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The World Gives Way
"A staggering marvel."—The New York Times
“The World Gives Way has a sweeping world rich in lore and an electric plot, both of which make for ideal summer reading.”—Brandon Taylor, Booker Prize-nominated author of Real Life
ONE OF LITHUB'S MOST ANTICIPATED TITLES OF 2021
In a near-future world on the brink of collapse, a young woman born into servitude must seize her own freedom in this glittering debut with a brilliant twist.
In fifty years, Myrra will be free.
Until then, she's a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract—butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles.
But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated—and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles' orphaned daughter and the terrible secret they died to escape, she runs. With time running out, Myrra must come face to face with the truth about her world—and embrace what's left before it's too late.
A sweeping novel with a darkly glimmering heart, The World Gives Way is an unforgettable portrait of a world in freefall, and the fierce drive to live even at the end of it all.
“The World Gives Way has a sweeping world rich in lore and an electric plot, both of which make for ideal summer reading.”—Brandon Taylor, Booker Prize-nominated author of Real Life
ONE OF LITHUB'S MOST ANTICIPATED TITLES OF 2021
In a near-future world on the brink of collapse, a young woman born into servitude must seize her own freedom in this glittering debut with a brilliant twist.
In fifty years, Myrra will be free.
Until then, she's a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract—butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles.
But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated—and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles' orphaned daughter and the terrible secret they died to escape, she runs. With time running out, Myrra must come face to face with the truth about her world—and embrace what's left before it's too late.
A sweeping novel with a darkly glimmering heart, The World Gives Way is an unforgettable portrait of a world in freefall, and the fierce drive to live even at the end of it all.
432 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 477 reviews
May 21, 2021
i dont think this is a book i would have picked up had i not received an ARC, so this was a really enjoyable surprise.
i went into this thinking it was going to be a classic dystopian novel, but it reminded me a lot of ‘they both die at the end’ in so many ways. and because the focus of the story is on finding human connection in the darkest of moments, the sci-fi aspect of the novel takes a backseat. and i honestly didnt mind that.
i enjoyed the writing as it prompts a range of emotions. the characters feel real and are wholly relatable. and the ending of the story is quiet one, but wow, it fits the tone of the story perfectly.
this is a really great debut and has put ML on my radar of authors to watch.
thank you redhook books for the ARC!
↠ 4 stars
i went into this thinking it was going to be a classic dystopian novel, but it reminded me a lot of ‘they both die at the end’ in so many ways. and because the focus of the story is on finding human connection in the darkest of moments, the sci-fi aspect of the novel takes a backseat. and i honestly didnt mind that.
i enjoyed the writing as it prompts a range of emotions. the characters feel real and are wholly relatable. and the ending of the story is quiet one, but wow, it fits the tone of the story perfectly.
this is a really great debut and has put ML on my radar of authors to watch.
thank you redhook books for the ARC!
↠ 4 stars
April 23, 2021
It launched off the planet generations ago-it would take two centuries to get to Telos, a new inhabitable planet. "Inside the ship (the world) there is a sky,...cities and landscapes, immaculately designed." "This new world was entirely populated by the wealthy, maintaining a lifestyle that they thought they were owed."
Imogene and Marcus Carlyle's penthouse in New London was a "three-story feat of opulence...an easy nonverbal reminder that they had secured a permanent place at the top of the food chain." As a honeymoon present, Marcus purchased Myrra Dal's maid contract. "In fifty years, Myrra would be free...the work contract her great-grandmother had signed would finally be fulfilled...Working for the Carlyles, she had more freedom then she'd had in the laundry or in factories. But there was still always the invisible leash...".
"Something was wrong with the world. The ship." Top scientists and physicists studying and charting the integrity of the ship's hull had determined that a widening crack was irreversible. Neither Imogene nor Marcus Carlyle wanted to witness the implosion of the ship. Myrra was asked to continue to care for baby Charlotte. Myrra refused to wait and only get what she would be given when her contract expired.
Security agents investigating the demise of the Carlyles searched for Myrra Dal. Was foul play involved? Where was Charlotte? Was she kidnapped? Myrra was on the lam, thereby, breaking her contract. She hoped to outrun the devastation she knew was coming. A baby in tow would slow down her quest for freedom and make her visible to the security agents tasked with bringing her to justice. "Charlotte was a liability. She needed to leave her behind...She wondered what would reach her first, security or the end of the world."
Tobias Bendel, security agent, came from a wealthy background...visiting tropical resorts and mountain retreats. He had an "...odd fly-by-night life with his parents and the stern upbringing of Barnes..." after his criminal parents were jailed. Tobias "...liked the balance that order gave to chaos-the presence of efficiency and stability." His goal was to prove himself to Barnes, the top security chief and Tobias's adoptive father.
"The World Gives Way" by Marissa Levien transports the reader to the various cities built on the ship (the world). With lush descriptions, the topography and distinctive "flavor" of each city comes to life. Will Myrra be able to outsmart Tobias and avoid capture? As a series of earthquakes occur and the cracks in the hull deepen, can an escape plan work? Perhaps hard core sci-fi readers would not be as captivated as I was. That said, I loved this tome!
Thank you Redhook Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Imogene and Marcus Carlyle's penthouse in New London was a "three-story feat of opulence...an easy nonverbal reminder that they had secured a permanent place at the top of the food chain." As a honeymoon present, Marcus purchased Myrra Dal's maid contract. "In fifty years, Myrra would be free...the work contract her great-grandmother had signed would finally be fulfilled...Working for the Carlyles, she had more freedom then she'd had in the laundry or in factories. But there was still always the invisible leash...".
"Something was wrong with the world. The ship." Top scientists and physicists studying and charting the integrity of the ship's hull had determined that a widening crack was irreversible. Neither Imogene nor Marcus Carlyle wanted to witness the implosion of the ship. Myrra was asked to continue to care for baby Charlotte. Myrra refused to wait and only get what she would be given when her contract expired.
Security agents investigating the demise of the Carlyles searched for Myrra Dal. Was foul play involved? Where was Charlotte? Was she kidnapped? Myrra was on the lam, thereby, breaking her contract. She hoped to outrun the devastation she knew was coming. A baby in tow would slow down her quest for freedom and make her visible to the security agents tasked with bringing her to justice. "Charlotte was a liability. She needed to leave her behind...She wondered what would reach her first, security or the end of the world."
Tobias Bendel, security agent, came from a wealthy background...visiting tropical resorts and mountain retreats. He had an "...odd fly-by-night life with his parents and the stern upbringing of Barnes..." after his criminal parents were jailed. Tobias "...liked the balance that order gave to chaos-the presence of efficiency and stability." His goal was to prove himself to Barnes, the top security chief and Tobias's adoptive father.
"The World Gives Way" by Marissa Levien transports the reader to the various cities built on the ship (the world). With lush descriptions, the topography and distinctive "flavor" of each city comes to life. Will Myrra be able to outsmart Tobias and avoid capture? As a series of earthquakes occur and the cracks in the hull deepen, can an escape plan work? Perhaps hard core sci-fi readers would not be as captivated as I was. That said, I loved this tome!
Thank you Redhook Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 25, 2021
My thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
It is the end of the world as Myrra Dal knew it. The couple to whom her services had been contracted were dead. The floating world that was supposed to have been their salvation had an irreparable crack in the ship's hull. Everyone on board was doomed.
After the death of her "employers," Myrra decides to escape her indentured servitude and sets out on an odyssey. She takes the orphaned daughter of her former "employers" and sets out to find her mother, and a good place to settle back and await her death.
Myrra is eventually captured by Tobias (whose backstory injects an element of irony to this story.) She tries to convince the authorities that the ship is breaking apart, that death was inevitable for them all. Tobias believed in the system, but what good would it do them, she reasoned, when they were all going to die in the very near future?
So many people have given this slow-moving, introspective novel glowing reviews. While I was impressed with the world-building, I must confess that I wasn't all that interested in the mechanics and politics of this futuristic floating world. (Hierarchies based on wealth, power and greed still reign supreme in this futuristic world- we are all deluded, unquestioning slaves to the System, etc. etc...) I was more interested in observing the psychological and emotional impact of the news of their inevitable demise on the inhabitants of this gigantic ship. Ultimately, this was a dry, meandering read for me. I am not a huge fan of fantasy or science fiction, but I was intrigued by the concept of this novel. For me, the big question was always: what would be each individual person's thoughts and actions as they waited for the end to come?
The ending of this novel was quite touching: there were, of course, plenty of tears and warm final thoughts. Obviously, this novel had to have one of those endings that I tend to dislike: it was all just so hopeless. Mind you, I was warned by the blurb of this inevitable, hopeless ending, so I suppose I can't complain when that is exactly what I got, can I?
It is the end of the world as Myrra Dal knew it. The couple to whom her services had been contracted were dead. The floating world that was supposed to have been their salvation had an irreparable crack in the ship's hull. Everyone on board was doomed.
After the death of her "employers," Myrra decides to escape her indentured servitude and sets out on an odyssey. She takes the orphaned daughter of her former "employers" and sets out to find her mother, and a good place to settle back and await her death.
Myrra is eventually captured by Tobias (whose backstory injects an element of irony to this story.) She tries to convince the authorities that the ship is breaking apart, that death was inevitable for them all. Tobias believed in the system, but what good would it do them, she reasoned, when they were all going to die in the very near future?
