Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
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.
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