Review Detail

"Viola had a harrowing story about [...] walking alone for a hundred miles, whispering French to herself because all the horror in her life had transpired in English and she thought switching languages might save her."

This was the realest dystopia I've ever read. A pandemic might happen, even in the nearest future, and civilization, the way we know it, might end in a matter of mere days. People wouldn't know how to deal with it, there wouldn't be a Chosen One, everyone would find themselves equals in the face of illness, hunger, fear and death. All the characters in this book felt real. Their backstories, often intertwined, so melancholic and relatable. I actually preferred the chapters that dealt with the immediate public reaction after the illness spread worldwide, the way they tried to survive and organize themselves in little societies to hold the last remnants of their lives together was heartwrenching but the post pandemic ones were good as well, seeing how the littlest things that we give for granted in our everyday lives might one day be lost and might be found so fascinating by people who couldn't experience them first hand was elightening and made me feel slightly guilty of not appreciating them enough.

The last chapters almost made me burst into tears on the train. I should stop reading on public transports!