So many people have given this slow-moving, introspective novel glowing reviews. While I was impressed with the world-building, I must confess that I wasn't all that interested in the mechanics and politics of this futuristic floating world. (Hierarchies based on wealth, power and greed still reign supreme in this futuristic world- we are all deluded, unquestioning slaves to the System, etc. etc...) I was more interested in observing the psychological and emotional impact of the news of their inevitable demise on the inhabitants of this gigantic ship. Ultimately, this was a dry, meandering read for me. I am not a huge fan of fantasy or science fiction, but I was intrigued by the concept of this novel. For me, the big question was always: what would be each individual person's thoughts and actions as they waited for the end to come?
The ending of this novel was quite touching: there were, of course, plenty of tears and warm final thoughts. Obviously, this novel had to have one of those endings that I tend to dislike: it was all just so hopeless. Mind you, I was warned by the blurb of this inevitable, hopeless ending, so I suppose I can't complain when that is exactly what I got, can I?
June 16, 2021
At times it seems like The World Gives Way is trying to see how many good design ideas it can stuff into itself without exploding. Scifi epic? Check. Addictive crime solving? Yup. Multiple characters with compelling emotions? Uh-huh! Visual-novel goodness? That too! Even more incredibly, this hodgepodge of awesome components crammed together into one book create something utterly unique and enduringly memorable.
Full review to come on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/hollyheartsbooks
Full review to come on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/hollyheartsbooks
July 6, 2021
The World Gives Way is a mash-up dystopian, science fiction, with a touch of fantasy. It’s creative, original, and thought-provoking, which is one of my favorite things about dystopian books.
It’s full of surprises, and I think it’s best to go in as blind as possible. Marissa Levien’s storytelling has the reader as an observer to all the events. Like a fly on the wall, you are literally right there as it all unfolds.
The World Gives Way is epic and immersive, and I couldn't put it down.
I received a gifted copy from the publisher.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
It’s full of surprises, and I think it’s best to go in as blind as possible. Marissa Levien’s storytelling has the reader as an observer to all the events. Like a fly on the wall, you are literally right there as it all unfolds.
The World Gives Way is epic and immersive, and I couldn't put it down.
I received a gifted copy from the publisher.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
July 10, 2021
3.75⭐️
I’m gonna have to think on this one for a bit
I’m gonna have to think on this one for a bit
June 7, 2023
Reading Vlog https://youtu.be/gGrdZiq_HWo
I applaud this author for such an unique idea. The base of this story is epic and expansive and just plain different than any other book I've read. I always have to give credit for that.
I liked this book well enough. There were parts I really enjoyed and parts that seemed unnecessary for such a short book and such an immense plot. Such as Myrra's stay at the hotel, the hotel employee we get way too many scenes with, the romance, the missing mother, and Rachel. Good god did I hate Rachel.
But my main gripe was Tobias. He is such a wimp/simp. He doesn't know Myrra from Eve but after meeting her ONE time is having dreams of her. Like...dude... The romance subplot became the entire plot honestly. And it felt like Myrra was an unwilling participant in Tobias' love story.
I adore Myrra as a main character. She's dynamic, intelligent, resourceful, brutal, and brave. She's exactly what this story needed. Tobias on the other hand...He's a nice guy. But boring to be honest.
I would suggest this book to people because it is definitely going to work for a lot of people. It just didn't live up to my self-made hype.
I applaud this author for such an unique idea. The base of this story is epic and expansive and just plain different than any other book I've read. I always have to give credit for that.
I liked this book well enough. There were parts I really enjoyed and parts that seemed unnecessary for such a short book and such an immense plot. Such as Myrra's stay at the hotel, the hotel employee we get way too many scenes with, the romance, the missing mother, and Rachel. Good god did I hate Rachel.
But my main gripe was Tobias. He is such a wimp/simp. He doesn't know Myrra from Eve but after meeting her ONE time is having dreams of her. Like...dude... The romance subplot became the entire plot honestly. And it felt like Myrra was an unwilling participant in Tobias' love story.
I adore Myrra as a main character. She's dynamic, intelligent, resourceful, brutal, and brave. She's exactly what this story needed. Tobias on the other hand...He's a nice guy. But boring to be honest.
I would suggest this book to people because it is definitely going to work for a lot of people. It just didn't live up to my self-made hype.
November 30, 2021
Unfortunately, I don't really have much to say about this book. For such a dramatic plot twist, the story felt surprisingly unexciting.
Not all was bad. The writing was OK, the protagonists likable enough and the premise had a lot of potential.
But to me, the pacing felt really slow and full of turns and details I didn't really care about. The way the book started, I was expecting much more from it.
Thank you to the #NetGalley and to the author and publisher for providing me with an audiobook version of The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien in exchange for an honest review.
❤ ❤ ❤
Not all was bad. The writing was OK, the protagonists likable enough and the premise had a lot of potential.
But to me, the pacing felt really slow and full of turns and details I didn't really care about. The way the book started, I was expecting much more from it.
Thank you to the #NetGalley and to the author and publisher for providing me with an audiobook version of The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien in exchange for an honest review.
❤ ❤ ❤
November 9, 2022
i read this for a blind date with a book vlog: https://youtu.be/-FpBUNM1mxI
this was truly a masterpiece. i loved every minute of it. the prose, the world building, the characters. the whole concept was done so well. i loved the journey this took me on. i feel emotional just thinking about it. it's incredibly underrated - if you're reading this review, please pick this up.
Booktube | Instagram
this was truly a masterpiece. i loved every minute of it. the prose, the world building, the characters. the whole concept was done so well. i loved the journey this took me on. i feel emotional just thinking about it. it's incredibly underrated - if you're reading this review, please pick this up.
Booktube | Instagram
June 23, 2021
In a Nutshell: This would be a great book for sci-fi beginners who want to try a dystopian novel with detailed sci-fi embellishments without going overboard on the technical jargon.
Story:
Myrra is a contract worker whose family has been in servitude since generations due to a bond signed by her great-grandmother a century ago. With 50 years to go on this contract, Myrra has to continue working with the Carlyles, her uber-rich, politically-influential owners. But one night, when both the Carlyles end up killing themselves, Myrra finds herself free but at a huge cost: a horrible secret that made them take their own lives, even willing to leave their infant daughter alone. Now Myrra has little Charlotte, a gateway to freedom, and nowhere to go. Is it too late for her? Will she be able to embrace and accept the truth about her fate?
Can’t reveal much more because I don’t want to give out spoilers, but the secret is so, so bad that it’s really good! :D
The story comes to us in the third person perspective of Myrra and Tobias, one of the investigating officers on the Carlyle case.
Where the book clicked for me:
• For a debut work, the scale of the story is really well-created. All the locations in the story are detailed out in such vivid detail that the scene comes alive in your mind. I loved every single locale described in the book, and the names given to them.
• The lead characters are pretty likeable, and quite realistic. They aren’t shown to be perfect but depicted with human strengths and flaws, making it easier to connect with them.
• Reading this book while in a pandemic is a philosophical experience in itself. There are so many poignant lines in the second half that left me lost in thought. (No, the book isn’t about a pandemic.)
• There is no forced romance. A big hurrah for that.
• The ending. Oh My God! A whole star for that ending. I wish I could tell you about it, I so want to talk about it, but my lips are zipped. All I can say is how happy I was that the book stuck to its natural flow and gave it a logical ending. With the way the narrative was going, I was mentally prepared for yet another last-minute, farfetched twist in the tale. But the manner in which the author brought things to a close took my breath away and I just sat for a few minutes, dumbfounded.
Where the book could have been better:
• The first half of the book is fast, almost thriller-like, with quick changes in scenes, character perspective shifts between Myrra and Tobias and a rush from one event to another. In the second half, the pace becomes slow and the writing becomes more like a drama, sometimes even turning philosophical. If you can’t realign yourself to this shift in pace and genre, you’ll be disappointed with either the first half or the second half.
• Some parts in the second half felt like personal philosophical advice being given by the author. I could have happily done without those.
• While still in third person, the writing suddenly peppers us with "let's consider" and "let us think about" and other such "let us" phrases. This is not in what the characters are saying but in the background scene description. Such ad-hoc use of the first person imperative marred the overall writing flow of those chapters.
• Though the character sketching was more or less okay, Myrra seemed far too prescient considering her lack of formal education or learning opportunities. I couldn’t come to terms with the depth of her knowledge, especially as she was said to be hardly schooled and had no access to books or technology. The extent to which she grasped technical stuff by overhearing conversations was unrealistic.
So there were areas of improvement for sure. But I still think this is a pretty good debut work and would love to read more by this author. The pros far outweighed the cons for me, and I think I’m also being more generous because of that choice of ending.
The audio book is about 13 hours long, and is narrated by Christine Lakin. She is fabulous with her narration. I think her “male voice” is one of the best I’ve heard from a female narrator. She doesn’t deliberately convert her tone to a guttural bass but just voices Tobias in a natural-sounding way. I don’t know what she did, but I enjoyed it. Getting the reader to concentrate from the first scene to the last in such a lengthy audiobook without any rewinding needed is a big plus point for the narrator.
Thank you, NetGalley and Hachette Audio, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.
It's a 4.25 from me.
***********************
Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever! , for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.
Follow me on Instagram: RoshReviews
Story:
Myrra is a contract worker whose family has been in servitude since generations due to a bond signed by her great-grandmother a century ago. With 50 years to go on this contract, Myrra has to continue working with the Carlyles, her uber-rich, politically-influential owners. But one night, when both the Carlyles end up killing themselves, Myrra finds herself free but at a huge cost: a horrible secret that made them take their own lives, even willing to leave their infant daughter alone. Now Myrra has little Charlotte, a gateway to freedom, and nowhere to go. Is it too late for her? Will she be able to embrace and accept the truth about her fate?
