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A review by kandicez
A.D.: After Death by Scott Snyder
4.0
I waffled between three and four stars. I genuinely love [a:Jeff Lemire|543719|Jeff Lemire|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1568921362p2/543719.jpg]'s illustrations. I would recognize his work even if his name did not appear. And [a:Scott Snyder|70026|Scott Snyder|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1337783422p2/70026.jpg] has a very, very distinctive literary voice. My waffling was because I didn't feel the two quite gelled. I would give each component five stars alone, but together they somehow felt... less than they were taken alone.
This was heavy. Not that anyone would expect light and airy from either contributor, but man! This read as a dream, which is of course, exactly how it's meant to read. What is memory, other than a dream lived over and over in our mind?
The world has found a "cure" for aging and one of the people who helped to find this cure is having second thoughts. Hell, maybe even hundredth thoughts. In that way, this was reminiscent of [b:Shutter Island|21686|Shutter Island|Dennis Lehane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329269081l/21686._SY75_.jpg|1234227] by [a:Dennis Lehane|10289|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1227580381p2/10289.jpg]. The events we witness turn out to be only the most recent cycle. Very moving when this is revealed.
Over the last ten years or so it has become very, very clear to me that I would not want to live forever. I don't even know that I want to reach old age. People around me, people I love, have aged less than gracefully. They have aged and deteriorated in long, drawn out and very painful ways. I don't want that. I don't want the people who love me to watch me go through what I have seen. There is a heavy burden involved with caring for a loved one in illness. Not a cold, flu, virus, but an illness that ends in death. Especially when death is the only possible outcome. Snyder, in these pages, finds a way around this, but... and it's a big BUT, it doesn't give life anymore meaning. It doesn't add joy. It doesn't prolong happiness. Is life really life without meaning, joy and love? Not to me.
Now to the actual content. Snyder must have done a ton of research. He mentions diseases I had never heard of and that sounded made up. Imagine my surprise when I looked them up and they were real! Diseases like Neotenic Complex Syndrome and Fibro dysplasia Ossificans Progressive and Epidermolysis bullosa. He mentions CRSPRS and gene splicing, but mentions them in a way that makes sense, even to me, someone who knows nothing about them. You can bet I looked it all up. Phenomenal writing!
Another subject is a "new color." That doesn't seem impressive when I look at what I just typed, but trust me, it is. Snyder explains the color, and of course color can't be explained or described without using other colors as reference, but I was so intrigued! Because of the kind of story this is, the theft of said color is commissioned. Seriously! The theft of a color. And in Snyder's nimble words I bought the concept. And now I am back to waffling... because Lemire depicts this "new color" so perfectly without, of course, actually using a new color.
This was an enigma for me.
This was heavy. Not that anyone would expect light and airy from either contributor, but man! This read as a dream, which is of course, exactly how it's meant to read. What is memory, other than a dream lived over and over in our mind?
The world has found a "cure" for aging and one of the people who helped to find this cure is having second thoughts. Hell, maybe even hundredth thoughts. In that way, this was reminiscent of [b:Shutter Island|21686|Shutter Island|Dennis Lehane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329269081l/21686._SY75_.jpg|1234227] by [a:Dennis Lehane|10289|Dennis Lehane|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1227580381p2/10289.jpg]. The events we witness turn out to be only the most recent cycle. Very moving when this is revealed.
Over the last ten years or so it has become very, very clear to me that I would not want to live forever. I don't even know that I want to reach old age. People around me, people I love, have aged less than gracefully. They have aged and deteriorated in long, drawn out and very painful ways. I don't want that. I don't want the people who love me to watch me go through what I have seen. There is a heavy burden involved with caring for a loved one in illness. Not a cold, flu, virus, but an illness that ends in death. Especially when death is the only possible outcome. Snyder, in these pages, finds a way around this, but... and it's a big BUT, it doesn't give life anymore meaning. It doesn't add joy. It doesn't prolong happiness. Is life really life without meaning, joy and love? Not to me.
Now to the actual content. Snyder must have done a ton of research. He mentions diseases I had never heard of and that sounded made up. Imagine my surprise when I looked them up and they were real! Diseases like Neotenic Complex Syndrome and Fibro dysplasia Ossificans Progressive and Epidermolysis bullosa. He mentions CRSPRS and gene splicing, but mentions them in a way that makes sense, even to me, someone who knows nothing about them. You can bet I looked it all up. Phenomenal writing!
Another subject is a "new color." That doesn't seem impressive when I look at what I just typed, but trust me, it is. Snyder explains the color, and of course color can't be explained or described without using other colors as reference, but I was so intrigued! Because of the kind of story this is, the theft of said color is commissioned. Seriously! The theft of a color. And in Snyder's nimble words I bought the concept. And now I am back to waffling... because Lemire depicts this "new color" so perfectly without, of course, actually using a new color.
This was an enigma for me.