A review by questingnotcoasting
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a book I keep hearing about so I wanted to find out for myself what it was like. I don't read many thrillers and certainly don't think I've read many like this but I really enjoyed it. The writing style took some getting used to and while it certainly felt overwritten at times, I ended up enjoying the third person omniscient narrator. However, despite being inside all the character's heads you don't get to know them very well; instead there's more emphasis on the vague, unsettling atmosphere. It's relatively slow paced but the subtle sense of dread meant I read it in under 24 hours. I was desperate to know what was going on but I'm also glad I knew it had an open ending because otherwise I'd have been disappointed. In terms of atmosphere and how much it explained it reminded me of Annihilation, though they are quite different books genre-wise. 
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