Can’t reveal much more because I don’t want to give out spoilers, but the secret is so, so bad that it’s really good! :D
The story comes to us in the third person perspective of Myrra and Tobias, one of the investigating officers on the Carlyle case.
Where the book clicked for me:
• For a debut work, the scale of the story is really well-created. All the locations in the story are detailed out in such vivid detail that the scene comes alive in your mind. I loved every single locale described in the book, and the names given to them.
• The lead characters are pretty likeable, and quite realistic. They aren’t shown to be perfect but depicted with human strengths and flaws, making it easier to connect with them.
• Reading this book while in a pandemic is a philosophical experience in itself. There are so many poignant lines in the second half that left me lost in thought. (No, the book isn’t about a pandemic.)
• There is no forced romance. A big hurrah for that.
• The ending. Oh My God! A whole star for that ending. I wish I could tell you about it, I so want to talk about it, but my lips are zipped. All I can say is how happy I was that the book stuck to its natural flow and gave it a logical ending. With the way the narrative was going, I was mentally prepared for yet another last-minute, farfetched twist in the tale. But the manner in which the author brought things to a close took my breath away and I just sat for a few minutes, dumbfounded.
Where the book could have been better:
• The first half of the book is fast, almost thriller-like, with quick changes in scenes, character perspective shifts between Myrra and Tobias and a rush from one event to another. In the second half, the pace becomes slow and the writing becomes more like a drama, sometimes even turning philosophical. If you can’t realign yourself to this shift in pace and genre, you’ll be disappointed with either the first half or the second half.
• Some parts in the second half felt like personal philosophical advice being given by the author. I could have happily done without those.
• While still in third person, the writing suddenly peppers us with "let's consider" and "let us think about" and other such "let us" phrases. This is not in what the characters are saying but in the background scene description. Such ad-hoc use of the first person imperative marred the overall writing flow of those chapters.
• Though the character sketching was more or less okay, Myrra seemed far too prescient considering her lack of formal education or learning opportunities. I couldn’t come to terms with the depth of her knowledge, especially as she was said to be hardly schooled and had no access to books or technology. The extent to which she grasped technical stuff by overhearing conversations was unrealistic.
So there were areas of improvement for sure. But I still think this is a pretty good debut work and would love to read more by this author. The pros far outweighed the cons for me, and I think I’m also being more generous because of that choice of ending.
The audio book is about 13 hours long, and is narrated by Christine Lakin. She is fabulous with her narration. I think her “male voice” is one of the best I’ve heard from a female narrator. She doesn’t deliberately convert her tone to a guttural bass but just voices Tobias in a natural-sounding way. I don’t know what she did, but I enjoyed it. Getting the reader to concentrate from the first scene to the last in such a lengthy audiobook without any rewinding needed is a big plus point for the narrator.
Thank you, NetGalley and Hachette Audio, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.
It's a 4.25 from me.
***********************
Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever! , for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.
Follow me on Instagram: RoshReviews
June 1, 2021
Once upon a time the world was round and you could go on it around and around * and then it became something different entirely. A universe all too contained and suddenly coming undone. And in it a young woman contracted as a maid, fleeing a double suicide of her employers tries to find her way to something like safety or maybe just solace.
Myrra is twenty five and she has been under a labor contact for most of her life, a fifty year contract that can be bought and sold, like so many of her social class. Because the world she lives in is extremely socially divided into approximately three strata, the megawealthy, the workers, and everyone inbetween. Myrra was born into the first stratum, her employers were very much of the second one and Tobias, the Security forces worker who is tasked with finding Myrra, was born into money, but eventually adopted and raised in the inbetween class, comfortable, but not obscenely so. Due to his divided upbringing, he has becoming a methodical precise ambitious man, someone who wants to excel and prove himself to the world and to his beloved adopted father who is also his boss as the chief of Security.
But this is neither a crime novel nor a chase novel. In fact, once you learn the reasons for Myrra’s leaving and you will in the end of first chapter, you’ll know exactly what kind of story this is. Frustratingly enough, the description doesn’t give away too much, so I don’t think I can either, but suffice it to say, whatever kind of story you think it might be…it is magnificent.
Every so often the book just hits you right, the words reach out from the pages, grab you and don’t let go. It’s a terrific rush, the sort of thing a reader always looks for and seldom finds and this book did just that. From the very first chapter, it transported, teleported, threw me into a distant, strange and tragic world. And I didn’t want to leave, though leaving is kind of one of the main themes here.
You can tell, though, what’s coming. The title promises as much. The world goes round and around until it no longer can. And this novel is appropriately elegiac without reserving to being moribund. It’s more about the endings than beginnings, but it is a thing of beauty to behold for all its inherent sadness.
It’s a debut that gets every single thing right from creating terrific, compelling, memorable characters to spectacular intricate worldbuilding to gorgeously engaging narrative. I absolutely loved it. Being a fan of dystopian fiction, I do have a pretty wide field of comparison, but this book is too good for all that, it is very much a thing of its own.
So if you read thus far you already got the idea that this is a book worth checking out. Please do. And walk away now, because I want to say something things about the ending.
OK? Ok then…
So no happy ending here, not a conventional one. That’s a brave thing in this world of contrived performative collective cheer and I salute it. And sure, I’ve come to care so much about the characters and sure I wanted them to somehow find a magic way out, but at the same time I completely understand and appreciate the ending the author chose. This is, after all, a novel about the world giving way. Because this world itself a stunningly hubristic venture into the indifferent darkness of space, this world’s trajectory was that of an Icarus’ flight. Ambition or arrogance dwarfed by impossible circumstances, chance, brutally random twist of fate. Les like fiction, more like life.
A cheaper, more commercially minded way to end this would have the three of them finding a shuttle, making to Telos, living happily ever after. In fact, there’d be at least one sequel too. It would have been fine, but it wouldn’t have been right. And it wouldn’t have poignant. And it wouldn’t have been memorable. This is the way that world ends…it’s the end of the world and they know it…and they are fine. In fact, approaching something like peace, something like grace.
So that’s the novel and all my notions and thoughts about it. It’s an excellent read, I absolutely loved it. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
* Gertrude Stein, from Myrra's favorite book
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
Myrra is twenty five and she has been under a labor contact for most of her life, a fifty year contract that can be bought and sold, like so many of her social class. Because the world she lives in is extremely socially divided into approximately three strata, the megawealthy, the workers, and everyone inbetween. Myrra was born into the first stratum, her employers were very much of the second one and Tobias, the Security forces worker who is tasked with finding Myrra, was born into money, but eventually adopted and raised in the inbetween class, comfortable, but not obscenely so. Due to his divided upbringing, he has becoming a methodical precise ambitious man, someone who wants to excel and prove himself to the world and to his beloved adopted father who is also his boss as the chief of Security.
But this is neither a crime novel nor a chase novel. In fact, once you learn the reasons for Myrra’s leaving and you will in the end of first chapter, you’ll know exactly what kind of story this is. Frustratingly enough, the description doesn’t give away too much, so I don’t think I can either, but suffice it to say, whatever kind of story you think it might be…it is magnificent.
Every so often the book just hits you right, the words reach out from the pages, grab you and don’t let go. It’s a terrific rush, the sort of thing a reader always looks for and seldom finds and this book did just that. From the very first chapter, it transported, teleported, threw me into a distant, strange and tragic world. And I didn’t want to leave, though leaving is kind of one of the main themes here.
You can tell, though, what’s coming. The title promises as much. The world goes round and around until it no longer can. And this novel is appropriately elegiac without reserving to being moribund. It’s more about the endings than beginnings, but it is a thing of beauty to behold for all its inherent sadness.
It’s a debut that gets every single thing right from creating terrific, compelling, memorable characters to spectacular intricate worldbuilding to gorgeously engaging narrative. I absolutely loved it. Being a fan of dystopian fiction, I do have a pretty wide field of comparison, but this book is too good for all that, it is very much a thing of its own.
So if you read thus far you already got the idea that this is a book worth checking out. Please do. And walk away now, because I want to say something things about the ending.
OK? Ok then…
So no happy ending here, not a conventional one. That’s a brave thing in this world of contrived performative collective cheer and I salute it. And sure, I’ve come to care so much about the characters and sure I wanted them to somehow find a magic way out, but at the same time I completely understand and appreciate the ending the author chose. This is, after all, a novel about the world giving way. Because this world itself a stunningly hubristic venture into the indifferent darkness of space, this world’s trajectory was that of an Icarus’ flight. Ambition or arrogance dwarfed by impossible circumstances, chance, brutally random twist of fate. Les like fiction, more like life.
A cheaper, more commercially minded way to end this would have the three of them finding a shuttle, making to Telos, living happily ever after. In fact, there’d be at least one sequel too. It would have been fine, but it wouldn’t have been right. And it wouldn’t have poignant. And it wouldn’t have been memorable. This is the way that world ends…it’s the end of the world and they know it…and they are fine. In fact, approaching something like peace, something like grace.
So that’s the novel and all my notions and thoughts about it. It’s an excellent read, I absolutely loved it. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
* Gertrude Stein, from Myrra's favorite book
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
February 22, 2024
“She wanted to say so many things. She wanted to have epiphanies. She wanted to ask all life’s questions and feel the answers instinctively in her bones. At this point, after facing so much, she knew she was supposed to be wise and accepting of what came next, but she couldn’t be.”
June 3, 2021
The Short Version: A dramatically ambitious debut novel about finding meaning in nothingness. A book that has all the right notes but is a little more music theory than a beautiful symphony.
The Long Version: I got to listen to the audiobook version of this novel thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio.
