fixation and return to sex and what sex could metaphorically represent for these characters. Annoying, but not damning, and worth slogging through for the story itself.
The use of dramatic irony of knowing what is really happening while the vividly human portagonists stumble through figuring out what is going on, their dynamics with and what they owe to one another, and what course of action they have to take carries the novel to it's gut wrenching relevance and takeaway. A story couldn't be more frightening in the current climate of knowing how bad it is, knowing society's place perched on the edge of disaster, that something's about to give. Alam's masterful prose wanders through the particular scenario of a family finding out you can never really look away.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Confinement, and War
Minor: Child death, Animal death, Car accident, Blood, Murder, Racism, Cancer, Excrement, Genocide, Sexism, and Suicide
The book is about an apocalyptic scenario that is very realistic and claustrophobic.lavatea's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Well, it hooks you. That's a positive. But I could've done without the many detailed descriptions of bodily functions and acts, but maybe that's just me. Seems like that sort of graphic display of private matters is shoved into every tv show and movie, so why not books, too? Also, you never get told what the "event" is so that's annoying.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Cursing, Fatphobia, and Excrement
velaw's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Vomit
Minor: Excrement
nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Vomit, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Excrement, Islamophobia, Medical content, Racism, Suicide, and War