This week I finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel! I mentioned it was the only book I had started in my last check-in, so I was glad to finish it, or else I wouldn’t have had anything to talk about today!
I
really liked this book, but to be honest this was a terrible time to
read it. A book about the collapse of the world after a pandemic isn’t
necessarily a good choice to read when you’ve been stuck at home since
March because of the pandemic. One of the kids I tutor told me that her
teacher had switched the syllabus so in April they were supposed to read
this and I absolutely can’t believe that. (The girl I tutor didn’t read
it). Especially in the early days of the pandemic coming here I
wouldn’t have wanted to read this book about the collapse of
civilization from this new disease. I at one point had to stop reading
and check if it had a happy ending before I would pick it up again.
The
book follows a woman who was a girl in a play when the lead actor had a
heart attack onstage. That was the same day that the deadly new
pandemic arrived to the city. In a matter of days, society had collapsed
as millions died worldwide. She was too young to remember much of
before, only 8, and the book switches between events from then and 20
years after the collapse. She has joined a “Traveling Symphony” which
travels town to town performing plays and music to try and keep arts and
culture alive. They have a specific route they follow, but when they
come upon a town that had changed significantly since their last
arrival, with a new violent prophet, they end up having to change their
route and entering the unknown. As the story flips back and forth
between the before and after times, it reveals how the different
characters from after the collapse were somewhat connected from the
before times.
Despite the terrible timing, I did enjoy this book. (Super mild SPOILERS ahead: It does have a hopeful ending, which was good enough for me. END SPOILERS).
I liked the world that was created. It flipped back and forth to weave
how all these characters were actually connected through one person from
before. One person was followed but didn’t really tie in post collapse
that much which I thought was an interesting choice. A way to show the
differences in the post collapse world. I liked the world building, I
think a lot of apocalypse novels focus on right after this collapse, and
while there were a few chapters that touched on it, it really wasn’t
the focus. I love the idea of the traveling band/acting troupe that
wants to keep the arts alive. I recommend this book, but in like a year
or 2, when COVID isn’t so stressful.
I have started 2 new books!
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi and Deathless Divide by
Justina Ireland. These are both sequels for books that I read in 2018,
so it’s kinda weird to pick the thread back up.
As always, you can see all the books I’ve read on my reading list.
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