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nadalien's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Rape, and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Sexual violence, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
skeptic_hecate's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Margaret Atwood seldom fails to make copativating and rich stories. The environment, the world building, even though it is contained in one part, it is abundant and three dimensional. I haven't read the first book in the series, but one can enjoy this book as a stand alone. I loved the characters, even the annoying Ren, she is the one I leastr liked, but I still found her enjoyable. I will definitely read the rest of the series, even without the cliffhanger. Also, what a cliffhanger. I listened to this book as an audiobook, and the Gardner's songs are masterfully sang. All the voives are magnificent. Honestly I wish more books had this high quality audiobooks. Highly recommended.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Rape
Moderate: Kidnapping, Torture, Abandonment, and War
Minor: Animal death
miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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? Yes
5.0
MAGGIE U MAKE ME SO UNHINGED how am i to think about anything else now?
This was so fucking perfect
Its like if you threw spagettie at the wall and it look like a bug mess of lots of spaghetti at first and then you realised it was all one perfect single strand of spaghetti that maggie a left for you
'But compassion takes work, and we were young.'
'Maybe sadness was a kind of hunger, she thought. Maybe the two went together.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THAT???
HOW AM I MEANT TO GO ABOUT MY DAY
NOW MAGGIE???
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Rape, Death, Abandonment, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Sexual violence
backyardjake's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Atwood has masterfully fleshed out and woven in two additional perspectives into the world of the waterless flood. Heartbreaking backstories and gut wrenching connections to the first book all end in a conclusion of dismayed happiness. Religous control, sexual domination, surrogate family and belonging, the guilt and madness of the survivor, and the unhealed scars of love. So many juicy parallels to the first book and a refeshing point of view. I may have liked the first book a tad bit more due to Jimmy's more relatable male gaze, but this is a hell of a follow up regardless of narrator.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Violence, Torture, Gore, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Murder
Minor: Abandonment, Infertility, Kidnapping, Drug use, and Bullying
cbergin's review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Sexual violence, Rape, Abandonment, Sexual assault, and Violence
nytephoenyx's review against another edition
reflective
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
2.25
I found The Year of the Flood to be overall underwhelming. It’s a sort of prequel/sequel/adjacent story to Oryx and Crake. It failed to offer the same scientific intrigue as the first book set in this world. Instead, there were environmental preachings through the facade of a religious cult which included feast day sermons and hymns. The characters remained interesting, but the plot development was so slow, and I don’t feel this book added much to the world.
The Year of the Flood follows two women who were part of the same religious cult called God’s Gardeners. The Gardeners warned about the coming of the second flood – this time, an invisible flood instead of a physical one. They also encouraged their practitioners to be vegan and to learn and practice things in a more organic, earthy way. Toby began her life outside the Gardeners and was brought to them, while Ren was with them most of her childhood, then left.
The pacing is a real struggle because there is so much lead up to the actual time with the Gardeners. The first 15% or so of the book could have been cut entirely. In fact, most of the book is backstory on the women to show how they got where they are. In Oryx and Crake, this made more sense because Jimmy’s story showed the coming of the true dystopia as he watched things come together and then fall apart. Here, it’s almost fan fiction. The women on their own are intriguing enough, but because we already know so much of the world, their own stories don’t add anything. They’re also contrasting romantic/sexual stories… sort of. One is of hiding and eventually vengeance against a man who repeatedly raped one of them, the other of a broken heart.
What bothers me the most about the two weaving storylines – other than the complete lack of momentum – is that neither is really resolved. Even though things happen, they weren’t dramatic enough to offer a true sense of closure. And the frequency of which both men intertwined within each of the women’s lives called out too many coincidences for me. I know a story like this isn’t meant to be realistic, but generally speaking the world should press on the unbelievable, not the plot.
The Year of the Flood required a lotto patience. Oryx and Crake did too, but I at least felt that the book delivered on some level. The Year of the Flood doesn’t deliver anything worth your time, but it does describe repeated rape, infidelity, drug use, gruesome murders that exist for no reason, and more.
Give it a pass.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Terminal illness
Minor: Cannibalism
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