Myrra is an indentured servant on a spaceship flying to a new world. When they arrive in 50 years she’ll be set free, but until that time she works for the Carlyles. One night, the Carlyles ask her to take care of their infant daughter, Charlotte, and when they’re suddenly gone, Myrra is forced to reckon with what’s happened and where to go from there.
This was a weird and tough one for me. Most of the time I felt rather MEH listening to it, but when I looked at my notes and really thought on it, there wasn’t much of anything glaringly poor or wrong about this book.
The protagonists were both likable. They had layered stories that informed their actions pretty well. Their character arcs made sense and were nicely drawn, coming to sensible and satisfying conclusions.
The prose was well written, though the third person limited occasionally drifted into more of an omniscient tone, and there were moments with too much telling vs. showing.
The plot moved at a reasonable pace and given all the circumstances, each move made logical sense even if there were a few convenient plot twists.
I wanted to say that this book just never hooked me, but that would be inaccurate. The first few chapters were a firecracker start, and instantly establish life or death stakes. The ending too, was really something great. I feared for a lot of the book we were headed toward a fairy tale ending, but the author spared that injustice and wrote something tragic and beautiful instead.
So what went wrong? Sounds pretty awesome so far right? In the end, I think it was a lot of little things that nagged at me.
Considering the high stakes, the middle of the book sagged pretty hard. Myrra was on a journey of discovering meaning, and while it’s not like nothing happened, there was this feeling of “so what?” constantly cloying at me.
This book examines big topics and big questions, so there were a number of moments where the story felt melodramatic instead of profound, like it was close to something greater but was pushing too hard.
Myrra too was flawed in her construction because she did not seem flawed enough. She was an uneducated servant, and while she was ambitious and clever, she’s written essentially flawless. She has to improvise a plan once the Carlyles go missing, but every move works out in her favor and she’s always one step ahead. She seems too prescient at times as well and I couldn’t get behind her like I wanted to.
This is definitely not a book for die hard sci-fi fans as the sci-fi aspects are mostly window dressing and set pieces. Additionally, as Myrra travels to the new parts of the world, there are short chapters that explain the composition and construction of each region which was very clunky as a world building technique.
The narrator of the audiobook did not help in this situation either as far as I can tell. It may be because the last three audiobooks I listened to had pretty killer narrators enhancing the story, but here everything felt muted. Considering the life and death stakes, the moments of emotion were more foothills than peaks and valleys. The narrator did do a nice job differentiating character voices and each felt distinct and easy to track. Overall though I wasn’t pulled in by her.
I think there may be two things going on here that left me feeling differently than some other reviewers. First is that perhaps this book is a mirror of the reader. For the more glass half full crowd, the ones who find beauty in the mundane, this is a rich emotional journey and a sure fire winner. For the glass half empty group however, the entirety of the journey feels pointless and it’s a struggle to find the meaning Myrra is searching for. The second possibility is that those reading the book can put their own emotion into it whereas I was having mine filtered through an audiobook narration that did not convey the richness of narrative.
Overall a solid 3 out of 5. If you’re in a book rut and need a safe read that’s unlikely to bomb, this is a good choice. I definitely recommend a print or digital version so you can pour your own emotion into it. Again, do not recommend for hardcore sci-fi fans...I would expect this to come up short to that crowd.
Component Ratings
Idea/Concept: 4 out of 5
Female Protagonist: 3 out of 5
Male Protagonist: 3 out of 5
Pacing: 3.5 out of 5
Prose: 3.5 out of 5
Plot: 2 out of 5
World Building: 2.5 out of 5
Narrator Performance: 2.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 3.5 out of 5
Ending: 4.5 out of 5
The Long Version: I got to listen to the audiobook version of this novel thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio.
Myrra is an indentured servant on a spaceship flying to a new world. When they arrive in 50 years she’ll be set free, but until that time she works for the Carlyles. One night, the Carlyles ask her to take care of their infant daughter, Charlotte, and when they’re suddenly gone, Myrra is forced to reckon with what’s happened and where to go from there.
This was a weird and tough one for me. Most of the time I felt rather MEH listening to it, but when I looked at my notes and really thought on it, there wasn’t much of anything glaringly poor or wrong about this book.
The protagonists were both likable. They had layered stories that informed their actions pretty well. Their character arcs made sense and were nicely drawn, coming to sensible and satisfying conclusions.
The prose was well written, though the third person limited occasionally drifted into more of an omniscient tone, and there were moments with too much telling vs. showing.
The plot moved at a reasonable pace and given all the circumstances, each move made logical sense even if there were a few convenient plot twists.
I wanted to say that this book just never hooked me, but that would be inaccurate. The first few chapters were a firecracker start, and instantly establish life or death stakes. The ending too, was really something great. I feared for a lot of the book we were headed toward a fairy tale ending, but the author spared that injustice and wrote something tragic and beautiful instead.
So what went wrong? Sounds pretty awesome so far right? In the end, I think it was a lot of little things that nagged at me.
Considering the high stakes, the middle of the book sagged pretty hard. Myrra was on a journey of discovering meaning, and while it’s not like nothing happened, there was this feeling of “so what?” constantly cloying at me.
This book examines big topics and big questions, so there were a number of moments where the story felt melodramatic instead of profound, like it was close to something greater but was pushing too hard.
Myrra too was flawed in her construction because she did not seem flawed enough. She was an uneducated servant, and while she was ambitious and clever, she’s written essentially flawless. She has to improvise a plan once the Carlyles go missing, but every move works out in her favor and she’s always one step ahead. She seems too prescient at times as well and I couldn’t get behind her like I wanted to.
This is definitely not a book for die hard sci-fi fans as the sci-fi aspects are mostly window dressing and set pieces. Additionally, as Myrra travels to the new parts of the world, there are short chapters that explain the composition and construction of each region which was very clunky as a world building technique.
The narrator of the audiobook did not help in this situation either as far as I can tell. It may be because the last three audiobooks I listened to had pretty killer narrators enhancing the story, but here everything felt muted. Considering the life and death stakes, the moments of emotion were more foothills than peaks and valleys. The narrator did do a nice job differentiating character voices and each felt distinct and easy to track. Overall though I wasn’t pulled in by her.
I think there may be two things going on here that left me feeling differently than some other reviewers. First is that perhaps this book is a mirror of the reader. For the more glass half full crowd, the ones who find beauty in the mundane, this is a rich emotional journey and a sure fire winner. For the glass half empty group however, the entirety of the journey feels pointless and it’s a struggle to find the meaning Myrra is searching for. The second possibility is that those reading the book can put their own emotion into it whereas I was having mine filtered through an audiobook narration that did not convey the richness of narrative.
Overall a solid 3 out of 5. If you’re in a book rut and need a safe read that’s unlikely to bomb, this is a good choice. I definitely recommend a print or digital version so you can pour your own emotion into it. Again, do not recommend for hardcore sci-fi fans...I would expect this to come up short to that crowd.
Component Ratings
Idea/Concept: 4 out of 5
Female Protagonist: 3 out of 5
Male Protagonist: 3 out of 5
Pacing: 3.5 out of 5
Prose: 3.5 out of 5
Plot: 2 out of 5
World Building: 2.5 out of 5
Narrator Performance: 2.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 3.5 out of 5
Ending: 4.5 out of 5
September 29, 2024
The world is ending. Not Earth - Earth is long gone. But the generational ship taking what may be the last remnants of humanity to a new planet. The world (the ship) is broken and cannot be fixed, and they are too far away from the destination for anyone to save themselves by taking a shuttle. Myrra is a contract worker - basically, the granddaughter of someone who got a place in the ship by giving themselves and their brethren away as slavers - she works for a family of rich politicians, one of the few people to know about the world being about to end. They commit suicide to avoid being sucked into space and leave her alone with their baby daughter, persecuted by Security for possible murder and kidnapping. But here’s the thing, if she doesn’t run, she’ll spend her last weeks in a cell. And she doesn’t want that.
I am a sucker for character-focused stories. I usually become obsessed with a random character and instantly give five stars to a book but, here? I loved everyone (except Rachel, fuck Rachel). Myrra was so easy to empathize with, Charlotte was adorable, Tobias was amazing. The book was also strangely slow-paced. You’d think, the world is about to end, we have a runaway, and police after her, but we spend so much time in the characters’ heads and flashbacks. This is something I usually hate, but I somehow loved it. It made every disaster, every wrong turn, every bit of bad news so emotional.
The book is told in two POVs - Myrra’s and Tobias’ - and there are little bits in between about the cities they visit. They introduce how the cities came to be and explain how they will be destroyed once the world ends. It just broke me - seeing Myrra getting to Nabat and then being immediately introduced to how Nabat would end. It was like reading about a ghost town before it happened. I think I only started understanding we were actually going to see the cities die in the middle of the book, after a few disasters had happened, and my reactions went from ‘holy fuck’ to total dread very quickly.
The constant reminder of the world dying and the impending death of the characters instils this crazy sense of urgency in the book. Urgency for what? I don’t know. Finishing the book it’s quite ironic how stupidly hopeless I was while reading it. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a happy ending more strongly than I wanted it in this book, and I got it but not the way I hoped. And I think I cried about it as the characters themselves also cried about it, so that was cute.
I finished this the other day and I’m still speechless. The sorrow of the last few chapters has not left me. I sobbed for 50 pages and that’s insane. I still think a lot about some bits here and there that were brutally sad and they just got me really bad too. I don’t know, I just hope Marissa Levien writes something else soon because the fact that she’s only got this book out feels like a personal attack and I’ll be speaking about this in therapy.
So anyways, I recommend this to anyone who’s looking for something new and who likes: being sad, social commentary about inequality and class, character-focused stories, slow-paced dystopias, and how scary space is.
