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king_taliesin's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
** spoiler alert ** I read this at age 15 and I adored it. The book stayed in my thoughts as one of the greatest post-apocalypses I've ever read for 6 long years. I am not the same person I was at age 15, for better or for worse.
Now reading this at 21, it is still one of the most beautiful and thoughtful books I've ever read. But also reading it during the Covid-19 pandemic was especially hard and at times I hated the book. The words that soothed me at 15, haunted me now. 3 million people have lost their lives to a disease that ripped through the world, and a year on we still have not recovered. Whatever happens now, the world will never be the same. As with every apocalypse, we have lost something to this pandemic - lives, innocence, trust.
This review is rambling but I don't know how to look at this book through the lens of fantasy anymore. The Georgia flu is fictional and far more deadly than Covid-19 (thank fuck), but that was never the point of Station Eleven. Station Eleven is about what persists, rather than what we've lost.
Doctor Eleven outlives his creator, Arthur's life is preserved through magazine clippings, the Museum of Civilisation is lovingly preserved, lights begin to turn on in the darkness.
Now reading this at 21, it is still one of the most beautiful and thoughtful books I've ever read. But also reading it during the Covid-19 pandemic was especially hard and at times I hated the book. The words that soothed me at 15, haunted me now. 3 million people have lost their lives to a disease that ripped through the world, and a year on we still have not recovered. Whatever happens now, the world will never be the same. As with every apocalypse, we have lost something to this pandemic - lives, innocence, trust.
This review is rambling but I don't know how to look at this book through the lens of fantasy anymore. The Georgia flu is fictional and far more deadly than Covid-19 (thank fuck), but that was never the point of Station Eleven. Station Eleven is about what persists, rather than what we've lost.
Doctor Eleven outlives his creator, Arthur's life is preserved through magazine clippings, the Museum of Civilisation is lovingly preserved, lights begin to turn on in the darkness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Child death, Death of parent, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, and Gun violence
Minor: Torture, Stalking, and Sexual assault
deals heavily with an infectious, flu-like disease that kills the infected host very quickly. comments about the pandemic. can be very triggering due to real-life parallels to the Covid-19 pandemic
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