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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)

I'm starting off on a good foot, because my first review just so happens to be a book that I fell in love with.

I should preface this by disclosing my unabating love for dystopian literature. I'm that person who, during every major catastrophic event that I hear about, thinks about how I would and should react. What decisions would I make? On the scale of 1 to anything, how far would I be willing to go to survive? (The answer, as far as I am aware, is somewhere between "a lot" and "but not that far").

So, when I heard about Station Eleven, I knew immediately that this was one of those books that I'd have to read.

It was beautifully written, completely enthralling, and entirely unique. At some point in the near future, a sickness dubbed the Georgia Flu manages to quickly and effortlessly wipe out the vast majority of the human race, leaving only a smattering of survivors alive across the globe. The narrative follows a troupe of actors who migrate back and forth in the midsection of North America and perform Shakespeare to the sparsely-populated settlements that have established themselves in the aftermath of the flu.

What I absolutely fell in love with was the mantra, if you will, of the characters; survival is insufficient. It's a theme throughout the story, and really conveys the sense of hope and preservation of humanity that radiates from the pages.

Overall, one of the best dystopian/post-apocalyptic stories I've ever read, and definitely left me on a book high for the remainder of the day.

5 out of 5