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A review by galaxyreader
Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
challenging
dark
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I think this is a genuinely good book: It’s well-written, highly imaginative yet insightful about current culture. It manages to be both bleak and hopeful. For some reason, it took me like nine months to get through it. It’s long but not that long!
I’d chalk this one up to my attention span, but the shifting narrative focus sometimes broke the investment I had built up. We switch not only perspectives but protagonists, jumping years and locations something like seven times. The characters are diverse and intertwined in complex ways. But this isn’t Cloud Atlas — we’re aren’t jumping centuries and planets. We’re jumping like seven years from one area in North America to another, just far enough away for any of the social tension of the previous story arc to have faded.
A third of this book really languishes in what felt like superficial romance or superficial torture, but then another third of the book our characters are actively getting bombed or running away from bombs. The other third was really interesting, provocative speculation on the future of humanity as it breaks free of both capitalism and death itself. So I’d say mostly read it for those parts?
I’d chalk this one up to my attention span, but the shifting narrative focus sometimes broke the investment I had built up. We switch not only perspectives but protagonists, jumping years and locations something like seven times. The characters are diverse and intertwined in complex ways. But this isn’t Cloud Atlas — we’re aren’t jumping centuries and planets. We’re jumping like seven years from one area in North America to another, just far enough away for any of the social tension of the previous story arc to have faded.
A third of this book really languishes in what felt like superficial romance or superficial torture, but then another third of the book our characters are actively getting bombed or running away from bombs. The other third was really interesting, provocative speculation on the future of humanity as it breaks free of both capitalism and death itself. So I’d say mostly read it for those parts?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and War
Moderate: Death, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Being speculative fiction, I didn’t feel like any sensitive topics were too egregious because they all take place in a society that is notably different than our current reality.