Book Review -Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven

When a book pops up on enough "best of" and "must-read" lists, then it's time to give it a shot. Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven has picked up a lot of buzz and I wanted to get in on the conversation.

PLOT - Station Eleven starts with the death of Arthur Leander, an actor who suffers a fatal heart attack while performing King Lear on stage in Toronto. Leander is a big celebrity and his death immediately hits the tabloids. The news of his death is quickly eclipsed by a pandemic called the Georgia Flu, which quickly moves through the world and kills an estimated 99% of the population. The people who are left find a life without modern conveniences and one in which they must band together for survival.

Mandel tells her story through several groups of characters, all with a connection to Leander. There are Leander's ex-wives, his childhood best friend, a paparazzo who was in the audience during his final performance and Kirsten, a child actor who was on stage during his death. All have survived the pandemic and have joined different groups to survive, yet all feel haunted by the death of this one man. 

LIKE - Wow. What a completely unique and unusual story. The story constantly shifts between Leander's past, his death on stage and the years after the pandemic. The shifts between the time frames and the groups of characters, kept me fascinated, because I wasn't quite sure how all of the parts would eventually fit together. Mandel writes a story that maintains a constant air of mystery. The tone is also one of danger and intensity, especially as the characters are trying to survive post-pandemic. The story has shades of other recent apocalyptic survival stories, like The Walking Dead, Revolution and The Road. 

What sets this apart from being another apocalyptic tale is it's also a meditation on the meaning and importance of preserving art and culture. What becomes important to preserve while you're struggling to survive? One of the groups is a roving band of musicians, who also perform Shakespeare plays. Another character decides to create a museum of objects of importance, like iPads and stilettos, from before the pandemic. The title, Station Eleven, is the name of a comic book series that Leander's first wife creates prior to the pandemic, but which takes on a significance for several characters years later. 

DISLIKE - I disliked the immediate ending, as it felt like a continuation, rather than a wrapped up story. Maybe it's because I wasn't quite ready for the story to end? It was so good, that I wanted more. 

RECOMMEND - Yes! Station Eleven unique story lives up to its hype and Mandel is a wonderful storyteller. In particular, I think that people in the arts would respond strongly to this story. 

Book Review - Rebecca Burns' The Settling Earth

About a month ago, I was contacted directly by author, Rebecca Burns for a review of her short story collection The Settling Earth. I tend to love short story collections and to be honest, I'm not sure if this book would have crossed my path had she not contacted me. Thank you to Burns and Odyssey Books for gifting me with a copy of The Settling Earth, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT - The Settling Earth is a small collection of short stories set during the British colonization of New Zealand in the 1800's. Although all of the stories can exist independently, the characters and themes often resurface in more than one story. The final story in the collection is not by Burns, but by Shelly Davies, a member of the Maori tribe. Thematically, a majority of the stories deal with women's issues and their treatment as second class citizens during colonial times. 

LIKE - My only other reference to colonial New Zealand is from one of my favorite movies, Jane Campion's The Piano. I kept flashing to the film as I read through this collection. I liked the multi-layered themes of the colonial women and the native population's oppression. The two paralleled,  even in their differences. I liked the little twist in the final moment of the last story, which brings these two groups together. I enjoyed the overlap between the characters in the stories, so much so, that I wished that their stories had been expanded. Easily, there could be novels with some of the characters.

The story that stood out the most, was the woman taking in the babies. It's shocking, horrific and desperate. It was a strong overlap to, in a different story, show a woman who had left her baby at this house. I wish that this had been the central story and expanded, as I was left wanting more. 

I enjoyed reading stories set, not only in a very different time period, but in a different culture. The characters lead lives that are so completely different from my own and that it fascinated me. Their desperation and dilemmas are just horrible to imagine. 

DISLIKE - As with many collections, some stories are stronger than others. In particular, the first  two stories failed to hook me. I can appreciate their important in the grand scheme of the collection, but it was a slow start. If you're reading this review and have not read The Settling Earth, I would urge you to not let this last comment put you off, because once it picked up steam, it grabbed me. 

RECOMMEND - Yes. Burns and Davies are both beautiful storytellers and The Settling Earth is a worthy collection. I think this would appeal to people who enjoy historical fiction and women's literature. 

Book Review - Chuck Palahniuk's Damned

I've just experience my first heartbreak as an aspiring writer.

Last weekend, I was browsing in Barnes and Noble, when I came across Chuck Palahniuk's Damned. I'm a fan of Palahniuk and Damned, now in paperback, had slipped my attention. I picked it and read the description. Devastation. The story seemed to be remarkably similar to the novel that I'm currently writing and one that I have been workshopping. 

I calmed myself. Maybe it just seemed to be similar. I bought the book to check it out for myself. Although it is very different than what I'm writing ( and hell, just Palahniuk's tone is so unique to him), there are enough similarities to make me rethink key components of my story.

Heartbreak. 

PLOT - Thirteen year old Madison Spencer is the newest arrival in hell. The daughter of an eccentric celebrity couple, her life on earth was mainly lived as another accessory for her parents. Fat and awkward, popularity has not come easily to Madison. She is unsure of how she died, but she suspects that it may have been a marijuana overdose, occurring while getting stoned with her adopted Russian brother. 

Hell is a confusing place. Demons run rampant and are quick to devour and torture the deceased, only to have the dead reappear for more torment. It's easy for most people to land in hell. Honk your horn too many times or litter and you might not get a pass to heaven. The landscape is littered with rotten candy, mountains of toe nail clippings and rivers of hot saliva. Telemarketers work from hell, communing with the living through phone surveys. 

It's hard enough being an awkward thirteen year old girl, but Madison must figure out why she is in hell and how to live in her new existence. 

LIKE - I liked Palahniuk's vivid imagination in describing hell. It's disgusting and hilarious. Palahniuk's unique style of wit is on every page of the story. I grew to like Madison as our unlikely heroine and I liked her Judy Blume style of writing letters to satan to start each chapter. I'm glad that at the very end of the book ( I'm not going to spoil it), he explained why hell has so much candy. It was a cleaver little twist. I liked the transformation of Madison's character. She's a kick-ass towards the end!

DISLIKE - In all of the imaginative details, the stakes got lost. Other than the demons at the start of the story, the characters didn't have a sense of urgency or danger. The consequences were low, which made my interest wane. Along with the stakes, the general plot played second fiddle to the creative details and humor. This isn't to say that Damned wasn't a fun read, but it could have been a more compelling read. The story ended with a "to be continued" and I'm not sure if I would continue with the story. 

RECOMMEND - If you're a Palahniuk fan, you're going to have to read Damned. This book would have definitely crossed my path at some point. However, if you've not read a novel by Palahniuk, don't start with this one. I enjoyed Choke or Invisible Monsters.