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A review by safekeeper
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I had this book recommended to me by Emmie on Booktube, who said it was incredibly creepy and got very tough and gory towards the end. Wasn't my experience at all, so maybe she just hasn't read many horror books. Won't say I directly disliked this, but it wasn't exactly phenomenal either.
Leave the World Behind is about two families hunched down at an isolated house while they lose contact with the surrounding world and mysterious things start happening -- a huge flock of deer, a thunderous noise they can't identity, a garbled news alert on a phone before it dies. It's not really about the events themselves as much as it is an exploration of how the families try to understand and cope with the events around them. Expect a *very* slow pace. The author stops to make observations or reflect upon all sorts of different topics, from masculinity to class differences and whites' attitudes towards black people, seemingly every time someone opens their mouths. The characters make constant references to everything from North Korea to 9/11 as they try to make sense of what they experience, which to be honest felt a bit cliched and tiresome. Also, having the white experience related to me by an Indian guy felt pretty awkward.
You also get short comments from the narrator about things happening elsewhere, like a plane crashing because air traffic control goes down temporarily, or a mother giving birth to a child as the hospital loses power, which helps the reader understand the severity of the situation, but really just feels tacked on and almost insensitive. "Oh and by the way, right now a Chinese man is dying in an elevator. But anyways..."
Again, I won't say I disliked Leave the World Behind. I was expecting something else, and I get the impression a lot of other people were as well. The ending felt very abrupt, to the point where I had to check if my audio book had a second part that I had missed. Frankly, I think it would have worked a lot better without the tacked-on global catastrophe, if it had been just a power outage, a mysterious sickness, and paranoia, and an exploration of various societal issues and how we humans react to situations we don't understand.
I cautiously recommend Leave the World Behind if you want just that -- a (leisurely paced) study of human sociology, and how we react to unforseen crises.
Leave the World Behind is about two families hunched down at an isolated house while they lose contact with the surrounding world and mysterious things start happening -- a huge flock of deer, a thunderous noise they can't identity, a garbled news alert on a phone before it dies. It's not really about the events themselves as much as it is an exploration of how the families try to understand and cope with the events around them. Expect a *very* slow pace. The author stops to make observations or reflect upon all sorts of different topics, from masculinity to class differences and whites' attitudes towards black people, seemingly every time someone opens their mouths. The characters make constant references to everything from North Korea to 9/11 as they try to make sense of what they experience, which to be honest felt a bit cliched and tiresome. Also, having the white experience related to me by an Indian guy felt pretty awkward.
You also get short comments from the narrator about things happening elsewhere, like a plane crashing because air traffic control goes down temporarily, or a mother giving birth to a child as the hospital loses power, which helps the reader understand the severity of the situation, but really just feels tacked on and almost insensitive. "Oh and by the way, right now a Chinese man is dying in an elevator. But anyways..."
Again, I won't say I disliked Leave the World Behind. I was expecting something else, and I get the impression a lot of other people were as well. The ending felt very abrupt, to the point where I had to check if my audio book had a second part that I had missed. Frankly, I think it would have worked a lot better without the tacked-on global catastrophe, if it had been just a power outage, a mysterious sickness, and paranoia, and an exploration of various societal issues and how we humans react to situations we don't understand.
I cautiously recommend Leave the World Behind if you want just that -- a (leisurely paced) study of human sociology, and how we react to unforseen crises.