This science fiction story follows a group of seven people after they each wake up and find themselves the last people remaining on Earth. All of them went to sleep the day before and woke up like normal, except suddenly there are no other humans, the animals and vegetation have taken over the cities, and infrastructure like bridges and buildings have begun to collapse. Set mostly in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the seven people eventually must come together and work to not only survive but also find out what happened to them and the rest of humanity. Our cast of characters are: Touré, a twenty-something Cambridge coder; Robbie and Carol, two equally disoriented Harvard freshmen; Paul, a preacher as quick with a gun as a Bible verse; Win, a young professional with a horse; Bethany, a thirteen-year-old juvenile delinquent; and Ananda, an MIT astrophysics adjunct.
My favorite part of this story was the world building. Sure, we aren't on some sort of futuristic space ship, but there are enough strange things going on in this new Cambridge that the characters (and the reader) need to get a handle on. I really loved how, in the beginning, each of the characters would have multiple moments where they'd think about needing to get something or do something and then have the reality of how complex that is now going to be. At one point, they are looking for food and Touré makes a comment that it doesn't matter where they go for breakfast if all the restaurants are locked up and they'd have to break in anyway. I think Doucette uses these little inconveniences and parts of every day life that have been messed up by the apocalypse to his advantage. It was almost like the reader was going around and gathering all these small ways that life is so different now and then, after a while, there are so many little things that we start to get the bigger picture of what is going on in this new world. I also liked how many of the aspects of this new world are just different enough to be concerning. Like the animals are all the normal animals that someone would expect in that part of the country but they are acting just a little strange or are just a bit different than what the characters are used to. Again, it is more of the idea that all these little differences add up to a really good sense of something being wrong. The actual physical descriptions of the places were also really effective. Doucette would give just enough detail to ground the reader, but no so much that it got boring or took away from the tension of the immediate situation of trying to survive. Again, since the book is based in current day reality there isn't too much extra stuff to explain. We get settings like a farm house, a grocery store, a dorm room, a college lecture hall, a library, etc. Personally, I enjoy this sort of more 'realistic' sci-fi story where I can stay relatively grounded and see the fantastical elements to the story instead of being overwhelmed by everything being so futuristic or fantastical and not knowing exactly what to focus on.
I think the overall tone of the book was really well done and I found it a bit refreshing. This story had a sort of optimistic vibe to it where the characters worked together. I think a lot of these sort of survival stories (sci-fi or not) often have groups of people pitted against one another or double crossing each other for survival. That just wasn't the case in this story and I never really felt like it was even hinted at being an option. Maybe it is because there are so few of them that there just aren't enough people to make separate groups to fight but it was a nice change from the usual sort of survival stories that I've come across. This book reminded me of the movie The Day After Tomorrow because the main group of characters are younger (college aged), there is some weird weather stuff that happens, they're running around a city, and there's a focus on science and using that information to survive. Now, this book isn't nearly as severe weather-wise as that movie, but there were multiple times were I was reminded of that movie which I haven't seen in at least 10 years, if not more. Outside of a few tense moments, I found this book to have a pretty light tone. It have very 'back to nature' vibes since the animals had pretty much taken back over the land. There were some dangerous animals (boars and wolves, mostly), but most of the time there were mentions of squirrels or deer running around. It was oddly peaceful at the same times as being a bit unsettling thinking of how much had changed suddenly for these characters. But in general, I didn't find this to be a dark or depressing sci-fi story like some of the genre can swing toward.
As a character-driven reader, I was a bit torn on the characters in this book. On paper, they are pretty interesting and unique. They each brought something to the group and they were diverse enough in their backgrounds to help figure out the problems they faced. However, in the narrative, they just didn't really stand out from each other. The story is told in third person but there are just so many characters that we follow that I would have found it helpful if the different characters were a bit more distinct from one another. This did get a little better the further along in the story I got, maybe because I had just gotten used to the narrative style, but initially, I kept forgetting who we were following. The character's speaking styles weren't really that different from one another and if there were more than 2 people talking, I had a hard time keeping track of who was speaking. I also found the narrative sort of jumped around to the different characters within the same chapter a lot. Now since this was 3rd person POV and it wasn't super close to the characters, I didn't have that much of an issue and there were usually scene breaks when we would hop over to follow a new character. However, since I was having a somewhat difficult time distinguishing the characters' voices from one another, I wished there would have been a harder line (like a full new chapter) when we switched characters. There also wasn't a whole lot of room for significant character growth with following seven different characters and then dealing with the big questions and resolutions at the end of the book. One character - Robbie - did have a pretty good arc, but he ends up changing so rapidly in the last few chapters that I really wanted more of that development earlier.
The main part of the book that really didn't work for me is the pacing. We spend the first 75-80% of the book getting to know these characters and watching them survive their first few months in this new world. Then in the last little part of the book, it felt like we found out what probably happened to them, get confirmation that this theory is correct, get a plan together to solve the issue, have the plan put in motion, then we have an epilogue. I skipped over some plot points for spoiler reasons, but that's a lot to get through in only 20% of the book. As much as I enjoyed the characters, I really think we didn't need to have that much time spent with them gathering supplies and food. Especially when there wasn't that much action or really anything happening in the first 50%. Sure, they had some bad luck and had a few interesting situations arise, but nothing really substantial that felt threatening. The pace picks up a bit at the 50% mark where we get some information dropped in that sort of reframes what the reader thought was going on and hints at the larger situation of how they are all here in the first place. If the events in the last 20% were more developed and spread out a bit say from the 50% mark to the end, I think it would have been a lot more engaging of a story. I understand that they couldn't really focus on figuring out the larger picture until they had shelter and food lined up, but I think the two aspects of the story - the survival element and the question answering element - could have been more balanced. I think plot focused readers wouldn't enjoy this book as much due to this very slow build up to the main reveal. I also think squishing in all the events at the end lead to plot points being less developed than I think they needed to be.
I really liked the way the science was incorporated into the story. It was a big part of the group discovering what had really happened, but it was never presented in an overly scientific way. For example, we find out the approximate year by Ananda looking at where the stars are in the sky. She observes that they aren't where she would expect them to be and thus determines that the year is approximately X. I, as the reader, have no idea how that sort of math/science works or how exactly she was able to get to the answer she did, but I trust that she is correct because I know she is an astrophysicist so I can rely on her expertise. Now a reader who likes harder sci-fi with a lot of explanation might call this vague and hand-wavy but I really enjoyed how we get the information and then get on with the story.
Overall, this was a nice read - interesting premise, good world building, low interpersonal tension, and pretty seamless science integration. However, the pacing and character distinction really left a lot to be desired for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC in exchange for review
Expected publication is May 25, 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment