Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Blue Book of Nebo

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros

9 reviews

brychan's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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xabbeylongx's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~

Book Review:

This book was just beautiful. Very well written, the story just flows, and it kept me hooked with every page - I finished it in one day because I could not put it down!

I love the entire story. I love how when everything ‘ended’, Row still continued fighting for their lives. There was no panic, or no overdramatised actions, they simply just got on with it. I really like the tone of this story, and it definitely made it more enjoyable to read. It felt like I was reading into a diary, into someone’s mind and their thoughts, and I loved it.
I really liked how the characters weren't sugarcoated, even Row through her son's eyes; I think that made it a bit more personal to the characters, and definitely helped me to develop a connection with the characters, which I think would be difficult if we didn't know their inner monologue - these characters, for example, seem to keep their emotions to themselves, most of the time.

Minor nitpicks is that both Row and Dylan both have very similar writing styles. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a bit more of a difference between their inner monologues, as they are both two separate people. That would have made it perfect.

Also, I would have loved if it was a bit longer; more details! I want to hear all about Dylan’s dad, more about Greta’s, more about the before of The End. I would genuinely have loved it if this book was written entirely by Row herself, the way she sees things and recounts them, is just gorgeous. Really beautiful story, and definitely makes you think a lot about how life is now.

Overall, a really lovely story, a quick and emotional read, and would definitely recommend!

Book Summary:

We follow Dylan and his mum, Rowenna. It takes place in the Welsh countryside, post-nuclear tragedy.

When they’re out foraging, they find a blue book, with blank pages. Row gives it to Dyl, hoping that he’ll use it to write. He, however, wants both of them to write; he wants his mum to write about before The End, and he wants to write about the aftermath of it.

So that’s what they do.

Everything was normal, and then, one day, it wasn’t. After a terrifying article on the news, people start panic-buying food, and so does Rowena. When the nuclear power plant goes off, many people have already left. Row and Dylan go to sleep with the quilt wrapped up tight beneath their chins, and they sleep.

When they wake up, it’s eerily quiet. All the birds had flown away from the big mushroom cloud, and many people had moved away. Some, like their neighbours, Mr and Mrs Thorpe, even moved closer to it, knowing they would die. Their sons were unlikely to have made it, so they knew what they were doing.

Row and Dylan made a life for themselves. She wasn’t keen on stealing, but, as days went by and no one returned, she would go into places and take food and clothes, and other things that weren’t being used. On her travels, she met a man, and they ended up falling in love. She doesn’t know what happened to him, but he left his mark on her - and in her (awful pun). Unfortunately, she doesn’t know whether he’d had enough or had been killed, but she never saw him again.

Despite having no healthcare at all, she had a baby, and called her Greta Mona. It was just the three of them. Despite the harsh weather, they manage to battle through illnesses with little to no medication, even though it’s touch or go. They hunted for their own food, made their own homes, grew fruits and vegetables. Winter was hardest, especially when sickness came by, because no one would grow anything. They didn’t have to go out, and they hardly ever came across people - not people who were alive, anyway. Dylan marvelled at the few memories he had of him as a child, how things were before. He was shocked that people would pass each other in the streets and not say hi!

Unfortunately, Greta became so sick that she didn’t make it. Dylan had to bury his own sister, and his mother didn’t take it well. Not only had she stopped teaching him (there was, apparently, nothing left to teach anyway), she also withdrew emotionally. She had already become hard due to The End, but now she was even harder.

After a while, they began to hear helicopters and police sirens, and Row knew that her life was moving on. But, she didn’t know if she was ready to go back to how things were… she felt that she had become her true self after The End.

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misty_kb's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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flatreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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epellicci's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

**Thank you to Net Galley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review**

Dylan, him mum, and baby sister Mona might be the last people in the world after The End. Several years ago, bombs dropped around the world, the power went away, and then came The Cloud. In a beautiful remote area of North Wales, Dylan and his family have survived it all, and now he and his mum are sharing their story.

The Blue Book of Nebo is eerily believable, and Manon Steffan Ros masterfully captures a sense of fear and hope through the eyes of her characters. I found Dylan’s chapters particularly moving – his journey from innocent child to the steady, mature presence of a young person with so much responsibility, really hit me. Despite its short length, there is a real reflective spirit to the book, helped by the use of Rowena, whose narrative gives us a perspective that has lived most of their life in the world before The End and had to adjust their entire world view.

The ending left me dying to know what is next for this family. This book is a brilliantly moving and thoughtful study of growth, grief, and connections – both to people and the world we exist in.

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booksjessreads's review

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dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I read this for the Carnegie Shortlist and felt this was a really good YA read. I really enjoyed Dylan's character and how his innocence of childhood is really played throughout his early chapters in the book. I also got a sense of Dylan growing up throughout his chapters, and how it gradually got more mature as he aged. I also felt Rowenna's chapters were cleverly done, because in the beginning, you deeply felt her dislike of writing and self-confessing to the Blue Book of Nebo, but you sensed how she became more comfortable in writing throughout the book. These were really clever techniques. However, the downside for me, was that at times, it felt like you were reading an adult and a child's book at points, rather than being YA. I felt it was quite disconcerting to flit between them at times, but generally I appreciated the way this story was told.

I also found the subject matter and the story itself to be really interesting, but also really bleak. This is undoubtedly quite a sad and dark book and it was really heavy at times. I think this definitely needs a more mature reader to handle the emotional energy required to get through certain parts, especially towards the end. Generally, I also thought the dystopia to be fairly believable and thought the natural story progression wasn't forced. I also enjoyed the themes of trying to survive the end of the world really interesting, especially things relating to gardening. Furthermore, I enjoyed the setting of the book, being set in a small Welsh village was such a different setting to me, and I also enjoyed how there was Welsh throughout the book. I personally have never read anything from this country and it offered such a fresh perspective. This was also translated by the author from Welsh to English, which made the translation seem really smooth.

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