Fave bits:
- And when the world gives way, she thought, will everyone here live as ghosts in space and haunt the place we once occupied, among the shards of metal and debris?”
- They have been waiting for oblivion; it has always stood right outside their door. There will be relief in finally meeting it, mixed in with all the pain, like pulling out a loose tooth—the soreness, the uncertainty, then a pop, a sting, a bleed, and: done.”
- “It was always going to be too much, at some point,” he said.
- My life is remarkable now, for having seen all this with you.
I am a sucker for character-focused stories. I usually become obsessed with a random character and instantly give five stars to a book but, here? I loved everyone (except Rachel, fuck Rachel). Myrra was so easy to empathize with, Charlotte was adorable, Tobias was amazing. The book was also strangely slow-paced. You’d think, the world is about to end, we have a runaway, and police after her, but we spend so much time in the characters’ heads and flashbacks. This is something I usually hate, but I somehow loved it. It made every disaster, every wrong turn, every bit of bad news so emotional.
The book is told in two POVs - Myrra’s and Tobias’ - and there are little bits in between about the cities they visit. They introduce how the cities came to be and explain how they will be destroyed once the world ends. It just broke me - seeing Myrra getting to Nabat and then being immediately introduced to how Nabat would end. It was like reading about a ghost town before it happened. I think I only started understanding we were actually going to see the cities die in the middle of the book, after a few disasters had happened, and my reactions went from ‘holy fuck’ to total dread very quickly.
The constant reminder of the world dying and the impending death of the characters instils this crazy sense of urgency in the book. Urgency for what? I don’t know. Finishing the book it’s quite ironic how stupidly hopeless I was while reading it. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a happy ending more strongly than I wanted it in this book, and I got it but not the way I hoped. And I think I cried about it as the characters themselves also cried about it, so that was cute.
I finished this the other day and I’m still speechless. The sorrow of the last few chapters has not left me. I sobbed for 50 pages and that’s insane. I still think a lot about some bits here and there that were brutally sad and they just got me really bad too. I don’t know, I just hope Marissa Levien writes something else soon because the fact that she’s only got this book out feels like a personal attack and I’ll be speaking about this in therapy.
So anyways, I recommend this to anyone who’s looking for something new and who likes: being sad, social commentary about inequality and class, character-focused stories, slow-paced dystopias, and how scary space is.
Fave bits:
- And when the world gives way, she thought, will everyone here live as ghosts in space and haunt the place we once occupied, among the shards of metal and debris?”
- They have been waiting for oblivion; it has always stood right outside their door. There will be relief in finally meeting it, mixed in with all the pain, like pulling out a loose tooth—the soreness, the uncertainty, then a pop, a sting, a bleed, and: done.”
- “It was always going to be too much, at some point,” he said.
- My life is remarkable now, for having seen all this with you.
April 27, 2023
Quick thoughts!
•light sci-fi
•read in a day
•really enjoyed and think others will too, but probably won’t stick with me long
•light sci-fi
•read in a day
•really enjoyed and think others will too, but probably won’t stick with me long
January 20, 2022
An interesting book about the process of facing the end you can see coming. Not immediately, but certainly, and soon.
It could have been sad and depressing, but I actually found it quite absorbing and ultimately peaceful and satisfying. I liked the idea of finding purpose in the moment, and acceptance at the last.
And when the world gives way, she thought, will everyone here live as ghosts in space and haunt the place we once occupied, among the shards of metal and debris?
It could have been sad and depressing, but I actually found it quite absorbing and ultimately peaceful and satisfying. I liked the idea of finding purpose in the moment, and acceptance at the last.
And when the world gives way, she thought, will everyone here live as ghosts in space and haunt the place we once occupied, among the shards of metal and debris?
May 13, 2022
As someone who enjoys science fiction, dystopian, and apocalyptic stories, this book was definitely enjoyable to me.
This is a story about a generational spaceship that is called the World by all of the inhabitants. The world is huge with different countries and even its own weather system.
There’s a type of caste system where you’re one of the rich and elite, or you’re borne into servitude. Myrra will have worked herself free of servitude in about 50 years, about the time the colonists land on their new planet.
I have a thing about generational journeys to colonize another planet. Although the story is really about Myrra, I thought the world-building was fascinating.
This is a story about a generational spaceship that is called the World by all of the inhabitants. The world is huge with different countries and even its own weather system.
There’s a type of caste system where you’re one of the rich and elite, or you’re borne into servitude. Myrra will have worked herself free of servitude in about 50 years, about the time the colonists land on their new planet.
I have a thing about generational journeys to colonize another planet. Although the story is really about Myrra, I thought the world-building was fascinating.
February 1, 2022
I’m not sure about a few things here.
I’m not sure this generation spaceship works as described.
I’m not sure it matters, because this is about facing one’s inevitable death which, given global warming and Covid, is top of mind for many of us. This is clearly allegory for our times, in the same vein as The Last Policeman and the Star Trek episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”.
I’m not sure this was the right time to read this. My dad is back in the ER tonight with multiple organ failure due to Covid-19, and he fully expects to die. They had the priest in to give him the last rites, and he keeps talking about organizing his papers, whatever that means. I looked at his chart and the numbers are catastrophic. So reading about a world dying and two young people finding each other just before that happens is not conducive to reading enjoyment.
I’m not sure this generation spaceship works as described.
I’m not sure it matters, because this is about facing one’s inevitable death which, given global warming and Covid, is top of mind for many of us. This is clearly allegory for our times, in the same vein as The Last Policeman and the Star Trek episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”.
I’m not sure this was the right time to read this. My dad is back in the ER tonight with multiple organ failure due to Covid-19, and he fully expects to die. They had the priest in to give him the last rites, and he keeps talking about organizing his papers, whatever that means. I looked at his chart and the numbers are catastrophic. So reading about a world dying and two young people finding each other just before that happens is not conducive to reading enjoyment.
July 12, 2021
I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
This was a very weird book, and absolutely nothing like I'd expected, but I still really enjoyed this.
I had a very hard time deciding what to rate this, and right now this is probably 3.5 stars rounded up to 4, because this was so much more depressing than I'd expected. Like God I was expecting a more rebel-y, uplifting dystopia, but this went down the Passengers/Interstellar/*insert name of depressing space dystopia movie that was really good, but also depressing* path, and I don't know, I feel so conflicted about this.
I had a very hard time getting into this originally because this did not start in the way I was expecting it to start, and since I was listening to this an an audioarc, some of the informative chapters in between would really confuse me. I even had a pretty hard time differentiating between the two POVs, Tobias and Myrra, because I just didn't realise they were different people in the beginning.
Still, I powered through after quite a bit of a break and restarted this, and I was addicted. Not really the kind where I just cannot survive without finishing, but more the kind I can't stop listening to when I'm listening then take breaks, and by the end I didn't want to finish this because I just knew it wasn't going to end well. And it was just so depressing, and I wanted to cry and then it just ended without warning?!??!?!
Like I had to go back and relisten to make sure I wasn't missing something, but it just ended!?!??! Just like that!??!? And I, I just don't have any words to express how I felt after that.
I think this a book I will relisten to in the future, even though it was depressing, I feel like it was a very enjoyable read too. I did feel there was a lot of filler stuff, stuff I really didn't think we needed, but it wasn't? but it was? I'm just so confused. This is why I don't like to read these kind of books, because even though they were horrible, I couldn't help but like them.
I'd really thought this was the typical the-world-is-ending-and-a-rebel-uprising-will-save-it kind of book, but this is way more space sci-fi than it is dystopia and Hunger Games like.
I loved the writing, Marissa Levein definitely has a way with words (That ending?!?!? I was sobbing). I loved our characters, I loved how relatable they were, how I could get why they did stuff they did, even though I didn't completely agree with it sometimes.
The narrator was really good, I just wish there was a better way of differentiating between the POVs and the informative chapters in between, because I would be halfway through a chapter before I would realise it was a different POV, or not a POV at all.
I feel like this review sounds very disjointed and all mixed up, but honestly, that is exactly how I felt about this after finishing, and still do. I don't know. I was just shocked by the way it ended, because even though it was an amazing ending for our characters, I really wanted more with Charlotte.
Speaking of Charlotte, I just loved Charlotte. I loved how both Tobias and Myrra bonded over Charlotte, I loved the road trip, I just, *crying* I DON'T KNOW OKAY?!? I'M NOT EMOTIONALLY OVER THIS BOOK ENOUGH TO WRITE A COMPREHENSIVE AND OBJECTIVE REVIEW.
You know what, I'm just ending it here. If I ever get to rereading this, I'll write a better review. I recommend it to sci-fi lovers, people okay with sad endings, compelling characters, and would not mind waiting for the book to start making sense.
This was a very weird book, and absolutely nothing like I'd expected, but I still really enjoyed this.
I had a very hard time deciding what to rate this, and right now this is probably 3.5 stars rounded up to 4, because this was so much more depressing than I'd expected. Like God I was expecting a more rebel-y, uplifting dystopia, but this went down the Passengers/Interstellar/*insert name of depressing space dystopia movie that was really good, but also depressing* path, and I don't know, I feel so conflicted about this.
I had a very hard time getting into this originally because this did not start in the way I was expecting it to start, and since I was listening to this an an audioarc, some of the informative chapters in between would really confuse me. I even had a pretty hard time differentiating between the two POVs, Tobias and Myrra, because I just didn't realise they were different people in the beginning.
