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chelly_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Death, Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Terminal illness, Gun violence, and Medical content
rosa_lina96's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
3.5
A haunting, somewhat bittersweet book about life after a global pandemic wipes out a good 98% of humanity (which becomes somewhat harsher in hindsight after going through the debacle that was Covid, but I digress). The writing was tight, I have to say. Poetic and meaningful, and the jumps back and forth that we got timeline-wise actually seemed to make sense to me. I'm also just a sucker for stories that deal with how humans can band together (or vice versa) in times of great strife, as well as speculative fiction about post-apocalyptic scenarios, and the main characters being part of a traveling symphony of performers just managed to scratch some itch within me to a satisfying degree. I'd honestly love to see that subject matter handled in more post-apocalyptic stories. You're telling me there's simply no performance art to be found anywhere after society collapses? No way for people to just take their minds off of how shitty their situation is even for a couple of hours? I call humbug.
Rating it a bit lower because there were certain plot points that didn't end up being as well-developed as I thought they could be--what about these "ferals" that we keep hearing about, are they crazed from the illness or something else, and what the heck happened outside of America throughout this entire societal collapse, and are there larger settlements outside of this very particular region that we deal with in the book, and how exactly are they managing to cultivate food without certain technological measures? Some characters felt rather woefully underdeveloped as well, and I'm sorry, but the identity of who the cult leader more than likely was was a twist I saw coming from a mile away.
Still, it was a pretty solid book. I look forward to reading more from this author sometime in the future.
Rating it a bit lower because there were certain plot points that didn't end up being as well-developed as I thought they could be--what about these "ferals" that we keep hearing about, are they crazed from the illness or something else, and what the heck happened outside of America throughout this entire societal collapse, and are there larger settlements outside of this very particular region that we deal with in the book, and how exactly are they managing to cultivate food without certain technological measures? Some characters felt rather woefully underdeveloped as well, and I'm sorry, but the identity of who the cult leader more than likely was was a twist I saw coming from a mile away.
Still, it was a pretty solid book. I look forward to reading more from this author sometime in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, and Violence
Moderate: Suicide and Murder
Minor: Child death and Adult/minor relationship
jillianselene's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Confinement
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, and Kidnapping
Minor: Gun violence, Medical content, Rape, and Pregnancy
sophiestasyna's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Violence, Religious bigotry, Outing, Murder, and Xenophobia
washingmachineoverlord's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
A beautiful, mesmerizing, story of hope at the end of the world. A novel that goes beyond a simple post apocalyptic story and becomes a study on the meaning of art, humanity, love, and how these things are all intertwined.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Murder
goodfriendguy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Terminal illness, and Murder
Minor: Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Suicide
chersonese's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I really enjoyed this book, and it's made me realise that i'm much more a fan of multiple POVs in fiction that I first thought. It's something that you don't see too often, it's tricky to get a sprawling cast of characters right, easier to focus on one POV and do it well. In fact it's been said, somewhere by someone, that the optimal range of characters in any given scene that a person can keep track of is around seven. This book not only writes each different POV well, it shows you the ways in which you can play with a cast in scenes and expands on them in all the best ways.
Calling this a post-apocalyptic novel is going to mislead people, because while yes that is true I think it gives reader's certain expectations and leads them looking for an overarching plot, an obstacle to defeat, a villain. The book has those elements but they're not the main focus, this is a character-driven book, and subsequently the characters are driving you, the reader, to keep turning the page. I found myself several times going to a new chapter, seeing who's POV it was and being excited to hear more from a character we hadn't touched on in a few chapters. And I will admit I found myself wanting more of the characters, but (and I want to stress this) not because I feel they were not fleshed out in the writing, I wanted more of these characters because of how fleshed out they were.
I'm not normally in the business of writing long reviews, so i'll leave it with this. This book is about people, if you don't enjoy hearing about their everyday struggles, their seemingly generic highs and lows, their lives. If what you want is a fantastical adventure this book may leave you wanting, but I hope you'll read it anyway.
Calling this a post-apocalyptic novel is going to mislead people, because while yes that is true I think it gives reader's certain expectations and leads them looking for an overarching plot, an obstacle to defeat, a villain. The book has those elements but they're not the main focus, this is a character-driven book, and subsequently the characters are driving you, the reader, to keep turning the page. I found myself several times going to a new chapter, seeing who's POV it was and being excited to hear more from a character we hadn't touched on in a few chapters. And I will admit I found myself wanting more of the characters, but (and I want to stress this) not because I feel they were not fleshed out in the writing, I wanted more of these characters because of how fleshed out they were.
I'm not normally in the business of writing long reviews, so i'll leave it with this. This book is about people, if you don't enjoy hearing about their everyday struggles, their seemingly generic highs and lows, their lives. If what you want is a fantastical adventure this book may leave you wanting, but I hope you'll read it anyway.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Suicide, Murder, and Gun violence
podanotherjessi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-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 liked it! I think the story itself is told in this really neat way where it avoids a lot of (imo) more interesting narrative, or at least more typical pandemic/post apocalyptic stories - like the actual fall of civilization, or how society started to revive - and the result is this kind of negative space image that I really like. The pandemic itself is done in a way that settles into the uncanny valley. It's got a lot of elements of how that played out in real life, but it's just a little off in a way that makes it more extreme but not quite believable, but in a way that I found enjoyable if off-putting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Death
Moderate: Murder and Sexual harassment
nikelback's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Minor: Rape
pipercurda's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
poignantly eerie after having lived through an actual pandemic. i could read a series of ten more of these. some of the best as-you-go world-building i’ve read in a while. devoured in 36 hours.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Murder
Minor: Rape