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3.21 AVERAGE
3.21 AVERAGE
So didn’t know where it was going when it started but wow!
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hmmm.... I don't like it when people's teeth fall out, especially when it's not clear why.
C- 6
The characters were shallow and caricature-ish but I also think that was the point. I think it was meant to show how we're all so self-absorbed and then we'll see the consequences when the world ends.
A- 8
I will say this book is very eery and it made my skin crawl a lot. The paragraph of spider similes was unnecessary but worked.
W- 7
I enjoyed the omniscient narrator drip-feeding information to us so we can understand more, even if the characters don't. It did a good job of setting the atmosphere, for example when we're told a character will die. However, sometimes it didn't quite give enough information so it was more confusing than before.
P- 7
I- 7
L- 6.5
It was difficult to follow the reasoning behind things. Archie got bitten by a tic, then his teeth fell out, but another person, who our knowledge has not been bitten by a tic, also will have their teeth fall out, so maybe it's the aeroplanes. Generally, I didn't follow why things were happening.
E- 5
I didn't enjoy hearing about someone's teeth falling out. I didn't realise what genre this was before I read it (I saw the cover and guessed sci-fi and did not read the synopsis), so wouldn't have picked this up otherwise. It was a bit much for me.
C- 6
The characters were shallow and caricature-ish but I also think that was the point. I think it was meant to show how we're all so self-absorbed and then we'll see the consequences when the world ends.
A- 8
I will say this book is very eery and it made my skin crawl a lot. The paragraph of spider similes was unnecessary but worked.
W- 7
I enjoyed the omniscient narrator drip-feeding information to us so we can understand more, even if the characters don't. It did a good job of setting the atmosphere, for example when we're told a character will die. However, sometimes it didn't quite give enough information so it was more confusing than before.
P- 7
I- 7
L- 6.5
It was difficult to follow the reasoning behind things. Archie got bitten by a tic, then his teeth fell out, but another person, who our knowledge has not been bitten by a tic, also will have their teeth fall out, so maybe it's the aeroplanes. Generally, I didn't follow why things were happening.
E- 5
I didn't enjoy hearing about someone's teeth falling out. I didn't realise what genre this was before I read it (I saw the cover and guessed sci-fi and did not read the synopsis), so wouldn't have picked this up otherwise. It was a bit much for me.
I thought it was finally starting to get to pick up, and then the closing audiobook credits rolled???
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:
Complicated
Published in 2020, this is clearly a product of covid lockdown. I can appreciate that, but I think it may have been rushed to publication. I could have been fleshed out a bit more. I did enjoy parts of it but then continued to lose momentum. The ambiguity of the plot didn't bother me, but the character development was also lacking. I need one or the other. The view of humanity is a bit pessimistic for my tastes.
Claustrophobic, suspenseful, this book evokes dread like no other. Despite (certainly) be written pre-pandemic, Leave the World Behind is eerily reminiscent of our current 2020 moment. I genuinely got so freaked out, during the last 20% of the book, I had to stop listening to the audio version, instead swapping it for a physical copy so I could whip through the last few chapters and find out what happened. The suspense was KILLING me. This book is definitely a bit of a slow burn. Things don't really start to get going until about halfway through, so I had to be a bit more patient than usual to get to the good stuff.
There's a lot I liked about this one in particular. The semi-omniscient narrative style was unique and chilling, and the occasional jumps away from the two main families definitely underscores the ominous sense of global catastrophe. Alam does a lot of interesting work exploring how we grow together and apart in times of crisis, especially with considerations to race and class elements. The writing, on a sentence level, is superb. He perfectly illustrates the feeling of a middle-class family vacation—beach towels strewn on the floor, the extravagant grocery lists, the air of self-reinvention—literally everything about it was on point. I think what makes the middle and ending so disturbing is just how perfectly Alam captures the normalcy of the beginning to a family vacation.
There was a lot I liked about this one, but I hesitate to give it 5 stars. I kept waiting and waiting for something MORE to happen, and nothing really did. Perhaps that was the point of the novel, to be as confused and out-of-the-loop as everyone else during the blackout, but I never really got the answers or resolution I wanted out of the book. It's just my personal preference that novels close with a little less ambiguity, because I want to know what happens to these people I've invested in! Watching the characters interact was interesting, sure, but none of them were inherently very likeable or anything. Not that characters HAVE to be likeable to make a good novel, but I just prefer to have at least one person I can root for.
Overall, a mighty fine suspenseful read. I was expecting the book to be a bit more "thrilling" in nature rather than "creepy," but I wasn't disappointed when it changed course from my expectations. Perfect if you're looking for something that evokes the current mood of 2020 without being explicitly pandemic-related.
There's a lot I liked about this one in particular. The semi-omniscient narrative style was unique and chilling, and the occasional jumps away from the two main families definitely underscores the ominous sense of global catastrophe. Alam does a lot of interesting work exploring how we grow together and apart in times of crisis, especially with considerations to race and class elements. The writing, on a sentence level, is superb. He perfectly illustrates the feeling of a middle-class family vacation—beach towels strewn on the floor, the extravagant grocery lists, the air of self-reinvention—literally everything about it was on point. I think what makes the middle and ending so disturbing is just how perfectly Alam captures the normalcy of the beginning to a family vacation.
There was a lot I liked about this one, but I hesitate to give it 5 stars. I kept waiting and waiting for something MORE to happen, and nothing really did. Perhaps that was the point of the novel, to be as confused and out-of-the-loop as everyone else during the blackout, but I never really got the answers or resolution I wanted out of the book. It's just my personal preference that novels close with a little less ambiguity, because I want to know what happens to these people I've invested in! Watching the characters interact was interesting, sure, but none of them were inherently very likeable or anything. Not that characters HAVE to be likeable to make a good novel, but I just prefer to have at least one person I can root for.
Overall, a mighty fine suspenseful read. I was expecting the book to be a bit more "thrilling" in nature rather than "creepy," but I wasn't disappointed when it changed course from my expectations. Perfect if you're looking for something that evokes the current mood of 2020 without being explicitly pandemic-related.
Ehhh… different from my typical genres, and while an interesting premise, I just kept wondering when anything was going to happen.
What the fuck was this. So beautifully written and haunting and just what the fuck. This book had no plot until half way through and then it was a fast read because you did not know what was going to happen. So many great things happened in this book and the overall message was haunting and wild and it made me question humanity as we know it today.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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:
Complicated