Still, I powered through after quite a bit of a break and restarted this, and I was addicted. Not really the kind where I just cannot survive without finishing, but more the kind I can't stop listening to when I'm listening then take breaks, and by the end I didn't want to finish this because I just knew it wasn't going to end well. And it was just so depressing, and I wanted to cry and then it just ended without warning?!??!?!
Like I had to go back and relisten to make sure I wasn't missing something, but it just ended!?!??! Just like that!??!? And I, I just don't have any words to express how I felt after that.
I think this a book I will relisten to in the future, even though it was depressing, I feel like it was a very enjoyable read too. I did feel there was a lot of filler stuff, stuff I really didn't think we needed, but it wasn't? but it was? I'm just so confused. This is why I don't like to read these kind of books, because even though they were horrible, I couldn't help but like them.
I'd really thought this was the typical the-world-is-ending-and-a-rebel-uprising-will-save-it kind of book, but this is way more space sci-fi than it is dystopia and Hunger Games like.
I loved the writing, Marissa Levein definitely has a way with words (That ending?!?!? I was sobbing). I loved our characters, I loved how relatable they were, how I could get why they did stuff they did, even though I didn't completely agree with it sometimes.
The narrator was really good, I just wish there was a better way of differentiating between the POVs and the informative chapters in between, because I would be halfway through a chapter before I would realise it was a different POV, or not a POV at all.
I feel like this review sounds very disjointed and all mixed up, but honestly, that is exactly how I felt about this after finishing, and still do. I don't know. I was just shocked by the way it ended, because even though it was an amazing ending for our characters, I really wanted more with Charlotte.
Speaking of Charlotte, I just loved Charlotte. I loved how both Tobias and Myrra bonded over Charlotte, I loved the road trip, I just, *crying* I DON'T KNOW OKAY?!? I'M NOT EMOTIONALLY OVER THIS BOOK ENOUGH TO WRITE A COMPREHENSIVE AND OBJECTIVE REVIEW.
You know what, I'm just ending it here. If I ever get to rereading this, I'll write a better review. I recommend it to sci-fi lovers, people okay with sad endings, compelling characters, and would not mind waiting for the book to start making sense.
September 25, 2021
An amazing landscape is brought to life in this novel by debut author Marissa Levien. Dive into this luscious novel and explore both the familiar and the exotic locales of the escape ship known as the world. As Myrra is on the run to save herself and her young charge Charlotte, we go on a tour through the city of New London, the fantastical underwater Vegas-like city of Palmer, the aged and worn all-but-abandoned tourist town of N’bot, and the ancient-like city of Kittimur with its heat, colors, and monks’ songs.
Our heroine Myrra is peppy and smart – a fun joy to observe. Her relationship with Charlotte is sweet and tender, in contrast to the hard-scrabble approach to life that Myrra normally takes, due to her hard upbringing as a “contract worker” – providing unpaid labor as a young girl in rough settings such as a laundry and a butcher. Due to her rough life, she is wary of most everyone, yet we see her growth throughout the novel, as she makes a friend in an unexpected way.
Excellently rendered, When the World Gives Way is recommended for anyone who enjoys interesting prose and amazing imagery. Sci Fi and Literary Fiction lovers can also get on board. There is mystery, action, and adventure here as well. And, it might just be a great one for your next book club.
Will Myrra and Charlotte, and those she picks up along her journey find a way out before The World Gives Way? Pick up your copy today and enjoy the journey of this wonderful landscape. And don’t miss the lush surprises and a possible twist as the story moodily glides to a clashing conclusion.
A big thank you to author Marissa Levien, narrator Christine Lakin, Hachette Audio’s imprint Redhook, and NetGalley for providing a complimentary Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for this honest review.
To grab a copy of The World Gives Way for yourself, head on over to www.BookShop.org – the online bookstore that gives 75% of each book’s profit margin back to local, independent bookshops. Find yours at https://bookshop.org/lists/best-ficti....
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Our heroine Myrra is peppy and smart – a fun joy to observe. Her relationship with Charlotte is sweet and tender, in contrast to the hard-scrabble approach to life that Myrra normally takes, due to her hard upbringing as a “contract worker” – providing unpaid labor as a young girl in rough settings such as a laundry and a butcher. Due to her rough life, she is wary of most everyone, yet we see her growth throughout the novel, as she makes a friend in an unexpected way.
Excellently rendered, When the World Gives Way is recommended for anyone who enjoys interesting prose and amazing imagery. Sci Fi and Literary Fiction lovers can also get on board. There is mystery, action, and adventure here as well. And, it might just be a great one for your next book club.
Will Myrra and Charlotte, and those she picks up along her journey find a way out before The World Gives Way? Pick up your copy today and enjoy the journey of this wonderful landscape. And don’t miss the lush surprises and a possible twist as the story moodily glides to a clashing conclusion.
A big thank you to author Marissa Levien, narrator Christine Lakin, Hachette Audio’s imprint Redhook, and NetGalley for providing a complimentary Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for this honest review.
To grab a copy of The World Gives Way for yourself, head on over to www.BookShop.org – the online bookstore that gives 75% of each book’s profit margin back to local, independent bookshops. Find yours at https://bookshop.org/lists/best-ficti....
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#SciFiAndFantasy
August 6, 2022
I rarely leave reviews for books. It usually takes a book actively angering me to do it, and actively angering me usually takes a book squandering its potential. That's what this book has done: unnecessarily squandered its potential.
On the face of it, a book about a generation ship dying, with a main character who is a runway indentured servant, smuggling a baby who isn't hers, being chased by a policeman deciding what his role is during Armageddon - well, that sounds fantastic, a possible contender for my top ten list of the year.
But everything about this book - just like everything about the generation ship - quickly falls apart.
For starters, this book tries to be hard science fiction when that is clearly beyond the capabilities of the author. I like a SciFi story that's soft SciFi. I don't need the science to be "good" to enjoy it, and I'm not a scientist, so authors can sneak a lot by me so long as the basics that I know are adhered to. But if you are going to write hard SciFi, it has got to make sense to a person who knows enough about science and engineering to be dangerous as a reader.
The author - unnecessarily for the story - tries to shoehorn in a lot of "science," presumably to world-build. For most of the book, we're given descriptors of the ship - its surface is roughly the size of Switzerland, its biomes are made to resemble earth, mountains were carved by artists to include cool rock-face buildings, desert sand is made from crushed recycled glass from earth trash dumps - that could stand alone without a whole lot of real science explaination from the author.
[In fact, that bit about the sand is particularly interesting - the different colors of glass, once mixed, now have become heterogenous because they have different weights that have separated through the rocking of the ship.]
For most of the story, it is unclear what shape exactly the ship is or how it gets its gravity. After a particularly bad quake brought on by the cracking hull of the ship, the ship loses gravity momentarily. So I assumed it was artificial gravity. Cool. I can deal with that. But, later in the book, spin is mentioned as the source of gravity. Before I get into the ship's bizarre shape, I need to state the obvious: if a ship was hit or damaged sufficiently to stop the spin and thereby kill the gravity, gravity won't just come back a minute later on its own, with everything being just like normal. That's not how gravity works in a hard science environment.
It took until the last 15-20% of the book to understand what the ship is supposed to look like, and "knowing" now what it looks like doesn't really help me picture it, because - whoa man - is this ship design *bizarre.* In fact, it is an engineer's nightmare.
This spinning ship - something that everyone (I hate generalizations, but in this case I think it is fair) would default to being a ring that spins fast, with people living on the inside edge so as to take advantage of centripetal force - is in fact a cylinder. But not the way you might picture it with the people living on the curved surface. Not at all...
Before we got the skinny on the "cylinder" shape, we got lots of mentions of the "edge" of the ship, and of the "circumference" of the ship. People are living in a circle of space - the edge of the cylinder. The sky is another flat circle above your head. The walls are flat sides going straight up. So, the only usable space on the whole ship is a giant circle the size of Switzerland, leaving an equal circle empty (more on this later), and the massive walls holding the circles together also empty. I cannot image scientists or designers or financiers thinking up this arrangement, and all of its *massive* wasted space and resources, and think that's the way to go.
I get that writers want to make something new and unique to their canon, but this author should not be (literally) trying to invent the wheel here with their obvious lack of real scientific and engineering understanding.
Not only is all of that space wasted, but having what would basically amount to a giant flipping coin in space would need a massive amount of fuel to keep itself spinning in anything resembling a stable enough way to keep a regular gravity and a regular trajectory, especially assuming at the micro meteor hits it is sure to take.
The problem that the ship is facing is a cracked outer hull that is evidently unfixable by the engineers is the ship. The ship is slowly breaking apart. I think I know why that is happening, and it all has to do with the ship's original design.
The inner hull is made to look like sky for the majority of the inhabitants so that, generations in, people don't forget what the sky is and decide to stick to the ship. So far so good. But, the outer hull has windows. In order to give the engineers hope and something to look at? The outer hull has hundreds of stress points and seals that only a few people will ever know of, let alone see, with no justification for their existence.
Worse? The "sky" of the inner hull isn't a display. No. It is a series of *holes* punched into the inner hull, through which individual lights are shown to approximate stars. They are manually lit and moved by people. Also, the sun is evidently moved that way, too?
So the outer hull has literally millions of seams and *plexiglass* windows, and the inner hull has "irregular" and "jagged" holes punched into it for lights that could just be mounted on the underside. No wonder the ship is in trouble!
When they attempt to repair the ship, they "vacuum seal" the area around the hull. All the space around them is literally vacuum, not that they can expose it to vacuum to take the stress off, because the internal hull is full of holes! Why is this imagined/written this way? This ship would never exist this way.
