Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by nuwandalice
The Stranding by Kate Sawyer
5.0
This book absolutely blew me away, I read it basically all in one (very unplanned) sitting after I had to try the prologue a few times before I really got hooked. It's so hard to sum up this book neatly without either making it sound grim or twee, but it's not really either: it's about life and death (before and) after the end of the world. I found it a really intense read, despite how hopeful it manages to be, and really gripping, despite how mundane a lot of it is.
I haven't ever really read anything that meshes together so well a longer-term post-apocalyptic storyline (think: The Road, Oryx and Crake, The Day of The Triffids,) with a melancholy slice of life type narrative that is only thematically tied to the former in a character driven way - a lot of dual narrative apocalyptic books focus on the pre-catastrophe and the events that lead up to that, but Ruth is just living her life, if anything she's actively avoiding the news cycle. The two stories are joined by Ruth's journey and growth and relationships, not the end of the world and how that came to be.
I really love the prose and Sawyer's writing style, I personally find present tense really engaging and readable, and I think it works very well for this book given there is so much *doing*. An awful lot of the story set in the 'After' is detailing the business of survival, but I never felt bored by it. I liked that the 'Before' stuck to this as well, rather than switching to past tense (which would've been my guess) because both narratives weave together much better like this, and it makes the past seem kind of dreamier, weirdly, having something you know is in the past (the Before) still being described as immediate has that effect. There's a really strange comparison that happens when you go from reading about people trying desperately to survive to reading about someone's parents disapproving of their boyfriend. It never makes the Before storyline feel trivial, exactly, but it does sort of nudge you in that direction.
The POV switching works quite nicely although it's much more rapid than I would normally prefer, but once I was used to it, it didn't take me out of the story at all. I definitely liked that Nik's POV was included, I think being stuck entirely in Ruth's head would've made the story too claustrophobic (and the ending a bit jarring.)
I found myself going back over all the little bits of information Sawyer gives about the nature of the disaster to try and figure out what happened - which is definitely not something you're supposed to be able to do. This book very deliberately withholds the details from you, and whilst I think that was a great choice, I couldn't help but keep trying, anyway. There are more and more clues dropped and you really do feel like you might find out - but you don't. On the one hand, I think that staying away from this is great - it doesn't become miserable or gruesome for the sake of it, and it's just more universal and character-driven when you're not concerned with the details. But on the other hand, I was desperate to know! I think this is me bringing more of my expectations of the genre than anything else, and I kind of liked that it denied me throughout.
That aside, the post-apocalypse storyline unfolds quite predictably but so beautifully I can't fault it at all. I sniffled my way through the last chapters despite seeing it coming a mile off, and I suppose that's where the dual storylines come together so well - the unravelling of Ruth's 'Before' life takes over when the 'After' life follows more predictable patterns.
I requested this e-ARC on NetGalley after seeing so many positive things on twitter, and it was a delight to read.
I haven't ever really read anything that meshes together so well a longer-term post-apocalyptic storyline (think: The Road, Oryx and Crake, The Day of The Triffids,) with a melancholy slice of life type narrative that is only thematically tied to the former in a character driven way - a lot of dual narrative apocalyptic books focus on the pre-catastrophe and the events that lead up to that, but Ruth is just living her life, if anything she's actively avoiding the news cycle. The two stories are joined by Ruth's journey and growth and relationships, not the end of the world and how that came to be.
I really love the prose and Sawyer's writing style, I personally find present tense really engaging and readable, and I think it works very well for this book given there is so much *doing*. An awful lot of the story set in the 'After' is detailing the business of survival, but I never felt bored by it. I liked that the 'Before' stuck to this as well, rather than switching to past tense (which would've been my guess) because both narratives weave together much better like this, and it makes the past seem kind of dreamier, weirdly, having something you know is in the past (the Before) still being described as immediate has that effect. There's a really strange comparison that happens when you go from reading about people trying desperately to survive to reading about someone's parents disapproving of their boyfriend. It never makes the Before storyline feel trivial, exactly, but it does sort of nudge you in that direction.
The POV switching works quite nicely although it's much more rapid than I would normally prefer, but once I was used to it, it didn't take me out of the story at all. I definitely liked that Nik's POV was included, I think being stuck entirely in Ruth's head would've made the story too claustrophobic (and the ending a bit jarring.)
I found myself going back over all the little bits of information Sawyer gives about the nature of the disaster to try and figure out what happened - which is definitely not something you're supposed to be able to do. This book very deliberately withholds the details from you, and whilst I think that was a great choice, I couldn't help but keep trying, anyway. There are more and more clues dropped and you really do feel like you might find out - but you don't. On the one hand, I think that staying away from this is great - it doesn't become miserable or gruesome for the sake of it, and it's just more universal and character-driven when you're not concerned with the details. But on the other hand, I was desperate to know! I think this is me bringing more of my expectations of the genre than anything else, and I kind of liked that it denied me throughout.
That aside, the post-apocalypse storyline unfolds quite predictably but so beautifully I can't fault it at all. I sniffled my way through the last chapters despite seeing it coming a mile off, and I suppose that's where the dual storylines come together so well - the unravelling of Ruth's 'Before' life takes over when the 'After' life follows more predictable patterns.
I requested this e-ARC on NetGalley after seeing so many positive things on twitter, and it was a delight to read.