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cheye13's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I can see why this is a divisive book. Personally, I found it middling.
I found the character dynamics interesting - complex and conflicted enough to be worth following, but not contentious enough to be simply unpleasant. The book's strength lies in the roundedness of the characters (at least the adults).
It does feel unfinished, like a sentence missing a period. I'm not entirely sure what the message of the story is. It could have one message if a catastrophe weren't confirmed to the reader, and it was a sort of modern Monsters Due on Maple Street. It could have another if we (the reader) knew the intent or nature of the crisis. It'd have yet another if we saw just one plot point further into the story.
Not an unpleasant reading experience, but unclear what to take away.
I found the character dynamics interesting - complex and conflicted enough to be worth following, but not contentious enough to be simply unpleasant. The book's strength lies in the roundedness of the characters (at least the adults).
It does feel unfinished, like a sentence missing a period. I'm not entirely sure what the message of the story is. It could have one message if a catastrophe weren't confirmed to the reader, and it was a sort of modern Monsters Due on Maple Street. It could have another if we (the reader) knew the intent or nature of the crisis. It'd have yet another if we saw just one plot point further into the story.
Not an unpleasant reading experience, but unclear what to take away.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Vomit, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Classism, and Racism
Minor: Cancer and War
body horror mainly regarding teeth; some brief asides detail gruesome deaths unrelated to the main characters; racism is of the casual/ignorance variety rather than intentional crueltykrys_kilz's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book was a difficult read. The pacing was quite slow and it's mostly character driven. It took me a few days to get through the whole thing. The plot remained vague all the way through to the ambiguous ending and the reader never gets any answers about what's going on.
I understand how that might be frustrating for many readers. Initially I was frustrated too, but as I sat with it after finishing, I honestly found the book's entire concept and execution extremely clever. Alam's writing style was superb and his sharp commentary on the delusion of whiteness, the illusion of safety, the fragility of life, ignorance/denial, and colonial modernity felt very on the nose.
This novel doesn't really feel like a thriller. To me, it reads more as satire with light dystopian undertones. The entire story really zeroes in on the fear of the unknown, of uncertainty especially in the so called "age of information." The overwhelm of not knowing what is happening or what will happen next along with the sheer volume of things that can and are going wrong. And the certain hubris of whiteness that nothing bad can ever really happen to you.
The book's ending perfectly encapsulates those fears by mirroring them back to the reader - providing scant to no clues about what has happened or what will happen next and cheekily asking if we don't know how this will end, how is that different than any other day?
If you go into this book expecting a tense, edge of your seat thriller with lots of conflict and big twists, you will certainly be disappointed. This book is not those things. For me, it was more quiet. Subtle. As Alam says in a profile with Vulture, "I write about the living embodiment of a certain kind of blindness."
I understand how that might be frustrating for many readers. Initially I was frustrated too, but as I sat with it after finishing, I honestly found the book's entire concept and execution extremely clever. Alam's writing style was superb and his sharp commentary on the delusion of whiteness, the illusion of safety, the fragility of life, ignorance/denial, and colonial modernity felt very on the nose.
This novel doesn't really feel like a thriller. To me, it reads more as satire with light dystopian undertones. The entire story really zeroes in on the fear of the unknown, of uncertainty especially in the so called "age of information." The overwhelm of not knowing what is happening or what will happen next along with the sheer volume of things that can and are going wrong. And the certain hubris of whiteness that nothing bad can ever really happen to you.
The book's ending perfectly encapsulates those fears by mirroring them back to the reader - providing scant to no clues about what has happened or what will happen next and cheekily asking if we don't know how this will end, how is that different than any other day?
If you go into this book expecting a tense, edge of your seat thriller with lots of conflict and big twists, you will certainly be disappointed. This book is not those things. For me, it was more quiet. Subtle. As Alam says in a profile with Vulture, "I write about the living embodiment of a certain kind of blindness."
"Ruth had learned only one thing from the current reality, and it was that everything held together by tacit agreement that it would. All it took to unravel something was one party deciding to do just that. There was no real structure to prevent chaos, there was only a collective faith in order."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Alcohol, Vomit, and Body horror
Moderate: Racism
_fallinglight_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Rumaan Alam did entirely too much with the writing style for this book. It felt like this was a play but switched to literary social/apocalyptic horror novel last minute. In the first 30-ish percent the writing is jarring, almost insulting (maybe part of the point?) with the weird metaphors and descriptors and detached ironic word play but once we get a few lines of what's happening to the world and even tiny glimpses of the future, it was very evocative and finally pulled me into the situation even if the characters were absolutely grating. (Also reading this right now while WWIII was trending on twitter and Putin is talking sh%t added to the scary scale.) This book is spooky, not stomach clenching scary, but unnerving just the same. In spite of the kinda atrocious writing I liked the experience of reading this. I did leave my world behind lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Vomit, and Blood
Moderate: Murder, Racism, Suicide, Child death, Sexual content, and Death
doodeedoda's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Vomit, Sexual content, and Blood
Minor: Racism and Suicide
biblio_reckah's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I flew through this one at break neck speed. A fascinating character study on the human condition as it pertains to unknown events. Fans of Jeff Vandermeer will love this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, and Racism
Moderate: Blood and Alcohol
Minor: War, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
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
genny's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
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
4.0
I really enjoyed the tone of this. Quietly scary with a palpable sense of dread. I was freaking out because I couldn't imagine how it would end, and it kind of...doesn't? Don't read this if you don't like open endings or having a lot of things left to the imagination. The story heavily hints at the beginning of the end of the world but we're restricted to a very isolated POV. The characters don't know what's going on, we don't know what's going on, but an omniscient narrator occasionally does tell us what's going on...in the outside world, far from the main cast. I thought it was clever, but judging from other reviews, this is a polarizing book. There's really no closure to be had here, yet it worked for me. I'm not sure how but that ending punched me in the gut! Plenty to chew on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content and Racism
Minor: Alcohol
alexisgarcia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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? No
4.0
This was an insane read. I’m slightly new to reading thrillers, it was a genre I never really read (no idea why) until recently. This book was incredibly bone chilling and unpredictable. I was surprised that I was never able to guess what was happening next which I was very excited by. I don’t think the characters were incredibly well developed but the book was on the shorter side and character development didn’t seem to be a main aspect of the book so I never minded. This is one of the most captivating thrillers I’ve yet and would definitely recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Alcohol, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Vomit, Sexual content, and Racism
javabones's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
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? No
I thought this was going to be a thriller/mystery but it turned out to be a disaster in itself. Finished it out of stubbornness and hope that it would go somewhere. It did not. The writing style draggggged on and it was so bizzare and full of gross sex details?? It was so bad it was funny, after you got over how uncomfortable it was. It deserves a lot of trigger warnings, which makes it seem interesting, but literally nothing happens.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Medical content, Cursing, Blood, Vomit, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Confinement, Medical trauma, and Body horror
Moderate: Alcohol
orireading's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit
Moderate: Alcohol and Blood
Minor: Suicide
the author CONSTANTLY mentioned the 13-year-old character being chubby/fat, what she was eating, what her body looked like, etc. in a way that was rarely relevant to what was actually happening in the scene. that was weird honestly