Did you catch the manually moved sun thing? Well, when it is finally announced that the world is ending, all of a sudden the sun starts misbehaving. Originally I hypothesized that the micrometeors were computer programmers who created a virus so that the simulation of the day and night cycle only took an hour. (Just as logical as any "science" or plot points in this book.) In fact, the workers who moved the sun just gave up, and set it to "manual," but the manual mode wasn't working? It was just for the drama, but still, what a crazy, lazy answer.
More effects from the sun? All the weird cycles of the sun changed the weather patterns, because of "all the extra heat from the sun." Except - there's no reason why the ship would be getting heat from the sun lights. Those bulbs would have to have such resistance to create heat that they'd constantly be burning out. No. Those lights would be cold LCDs. They'd never effect the weather.
Next, let's talk about the people running the sky and doing the technical maintenance on the ship. It all started with trained engineers. Then they didn't want to do it anymore. So they took troublesome runaway slaves/indentured servants, and the mentally and/or criminally insane, and made them take care of the ship. Sounds reasonable?
Those people were kept in the outer hull, which was separated by a wall of deserts. Deserts that apparently took 2-3 days of driving to reach from the city. In an area the size of Switzerland, nowhere would be a 2 day drive away, let alone the "strip" of desert in place to keep people away from the illusion of the wall (for whatever reason).
Also: the prison doors had no locks so anyone can wander in or out at will, apparently. To the area that is not only a high security prison and asylum, but also where all the infrastructure in the entire ship is controlled. Seems right.
And to get from the "ground" to the sky? It is nice that it was acknowledged that the gravity would flip, but, the ladders people inexplicably have to use to get from the "up" elevator to the "down" elevator are zero G, even though they are along the side walls, which - and I could be wrong here - but would in all likelihood has gravity pushing outward, at depending if they were on the outer edge or the side one, potentially at a much faster or slower turn, so gravity might be way stronger.
All this adds up to: don't write a detailed, preportedly hard SciFi book when science isn't your strong suit.
But wait, there's more: my complaints aren't all about the bad science. There's also the bad character development.
Our first POV is an indentured servant (her original ancestors signed up themselves and all their heirs to be in perpetual bondage until the ship lands, and then those heirs will be free). Her mom disappeared. She's passed around as a slave. Her only moments of love are her using people. That's fine. But why is she taking care of this child?
The child is the daughter of the richest people on the ship. She's the nanny. I'd accept that she loves the kid. But she spends most of the book planning to abandon the kid. Then decides she doesn't want to. Instead, she wants to use the "special privileges" of the girl to potentially get her to an escape pod. She apparently neither has explicit love for the child, nor qualms about the baby having special privileges she could never dream of.
I could deal with these obtuse motivations if the story were in 1st person, as a lot of people are shockingly obtuse and unaware of their own motivations, but this is in third person, so part of the joy of reading this should be the narrator weaving out the implications of a person's place in the world, aspirations, qualms, and inner battles, etc... the author gives us none of this.
Worse, this book ends up being a "cops are good and mean well always" message from our other POV. He's such a Pollyanna, he has no idea some cops are corrupt or act poorly, or that power can do things like put unwanted people in gulags (i.e. the apparently maintenance staff).
He doesn't so much wrestle with his job in the end times, but marvles that life could be complicated. His only interesting characteristics are his struggling with his parents being criminals. He also comes from a formerly rich family, but that is apparently not important or interesting or sad to him.
And really, these struggles, that could have interesting sociological implications, are not only glossed over, but given to a Pollyanna cop.
And why a cop? All of his police actions are slow and completely nonsensical (all criminals go this court because they do, so let's go to this city and sit by a pool all day waiting for them to trip over our beach towels) and drag the pace of the book to a near standstill. It is boring. If you choose to glorify cops, at least make it exciting. If it isn't exciting, use literally anybody else, please. I'm so tired of excusing or glorifying cops in books. It's problematic.
But what bothered me most was probably the lazy writing on the part of the author.
-At least once per chapter the author used a version of the formula "it could have been a minute or an hour or a century for all I knew."
-The female POV was so "broken" that she "never kissed anyone for fun or love, only to use them" when there was a whole scene of her doing just that with a minor character. And once, when the cop asked her if he could do anything for her she broke down crying because apparently no one ever asked her that question in her whole life? The dude she was using did that at least once in the book. Ridiculously sloppy writing.
-The female POV was completely uneducated but owns books, but the college educated cop had never held a real book in his life?
-The female POV has no education or connections or inside info, but knows exactly where to head to get to the prison - out in the middle of the desert - and finds the exact spot unwittingly. She knows what cities will have no security cameras to track her when she's on the run. She knows exactly which accounts is her masters will have no tracking software when she uses his money.
-The male POV sees a car driving kilometers away during citywide panic, and somehow knows the woman and baby are in it, of all people, all fleeing from the end is the world.
-The female POV's mom was in the exact place they end up. She was dead, but one of the 12 people they talked to knew her intimately.
Basically, every plot point was stumbled on like our POVs were homing pigeons.
And just structurally, the whole book shifted from one character POV alternating, to a shared POV at the end, which was just terrible, confusing, and got rid of any doubt/intrigue between the two.
The book was readable for the first half, maybe, until the author started adding terrible science to justify the world-building, started messing with the POV format, leaned into the Deus ex machina so hard on every plot point, and got sloppy in every bit of dialogue in their mad rush to get this trash heap to the end in a clear "I just want to be done already" rush.
Thanks for letting me get all that madness out of my system.
If you're looking for a book to show you what not to do in writing, give it a read, but otherwise, allow my review to give you the best of the bad points, and spend your reading hours more wisely.
It's too bad. This book sounded like it had so much potential.
*Audiobook
On the face of it, a book about a generation ship dying, with a main character who is a runway indentured servant, smuggling a baby who isn't hers, being chased by a policeman deciding what his role is during Armageddon - well, that sounds fantastic, a possible contender for my top ten list of the year.
But everything about this book - just like everything about the generation ship - quickly falls apart.
For starters, this book tries to be hard science fiction when that is clearly beyond the capabilities of the author. I like a SciFi story that's soft SciFi. I don't need the science to be "good" to enjoy it, and I'm not a scientist, so authors can sneak a lot by me so long as the basics that I know are adhered to. But if you are going to write hard SciFi, it has got to make sense to a person who knows enough about science and engineering to be dangerous as a reader.
The author - unnecessarily for the story - tries to shoehorn in a lot of "science," presumably to world-build. For most of the book, we're given descriptors of the ship - its surface is roughly the size of Switzerland, its biomes are made to resemble earth, mountains were carved by artists to include cool rock-face buildings, desert sand is made from crushed recycled glass from earth trash dumps - that could stand alone without a whole lot of real science explaination from the author.
[In fact, that bit about the sand is particularly interesting - the different colors of glass, once mixed, now have become heterogenous because they have different weights that have separated through the rocking of the ship.]
For most of the story, it is unclear what shape exactly the ship is or how it gets its gravity. After a particularly bad quake brought on by the cracking hull of the ship, the ship loses gravity momentarily. So I assumed it was artificial gravity. Cool. I can deal with that. But, later in the book, spin is mentioned as the source of gravity. Before I get into the ship's bizarre shape, I need to state the obvious: if a ship was hit or damaged sufficiently to stop the spin and thereby kill the gravity, gravity won't just come back a minute later on its own, with everything being just like normal. That's not how gravity works in a hard science environment.
It took until the last 15-20% of the book to understand what the ship is supposed to look like, and "knowing" now what it looks like doesn't really help me picture it, because - whoa man - is this ship design *bizarre.* In fact, it is an engineer's nightmare.
This spinning ship - something that everyone (I hate generalizations, but in this case I think it is fair) would default to being a ring that spins fast, with people living on the inside edge so as to take advantage of centripetal force - is in fact a cylinder. But not the way you might picture it with the people living on the curved surface. Not at all...
Before we got the skinny on the "cylinder" shape, we got lots of mentions of the "edge" of the ship, and of the "circumference" of the ship. People are living in a circle of space - the edge of the cylinder. The sky is another flat circle above your head. The walls are flat sides going straight up. So, the only usable space on the whole ship is a giant circle the size of Switzerland, leaving an equal circle empty (more on this later), and the massive walls holding the circles together also empty. I cannot image scientists or designers or financiers thinking up this arrangement, and all of its *massive* wasted space and resources, and think that's the way to go.
I get that writers want to make something new and unique to their canon, but this author should not be (literally) trying to invent the wheel here with their obvious lack of real scientific and engineering understanding.
Not only is all of that space wasted, but having what would basically amount to a giant flipping coin in space would need a massive amount of fuel to keep itself spinning in anything resembling a stable enough way to keep a regular gravity and a regular trajectory, especially assuming at the micro meteor hits it is sure to take.
The problem that the ship is facing is a cracked outer hull that is evidently unfixable by the engineers is the ship. The ship is slowly breaking apart. I think I know why that is happening, and it all has to do with the ship's original design.
The inner hull is made to look like sky for the majority of the inhabitants so that, generations in, people don't forget what the sky is and decide to stick to the ship. So far so good. But, the outer hull has windows. In order to give the engineers hope and something to look at? The outer hull has hundreds of stress points and seals that only a few people will ever know of, let alone see, with no justification for their existence.
Worse? The "sky" of the inner hull isn't a display. No. It is a series of *holes* punched into the inner hull, through which individual lights are shown to approximate stars. They are manually lit and moved by people. Also, the sun is evidently moved that way, too?
So the outer hull has literally millions of seams and *plexiglass* windows, and the inner hull has "irregular" and "jagged" holes punched into it for lights that could just be mounted on the underside. No wonder the ship is in trouble!
