Hello,
This review is my rebuttal to the many negative reviews I've read about this book. Initially the reviews I had read/heard about this book were very positive. I decided to start reading so I put it on hold at the library. Covid-19 came along which prevented me from reading this book for a couple of months. In that time I started seeing negative reviews about this book. Many of the negative reviews on amazon.com for "Station Eleven" are below. Here's a few of those comments and my response.
These are excerpts from amazon.com. "No heart", "no moral", "it drifts" and "This book makes you feel like you'll get to somewhere important. But you never do."
This book is completely full of heart, feeling, love and seeking a better life. I empathized with all of these characters. We can't help but empathize with the characters as they move from one world that has it's problems to the new world. A very small percentage actually survive to the new world. Life is even less important that it was previously. At only 333 pages and a lot of short chapters it doesn't have room to drift.
Another reviewer "This is the most disjointed piece of junk I have ever read". Also "You know a book is a slog when you'd rather do anything else than reading it".
It's not disjointed, the book does bounce around from character to character and time to time. That's true, but it's not hard to follow. Not only was I not looking for something else to do rather than reading this book, I actually was making time to read this book. I also battled the desire to finish the book asap and at the same time not wanting to finish it. I wanted to savor it as long as possible. Once I was done reading it I started rereading it. But the work pays off in many ways. Mandel's worlds still held their power and some of the details filled in some of the things that I had missed previously. Will this book make you work, oh yes it will. But it's so worth it and it forces it's way into your brain and makes you ponder every aspect of it.
"Long rambling narrative with a scattered plot line that doesn't deliver".
It's not a rambling narrative at all and the plot line does absolutely deliver.
This book is a pre, during and post-apocalyptic novel in the near future. This book was written before the current Covid-19 crisis, but it also tells about a serious flu that puts the world into complete flux. Although there are no zombies or vampires to be seen, the scariest beings are the people that are making their own way in the the new world. I finished this book today and I don't know why it has received such terrible reviews as above.
It's a very well written book- great story, great characters and a very satisfying ending. When I finished reading this book I just sat for a few minutes and savored the entire book. If I would've had Mandel's 2020 novel "The Glass Hotel" I would've started reading that right then.
The main groups of people in this novel are The Traveling Symphony, a combined symphony and performers that perform the plays of Shakespeare and play music. There's also the Prophet- think David Koresh mixed with Charles Manson- he's a man that actually believes his own bs. Not only that but he's a prophet at the end of the world who thinks he's destined to be a leader. There's also a group of people at the Severn City Airport- where some people go to stay and some go and leave. It's likely the most civil place in the new world
Also the title of and at the heart of this book is the graphic novel "Station Eleven", a graphic novel that takes a circuitous route almost as much as some of the characters. This graphic novel went from one person to another person to another person on it's own long journey.
This is a great book and I highly recommend it to people that love great fiction in general, apocalyptic fiction, character driven stories, stories that are very relevant to the world we live in now or someone that just wants to get lost in a well written novel. Reading and finishing this book gave me a reading high.
themusicaddict
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