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A review by writtenontheflyleaves
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam 🦌
🌟🌟🌟🌟✨
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🏡 The plot: Clay and Amanda came to this secluded holiday home to escape their normal lives. But when the owners arrive in the middle of the night bringing news of a blackout in Manhattan, and they lose all contact with the outside world, they don’t know what is going on, or how suspicious they should be…
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⚠️ Disclaimer: I highly recommend this book but think you should go in blind! If it sounds like your thing, skip to the read/avoid points in comments and save this post for later!
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For a relatively anxious person, I love an end-of-the-world novel. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was probably my favourite book of 2020, and I loved Severance by Ling Ma when I read it earlier this year. Alam’s novel is somewhere in between these two books, but rather than being in a centre of action when disaster hits, Alam’s characters are hopelessly out of the loop, which made their situation even more tense.
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I wish I could read this book without my 2021 goggles on! I found myself getting impatient with Clay and Amanda’s initial scepticism, forgetting how unreal the first few months of the pandemic felt - maybe there are some lessons you can only learn by living through.
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Like Severance, LTWB’s central point seemed to be a critique of capitalism, but unlike almost any other apocalyptic novel I’ve read, Alam wasn’t willing to throw up his hands or invite his readers to appreciate our broken world for all its cracked beauty. Instead, he pointed his story back at the reader, stating emphatically that this is our problem, too.
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The only real concession Alam gives is a Station Eleven-style omnipotence: the narrator tells us information the characters can’t know. Maybe this is just to keep us engaged (and it works) but maybe it’s also a sort of compromise. At the end of the world, we won’t know what’s going on. We will be confused and scared, tapping desperately at phones that bring no information, groping for instincts of animal survival that the daily rhythms of our lives suppress. Giving us closure on our questions is something only fiction can do, and it’s used well here - it chills and panics in equal measure.
🦷 Read if you loved either Station Eleven or Severance, and if you enjoy unlikeable characters and critiques of capitalism. Also the chapters are super short - great if you’re coming out of a slump!
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🚫 Avoid it if you’re anxious about the state of the world right now or hate novels centred on unlikeable characters. Check the TWs for this book before reading, but the main ones I would highlight would be blood, vomit, death, and racism.
🌟🌟🌟🌟✨
-
🏡 The plot: Clay and Amanda came to this secluded holiday home to escape their normal lives. But when the owners arrive in the middle of the night bringing news of a blackout in Manhattan, and they lose all contact with the outside world, they don’t know what is going on, or how suspicious they should be…
-
⚠️ Disclaimer: I highly recommend this book but think you should go in blind! If it sounds like your thing, skip to the read/avoid points in comments and save this post for later!
-
For a relatively anxious person, I love an end-of-the-world novel. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was probably my favourite book of 2020, and I loved Severance by Ling Ma when I read it earlier this year. Alam’s novel is somewhere in between these two books, but rather than being in a centre of action when disaster hits, Alam’s characters are hopelessly out of the loop, which made their situation even more tense.
-
I wish I could read this book without my 2021 goggles on! I found myself getting impatient with Clay and Amanda’s initial scepticism, forgetting how unreal the first few months of the pandemic felt - maybe there are some lessons you can only learn by living through.
-
Like Severance, LTWB’s central point seemed to be a critique of capitalism, but unlike almost any other apocalyptic novel I’ve read, Alam wasn’t willing to throw up his hands or invite his readers to appreciate our broken world for all its cracked beauty. Instead, he pointed his story back at the reader, stating emphatically that this is our problem, too.
-
The only real concession Alam gives is a Station Eleven-style omnipotence: the narrator tells us information the characters can’t know. Maybe this is just to keep us engaged (and it works) but maybe it’s also a sort of compromise. At the end of the world, we won’t know what’s going on. We will be confused and scared, tapping desperately at phones that bring no information, groping for instincts of animal survival that the daily rhythms of our lives suppress. Giving us closure on our questions is something only fiction can do, and it’s used well here - it chills and panics in equal measure.
🦷 Read if you loved either Station Eleven or Severance, and if you enjoy unlikeable characters and critiques of capitalism. Also the chapters are super short - great if you’re coming out of a slump!
-
🚫 Avoid it if you’re anxious about the state of the world right now or hate novels centred on unlikeable characters. Check the TWs for this book before reading, but the main ones I would highlight would be blood, vomit, death, and racism.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Blood, and War