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A review by breannalynn
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
2.0
2/5
The best part of this book is the beginning. The descriptions of this family’s middle class vacation is so familiar that in a way it is comforting, and I wouldn’t mind reading an entire novel where they continue their trip as planned. Instead, there is a blackout, and as the reader you suspect something intense on the horizon to shock or stupify you.
Instead, you get a hazy hypothetical with prose that doesn’t really say anything. I was so disappointed by the last 3/4 of this book, I can’t believe I even finished it. Some of these sentences are so abstract that you read an entire page of them without really knowing what just happened. And I’m aware that the lack of real explanation for what caused this disaster is intentional, to bring awareness to our own climate, both political and natural, but what’s the point of cheekily saying “hey… that could be you!” without decisively knowing what it is you want us to think about! The characters don’t know anything, I don’t know anything, the author probably doesn’t even know anything! You’re teased with the reveal of just how screwed this family is, and you’re left absolutely disappointed. I mean really. Scrotums are explained with more conviction than the main plot of the book.
The best part of this book is the beginning. The descriptions of this family’s middle class vacation is so familiar that in a way it is comforting, and I wouldn’t mind reading an entire novel where they continue their trip as planned. Instead, there is a blackout, and as the reader you suspect something intense on the horizon to shock or stupify you.
Instead, you get a hazy hypothetical with prose that doesn’t really say anything. I was so disappointed by the last 3/4 of this book, I can’t believe I even finished it. Some of these sentences are so abstract that you read an entire page of them without really knowing what just happened. And I’m aware that the lack of real explanation for what caused this disaster is intentional, to bring awareness to our own climate, both political and natural, but what’s the point of cheekily saying “hey… that could be you!” without decisively knowing what it is you want us to think about! The characters don’t know anything, I don’t know anything, the author probably doesn’t even know anything! You’re teased with the reveal of just how screwed this family is, and you’re left absolutely disappointed. I mean really. Scrotums are explained with more conviction than the main plot of the book.