Scan barcode
infinitedani24's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death
Minor: Rape, Child abuse, and Pedophilia
pacifickat's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
A lot of disappointed reviewers seemed to want this book to be more than it was, the plot to follow a traditional post-apocalyptic road narrative, with characters fighting for survival in a dystopian landscape punctuated by violent encounters. However, Mandel seems to resist these expected devices, focusing instead on how humans are connected across time and space, nature and technology, and generations. The pandemic in this story demarcates a divide between past and present, a clear before and after. But, is existence more than our perceived notion of time and oir relationship to pivotal moments in history? Does a web of interconnectivity carry through all existence even when we cannot perceive it, even when the world seemingly ends? What is this reality we’re living in? Is it patterned beforehand, or only when looked at it in retrospect, like a forest ecosystem growing organically together? Can meaning and beauty miraculously arise out of mundanity and messiness? Is being briefly and beautifully alive and part of a cosmic whole enough of a miracle in itself? Do we make stories, or do the stories make us? What exists because of us, and what exists outside of us?
It’s complicated.
This seeming magic encircles and envelops conscious existence, but goes unnoticed by the humans navigating the complexities of the pre-pandemic modern world, or fighting to survive in post-pandemic reality. A repeated element of looking upward to the sky when faced with death carries throughout, perhaps searching for sufficient meaning or beauty when survival is not guaranteed and everything finally falls still. Is this akin to the sublime moment the actress dissolves into Titania on stage, her stained wedding gown becoming the adornment of a magical fairy queen?
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Grief, Murder, and Gun violence
Moderate: Infidelity, Pedophilia, Violence, and Child death
Minor: Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Rape, and Alcoholism
bcrowes11's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Terminal illness, and Gun violence
Moderate: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Murder, Gun violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic
amsswim's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, Terminal illness, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Suicide
Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, and Pedophilia
Minor: Mental illness, Rape, and Sexual assault
vivvs's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Violence, Grief, and Death
Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Cancer, Medical trauma, Suicide, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Child abuse, and Child death
tremayna's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Infidelity
Moderate: Violence, Domestic abuse, Classism, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, Death, and Gun violence
Minor: Child death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Suicide, Confinement, Rape, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Medical content, and Pedophilia
Written before the 2020 pandemic, this book about a fictional global viral event was disorienting to read in the year 2023, so closely following the eerily parallel events that came to pass in real life. Much of the real life pandemic is still in progress; its effects continue to leave their mark; the process of compartmentalizing memories of things surreal and too big to process without a biweekly therapy plan is still happening. Picking up this book jolted me back into the thick of pandemic thinking, creating a literal sense of disorientation where I was looking around me wondering how people could be sitting so close, maskless, touching everything without thought, when I hadn't seen the world that way in at least a year and a half. For that reason alone, I have to commend the writing. And at the same time, the author's delicate touch and the many moments of human normalcy, in both pre-event and post-event scenes, prevented the complete despair that could have pervaded this story. I felt St John Mandel balanced total devastation with enough possibility to keep the reader believing in the likelihood of meaningful survival without overdoing it and allowing the story to devolve into purely a feel good fantasy.kananineko's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood
Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, and War
astridrv's review against another edition
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Religious bigotry
Minor: Death, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual assault
bookswithbethx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Mental illness, Gun violence, Medical content, Pedophilia, Animal death, Blood, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Murder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship
spineofthesaurus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Death, Grief, Medical content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Car accident, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Sexual violence