Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 384
Publisher: Picador
Released: 10th of September 2014

DAY ONE

The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb.

News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%.

WEEK TWO

Civilization has crumbled.

YEAR TWENTY

A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe.

But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild.

STATION ELEVEN

Moving backwards and forwards in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: famous actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan - warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend Clark; Kirsten, a young actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed 'prophet'.

 What I Have to Say 

 

I think there are a couple of reasons I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. It was really hyped up by a lot of people on Twitter, so I was expecting something special and I think most people have had things that haven't lived up to the hype. Also, I don't think I was in the mood for something so slow. After I'd got into the style of it, I started to really enjoy it, but I do think I would have liked it more if I'd read it at a different time. 

There are some books that are slow. They are boring and the sentences drag and you really just don't want to read them. But Station Eleven is one of the ones that's slow in a good way. It's sedate. You read it at a relaxing pace and you enjoy the relaxed pace. As I said, it took me a while to get into it. But I could tell that it was good quality in the first half, even when I wasn't in the mood. 

The story jumps around a lot and that's also a bit weird. But it's just something that you have to get used to. It was really beautifully written though. I loved Kirsten and the idea of the newspaper being made and traded around. The ending bothered me a little, I wanted to find out what happened after since it cut off a little suddenly. I hope there's a sequel, because not finding out would be really sad. 
 
It's a very beautiful story, so if you have it on your TBR definitely leave it until you're ready.