Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

There’s an eeriness to this Emily St. John Mandel novel, an eeriness that creates a disturbing yet compelling atmosphere as we follow the journey of several different characters, through a period of time that I can only describe as the end of the world.

Disaster strikes when actor Arthur Leander dies on stage mid-performance, and shortly after we’re introduced to what ultimately ends everything: the Georgia Flu. It’s a story that’ll take you on an adventure of a life time and young Kirsten and the Travelling Symphony help carry that journey along. The world has collapsed, but Kirsten and her friends survive, what happens when everything they’ve built gets jeopardised, and what will people do to survive? Who escapes and who dies?And more importantly….what would you do?

St. John Mandel has written a fantastic story that’ll answer just that in her cleverly put together narrative and plot. It’s held together strongly with its well formed non-linear structure, keeping her readers on their toes as they enter each new chapter. And it’s certainly a new read for me. One that put me right out of my comfort zone. One that had me battling every page with all my strength.

Yes, it was one of the books I found harder to get along with. So I think it’s fair to say that this wasn’t my favourite novel of all time. I struggled to get through it but only because it was hard to follow, and not all that exhilarating. Though others may beg to differ, I found it a tiny bit boring. I needed more action and less explanation. Perhaps a little more dialogue too. Don’t get me wrong, there were parts that I absolutely enjoyed and would read again, but they were sandwiched between parts that I didn’t care for, which slowed me down and wore me out.

However, in comparison to Stuart Turton’s ‘The Last Murder at the End of the World’ (a book review I wrote a little while ago - go check it out) this was by far the better novel. The story was stronger, the idea felt a little more realistic, and I was genuinely twice as intrigued to know what will happen to both the characters, and the unexpected journey of the plot than I was with Turton’s novel. I’d pick St. John Mandel’s over ‘The Last Murder at the End of the World’ any day. Which is saying something, because yes, her book was a hard read, but she nailed her writing. She has talent, and that talent wasn’t wasted on me. I saw it and I’ll recognise it. I enjoyed her work, I just didn’t enjoy this story as much as I thought I might (Sci-Fi might not be my thing.)

But, if Sci-Fi, adventure, and apocalyptic novels are you jam, this book is guaranteed to be your new ‘Book of the Year’. It won’t disappoint, I promise. Her interpretation of this concept is great, it was cool and as George R. R. Martin said, “wonderfully elegiac”. I can’t argue with that. It was so popular it became a TV series and I’m yet to watch it. And I will as soon as possible because to see this beautifully developed world live, would be astonishing and extremely engaging. And though I strongly believe in the fact that ‘the books are always better than the movies’, I’ve read the book, but I need and must be enlightened by the live action version too. I want St. John Mandel’s story to come alive and make a little more sense in my head. Her book was intricately and clearly written, but I never said it was easy to follow. I actually found it a little confusing, and I think the TV show would help clear up some of my questions. There were too many characters in too many different places - location and time wise - what a mind boggle. So I’d recommend watching that as well as reading it, especially if you’re someone like me who found it to be a little tricky to get into.

Overall though, I’m glad I read it and I think you should too.

By your copy of the book here:

https://amzn.eu/d/aaa1LV1

The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton’s latest novel is about a murder that has quite literally happened at the end of the world. It hasn’t been told how one might expect it to be told, but it’s a story that entices the reader with its strange thoughts on what the world might look like in hundreds of years time, as well as its unique storyline and characters. It takes a very curious and courageous mother through the journey of investigating the murder of a scientist named Niema, but not everything is at it seems. Nobody knows why or how Niema has died, and with her death being a death trap for the villagers living on the island, the fog is closing in faster than people can keep up with; and the only way to stop the fog is to find out who Niema’s killer was. But do they ever find them at all? That’s something you’ll have to find out. The clock is ticking, there’s secrets to unveil, and villagers to reassure; it’s intense, extremely detailed, and like nothing you’ve ever read before. I think it’s like Marmite, you’ll either love it, or you’ll hate it.

Let’s just say, I’m not a fan.

33 days later and I can say that I’ve read it all, front to back, without a single doubt in my mind about how I feel about Turton’s Dystopian, Sci-Fi, crime, and mystery novel.

So with that said, I think it’s finally safe to say that (if it wasn’t already clear) I didn’t enjoy this book at all. The concept is pretty cool, but if we’re considering the fact that the story is about someone’s murder, it doesn’t introduce it until one hundred pages in which made the first third of this book quite difficult to get through. It was information heavy and much of it wasn’t necessary in my opinion, and not a lot happened. Nothing exciting, anyway. Nothing that raised my hairs and quickened my heartbeat. Turton’s plot was too slow paced for me. Niema’s death was a surprise but only because I wasn’t expecting it to happen so late in the story. The story would have been interesting if she’d died right off the bat, but instead I had to get through an information overload that had me zoning out every five pages. And how it happened wasn’t anything that stirred my emotions either. It felt quite bland, and because of that it was a tedious read.

On top of its plot, almost every single character in this story annoyed me. I never warmed to any of them, and I never wanted anyone to leave the book with a positive outcome. I simply wasn’t bothered about their storylines. They annoyed me too much, but then again, I guess that means they were pretty realistic and well thought out. However, I can’t say that Turton did this to his characters on purpose, he might have actually wanted them to be loveable and to have his readers rooting for them. I never saw them in that light, and I still don’t even after I sat back to think about how and why I’m approaching this review the way I am. Instead, I found myself wanting to shout at them, begging them to do exactly the opposite of what Turton had them doing. Plus, there were character’s mentioned in this book that were never explained, or introduced properly, they were just referred to every once in a while, which left me assuming that they weren’t important and that they were simply villagers left in his story to help show what life is like in the world they live in.

It saddens me to say, though, that I’ve never experienced such negative emotions whilst reading a book before and that in itself took me by surprise.

The Last Murder at the End of the World wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I kept thinking about how I could write it, removing all factors that make it Sci-Fi and Dystopian because I’m not sure that helped his idea. It made it confusing, and some of it I felt didn’t make much sense. Though I do blame that opinion on the fact that I zoned out a lot while reading this book, and therefore missed some key parts in Turton’s story. However, a good book holds onto the readers’ attention throughout his or her story, and because Turton’s didn’t do that for me, it wasn’t a good book. I didn’t care enough to stay in his world for more than five or ten minutes at a time.

Admittedly, I’m only one person out of the hundreds who have read this, and everybody is different. There’s people out there who’d rave about this novel all day and all night, and I’m unfortunately not one of them. So, if you’re like me, and aren’t a fan of science fiction, complicated murder mysteries that haven’t been executed in a way that’s easy to follow, or simply dislike books that have a wishy-washy beginning, middle, and end, then I don’t recommend Turton’s latest novel. It sort of put me off his other books, but I shan’t judge them based on this book solely. He writes in different genres every time, perhaps this genre isn’t his forte? I know it’s not mine.

By your copy via the link below:

UK: https://amzn.eu/d/dLd8IEc