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A review by krys_kilz
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book was a difficult read. The pacing was quite slow and it's mostly character driven. It took me a few days to get through the whole thing. The plot remained vague all the way through to the ambiguous ending and the reader never gets any answers about what's going on.
I understand how that might be frustrating for many readers. Initially I was frustrated too, but as I sat with it after finishing, I honestly found the book's entire concept and execution extremely clever. Alam's writing style was superb and his sharp commentary on the delusion of whiteness, the illusion of safety, the fragility of life, ignorance/denial, and colonial modernity felt very on the nose.
This novel doesn't really feel like a thriller. To me, it reads more as satire with light dystopian undertones. The entire story really zeroes in on the fear of the unknown, of uncertainty especially in the so called "age of information." The overwhelm of not knowing what is happening or what will happen next along with the sheer volume of things that can and are going wrong. And the certain hubris of whiteness that nothing bad can ever really happen to you.
The book's ending perfectly encapsulates those fears by mirroring them back to the reader - providing scant to no clues about what has happened or what will happen next and cheekily asking if we don't know how this will end, how is that different than any other day?
If you go into this book expecting a tense, edge of your seat thriller with lots of conflict and big twists, you will certainly be disappointed. This book is not those things. For me, it was more quiet. Subtle. As Alam says in a profile with Vulture, "I write about the living embodiment of a certain kind of blindness."
I understand how that might be frustrating for many readers. Initially I was frustrated too, but as I sat with it after finishing, I honestly found the book's entire concept and execution extremely clever. Alam's writing style was superb and his sharp commentary on the delusion of whiteness, the illusion of safety, the fragility of life, ignorance/denial, and colonial modernity felt very on the nose.
This novel doesn't really feel like a thriller. To me, it reads more as satire with light dystopian undertones. The entire story really zeroes in on the fear of the unknown, of uncertainty especially in the so called "age of information." The overwhelm of not knowing what is happening or what will happen next along with the sheer volume of things that can and are going wrong. And the certain hubris of whiteness that nothing bad can ever really happen to you.
The book's ending perfectly encapsulates those fears by mirroring them back to the reader - providing scant to no clues about what has happened or what will happen next and cheekily asking if we don't know how this will end, how is that different than any other day?
If you go into this book expecting a tense, edge of your seat thriller with lots of conflict and big twists, you will certainly be disappointed. This book is not those things. For me, it was more quiet. Subtle. As Alam says in a profile with Vulture, "I write about the living embodiment of a certain kind of blindness."
"Ruth had learned only one thing from the current reality, and it was that everything held together by tacit agreement that it would. All it took to unravel something was one party deciding to do just that. There was no real structure to prevent chaos, there was only a collective faith in order."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Alcohol, Vomit, and Body horror
Moderate: Racism