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nina_reads_books 's review for:
Endling
by Maria Reva
Book 4 on my Booker Prize longlist reading journey and ding ding ding we have a new favourite! Well considering I have not loved the previous 3 this was probably no surprise but I think Endling by Maria Reva is going to stay right at the top of my personal ranking.
Yeva is a loner who is on a personal mission to save snails in Ukraine before they die out. In her mobile lab she travels the country saving snails until only her absolute favourite snail Lefty is still alive. Yeva is employed in the marriage industry (funding to save more snails!) and entertains Western men who hope to meet their perfect wife. It is through this work that Yeva meets sisters Nastia and Solomiya who are in the romance industry while they search for their missing mother.
The three women fall into an unusual partnership and set off in the mobile lab with 13 kidnapped bachelors inside. And then Russia invades the country, all hell breaks loose, Yeva hears about a sighting of a snail that might be another "Lefty" and the women with the bachelors still in tow head off to launch a snail rescue mission.
Honestly I could not have imagined how a storyline as bizarre as this could be so compelling. An endling is the last of its species. The fact that this book focuses on snails as endlings just blows me away with its uniqueness. Why is this just the perfect concept? But this wasn't just about the fictional story of the snails. Endling was an incredible example of meta fiction. I love books that surprise you with their structure or how the words and chapters are displayed on the page. In this case the first part of the book culminates in the start of Russian's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and we suddenly shift from the fictional story to an account of the author and her experience of living abroad from her home country and worrying about family still there. But even the almost
non-fiction is blurry and blends with the main storyline in interesting ways. All so very clever!
I found Endling moving. The sensitive take on the Russian war with Ukraine and its impacts on the residents and their families abroad opened my eyes. And the environmental loss as Yeva tries so hard to sustain snail species hinted at the bigger climate picture without labouring on it. I even enjoyed the almost satirical take on the romance/marriage industry. I loved this book almost until the very end. What dipped my love slightly was the fact that one of the bachelors has the last say in the last chapter. Perhaps I have missed something symbolic but I just didn't love the last few pages as much as I'd hoped. Otherwise banging book and I will be devastated if this is not shortlisted.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Yeva is a loner who is on a personal mission to save snails in Ukraine before they die out. In her mobile lab she travels the country saving snails until only her absolute favourite snail Lefty is still alive. Yeva is employed in the marriage industry (funding to save more snails!) and entertains Western men who hope to meet their perfect wife. It is through this work that Yeva meets sisters Nastia and Solomiya who are in the romance industry while they search for their missing mother.
The three women fall into an unusual partnership and set off in the mobile lab with 13 kidnapped bachelors inside. And then Russia invades the country, all hell breaks loose, Yeva hears about a sighting of a snail that might be another "Lefty" and the women with the bachelors still in tow head off to launch a snail rescue mission.
Honestly I could not have imagined how a storyline as bizarre as this could be so compelling. An endling is the last of its species. The fact that this book focuses on snails as endlings just blows me away with its uniqueness. Why is this just the perfect concept? But this wasn't just about the fictional story of the snails. Endling was an incredible example of meta fiction. I love books that surprise you with their structure or how the words and chapters are displayed on the page. In this case the first part of the book culminates in the start of Russian's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and we suddenly shift from the fictional story to an account of the author and her experience of living abroad from her home country and worrying about family still there. But even the almost
non-fiction is blurry and blends with the main storyline in interesting ways. All so very clever!
I found Endling moving. The sensitive take on the Russian war with Ukraine and its impacts on the residents and their families abroad opened my eyes. And the environmental loss as Yeva tries so hard to sustain snail species hinted at the bigger climate picture without labouring on it. I even enjoyed the almost satirical take on the romance/marriage industry. I loved this book almost until the very end. What dipped my love slightly was the fact that one of the bachelors has the last say in the last chapter. Perhaps I have missed something symbolic but I just didn't love the last few pages as much as I'd hoped. Otherwise banging book and I will be devastated if this is not shortlisted.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2