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A review by sandramarinis
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Wow! One of the best books I've ever read. The amount of planning it takes to make this storyline make sense is incredible. I LOVED HER WRITING STYLE. It made me reflect a lot about my own existence and fear of the world ending and of technological development.
This book intertwines timelines in a seamless way that leaves you feeling like a detective trying to understand the order of all the events. It has amazing build up and will give you shivers when the storylines connect. The author writes in such a way that makes you really understand the time and place surrounding the characters who live within them.
My favorite quotes:
1. "My personal belief is that we turn to postapocalyptic fiction not because we're drawn to disaster, per se, but because we're drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology in it." (page 191). This hit so hard and also felt like the author was breaking the fourth wall.
2. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we're living at the climax of the story. It's a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we're uniquely important, that we're living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it's ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world." (page 189).
The moon colonies freaked me out. It sounded so incredibly sad to live in a technological reality instead of earth. Especially with the fake sky and fake weather within the dome.
I also found it heartbreaking that Olive kept thinking about the fact that she was supposed to die in the pandemic. The whole part where she left earth convinced that she had been warned of her upcoming death, and then her husband doubted her sanity, was SUCH GOOD WRITING. It was so exciting!!! I was like 😮😮😮!
Gaspery pretending to follow the rules from the time Institute, just to do the opposite had me like 👀😬😅 Gaspery is such a thrill seeker and clearly couldn't let his curiosity be unexplored
This book intertwines timelines in a seamless way that leaves you feeling like a detective trying to understand the order of all the events. It has amazing build up and will give you shivers when the storylines connect. The author writes in such a way that makes you really understand the time and place surrounding the characters who live within them.
My favorite quotes:
1. "My personal belief is that we turn to postapocalyptic fiction not because we're drawn to disaster, per se, but because we're drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology in it." (page 191). This hit so hard and also felt like the author was breaking the fourth wall.
2. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we're living at the climax of the story. It's a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we're uniquely important, that we're living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it's ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world." (page 189).
The moon colonies freaked me out. It sounded so incredibly sad to live in a technological reality instead of earth. Especially with the fake sky and fake weather within the dome.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Pandemic/Epidemic