MY RATING:
Synopsis:
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Fiction (2014)
An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
Read More:
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.
Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.
- Pages: 333
- Genre: Fiction, Dystopia, Sci-Fi
- Publication date: August 26, 2014
- Format: Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook
- Source: Owned
PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
KOBO
REVIEW:
This is one of those books that I had on my TBR collecting dust for ages. In one bookish tag, I mentioned how I should finish this one since I started it, and for some reason or another, I had to abandon it a few times. Lo and behold, I finally did it!
Station Eleven was one of the most hyped books back in the day, this much I remember, and so my expectations were very high when I picked it up. Well, I was left with a bittersweet taste after I finished it.
Yes, it is atmospheric and poetic. I loved the writing style and the prose. However, the plot itself was disconnected and went back and forth in the past and present and following different POVs was very confusing at times, especially when there was no date or year to indicate what time the author is taking you to. You had to figure it out based on who was narrating, and you had glimpses of both the past and the present, which at times created a mishmash, leaving me bored and discouraged.
However, I really appreciate how Mandel managed to connect and link everything and everyone so cleverly. I wish there were more of the prophet part, more mystery and more action, so to speak. This portion, with the anarchy and the proclaimed prophets, was very interesting and definitely something I would expect after a disaster of that calibre had hit the earth. Although this book is labelled as Sci-Fi, I wouldn’t really put it under this genre; it is definitely more fiction/dystopian and post-apocalyptic setting than anything out of the ordinary going on, really.
Considering this, I did not connect with or care for any of the characters. The pandemic was not portrayed very well nor convincingly. As someone who worked on the front line during Covid, here things happened so fast, and there was very little about the whole virus from a medical standpoint to make me interested or believe the plot. Hope what I am trying to say makes sense here.
Overall, 3.5 stars read for me.
Lin's Perspective 
Leave a comment