When they attempt to repair the ship, they "vacuum seal" the area around the hull. All the space around them is literally vacuum, not that they can expose it to vacuum to take the stress off, because the internal hull is full of holes! Why is this imagined/written this way? This ship would never exist this way.
Did you catch the manually moved sun thing? Well, when it is finally announced that the world is ending, all of a sudden the sun starts misbehaving. Originally I hypothesized that the micrometeors were computer programmers who created a virus so that the simulation of the day and night cycle only took an hour. (Just as logical as any "science" or plot points in this book.) In fact, the workers who moved the sun just gave up, and set it to "manual," but the manual mode wasn't working? It was just for the drama, but still, what a crazy, lazy answer.
More effects from the sun? All the weird cycles of the sun changed the weather patterns, because of "all the extra heat from the sun." Except - there's no reason why the ship would be getting heat from the sun lights. Those bulbs would have to have such resistance to create heat that they'd constantly be burning out. No. Those lights would be cold LCDs. They'd never effect the weather.
Next, let's talk about the people running the sky and doing the technical maintenance on the ship. It all started with trained engineers. Then they didn't want to do it anymore. So they took troublesome runaway slaves/indentured servants, and the mentally and/or criminally insane, and made them take care of the ship. Sounds reasonable?
Those people were kept in the outer hull, which was separated by a wall of deserts. Deserts that apparently took 2-3 days of driving to reach from the city. In an area the size of Switzerland, nowhere would be a 2 day drive away, let alone the "strip" of desert in place to keep people away from the illusion of the wall (for whatever reason).
Also: the prison doors had no locks so anyone can wander in or out at will, apparently. To the area that is not only a high security prison and asylum, but also where all the infrastructure in the entire ship is controlled. Seems right.
And to get from the "ground" to the sky? It is nice that it was acknowledged that the gravity would flip, but, the ladders people inexplicably have to use to get from the "up" elevator to the "down" elevator are zero G, even though they are along the side walls, which - and I could be wrong here - but would in all likelihood has gravity pushing outward, at depending if they were on the outer edge or the side one, potentially at a much faster or slower turn, so gravity might be way stronger.
All this adds up to: don't write a detailed, preportedly hard SciFi book when science isn't your strong suit.
But wait, there's more: my complaints aren't all about the bad science. There's also the bad character development.
Our first POV is an indentured servant (her original ancestors signed up themselves and all their heirs to be in perpetual bondage until the ship lands, and then those heirs will be free). Her mom disappeared. She's passed around as a slave. Her only moments of love are her using people. That's fine. But why is she taking care of this child?
The child is the daughter of the richest people on the ship. She's the nanny. I'd accept that she loves the kid. But she spends most of the book planning to abandon the kid. Then decides she doesn't want to. Instead, she wants to use the "special privileges" of the girl to potentially get her to an escape pod. She apparently neither has explicit love for the child, nor qualms about the baby having special privileges she could never dream of.
I could deal with these obtuse motivations if the story were in 1st person, as a lot of people are shockingly obtuse and unaware of their own motivations, but this is in third person, so part of the joy of reading this should be the narrator weaving out the implications of a person's place in the world, aspirations, qualms, and inner battles, etc... the author gives us none of this.
Worse, this book ends up being a "cops are good and mean well always" message from our other POV. He's such a Pollyanna, he has no idea some cops are corrupt or act poorly, or that power can do things like put unwanted people in gulags (i.e. the apparently maintenance staff).
He doesn't so much wrestle with his job in the end times, but marvles that life could be complicated. His only interesting characteristics are his struggling with his parents being criminals. He also comes from a formerly rich family, but that is apparently not important or interesting or sad to him.
And really, these struggles, that could have interesting sociological implications, are not only glossed over, but given to a Pollyanna cop.
And why a cop? All of his police actions are slow and completely nonsensical (all criminals go this court because they do, so let's go to this city and sit by a pool all day waiting for them to trip over our beach towels) and drag the pace of the book to a near standstill. It is boring. If you choose to glorify cops, at least make it exciting. If it isn't exciting, use literally anybody else, please. I'm so tired of excusing or glorifying cops in books. It's problematic.
But what bothered me most was probably the lazy writing on the part of the author.
-At least once per chapter the author used a version of the formula "it could have been a minute or an hour or a century for all I knew."
-The female POV was so "broken" that she "never kissed anyone for fun or love, only to use them" when there was a whole scene of her doing just that with a minor character. And once, when the cop asked her if he could do anything for her she broke down crying because apparently no one ever asked her that question in her whole life? The dude she was using did that at least once in the book. Ridiculously sloppy writing.
-The female POV was completely uneducated but owns books, but the college educated cop had never held a real book in his life?
-The female POV has no education or connections or inside info, but knows exactly where to head to get to the prison - out in the middle of the desert - and finds the exact spot unwittingly. She knows what cities will have no security cameras to track her when she's on the run. She knows exactly which accounts is her masters will have no tracking software when she uses his money.
-The male POV sees a car driving kilometers away during citywide panic, and somehow knows the woman and baby are in it, of all people, all fleeing from the end is the world.
-The female POV's mom was in the exact place they end up. She was dead, but one of the 12 people they talked to knew her intimately.
Basically, every plot point was stumbled on like our POVs were homing pigeons.
And just structurally, the whole book shifted from one character POV alternating, to a shared POV at the end, which was just terrible, confusing, and got rid of any doubt/intrigue between the two.
The book was readable for the first half, maybe, until the author started adding terrible science to justify the world-building, started messing with the POV format, leaned into the Deus ex machina so hard on every plot point, and got sloppy in every bit of dialogue in their mad rush to get this trash heap to the end in a clear "I just want to be done already" rush.
Thanks for letting me get all that madness out of my system.
If you're looking for a book to show you what not to do in writing, give it a read, but otherwise, allow my review to give you the best of the bad points, and spend your reading hours more wisely.
It's too bad. This book sounded like it had so much potential.
*Audiobook
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2021
This audiobook was narrated by Christine Lakin and she did a very good job. She pulled off the male voices better than most. I recommend the narrator.
Now on to the novel. This debut was a dystopia and it started out great. I was invested. It made a lot of sense and I was interested in how they got there. Why they were there. You know, all that kind of stuff. And then it just…. Well it just….. I refuse to give any spoilers so you just have to trust me when I say I didn’t like the ending!
This author has great potential and I’d definitely listen to another novel of hers.
Thanks Redhook via Netgalley.
Now on to the novel. This debut was a dystopia and it started out great. I was invested. It made a lot of sense and I was interested in how they got there. Why they were there. You know, all that kind of stuff. And then it just…. Well it just….. I refuse to give any spoilers so you just have to trust me when I say I didn’t like the ending!
This author has great potential and I’d definitely listen to another novel of hers.
Thanks Redhook via Netgalley.
May 31, 2021
Wow. I need to either lower every other 5 star rating I've ever given or GoodReads needs to add a sixth star. I am BLOWN AWAY by this simultaneously dark and hopeful read. I am going to be purposefully vague here - as I believe it's the authors intention to start you off with very little + I adored cycling through the wide range of emotions as I read.
In the near future, Myrra is a indentured worker finishing out the contract that her grandmother signed. In just fifty years her family line will be free. But one night she finds her employers dead and suddenly she has a chance at freedom much sooner. Bringing along her employers' infant daughter and harboring the secret they died to escape, Myrra runs.
That is just the start - as Myrra learns more about her world, she discovers how short lived freedom will be.
While the science fiction takes a back seat to the character development most of the book, I found the world building very well fleshed out. The different cities and structures within the world are so creative and Levien manages to create an atmosphere that is both expansive and claustrophobic.
Myrra and Charlotte are both so easy to love; I felt such a kinship with the realistic characters in this novel. The World Gives Way is a breathtaking look at the extent we will go for true human connection even in the darkest of times.
Special thanks to Redhook Books and Netgalley for providing a digital copy in exchange for my honest review!
In the near future, Myrra is a indentured worker finishing out the contract that her grandmother signed. In just fifty years her family line will be free. But one night she finds her employers dead and suddenly she has a chance at freedom much sooner. Bringing along her employers' infant daughter and harboring the secret they died to escape, Myrra runs.
That is just the start - as Myrra learns more about her world, she discovers how short lived freedom will be.
While the science fiction takes a back seat to the character development most of the book, I found the world building very well fleshed out. The different cities and structures within the world are so creative and Levien manages to create an atmosphere that is both expansive and claustrophobic.
Myrra and Charlotte are both so easy to love; I felt such a kinship with the realistic characters in this novel. The World Gives Way is a breathtaking look at the extent we will go for true human connection even in the darkest of times.
Special thanks to Redhook Books and Netgalley for providing a digital copy in exchange for my honest review!
February 8, 2021
Just finished the advanced copy of this book.... And I am IN AWE. This is such an incredible and moving story, like if "Seeking a Friend for the End of the a World" started as a police procedural. For a story that takes place in space, everything felt so incredibly similar to our lives here. The world Levien has built is so beautiful and tangible, and her characters so real-- full of empathy, anxiety, love, and a desire to survive.
I cannot say enough good things. Read this book!!!!
I cannot say enough good things. Read this book!!!!
May 14, 2023
This would have definitely been a DNF if I weren’t just stuck in a car with nothing else to do. Literally so boring.
June 28, 2021
Myrra is a nanny-maid contract worker on an intergenerational ship. When she discovers the end of the world is coming, she runs away. Tobias is the rookie detective sent to track her down.
The best part of this book for me was Tobias. I liked him. Myrra remained too morally gray and manipulative for my tastes - and while I understand the reasons for this - I felt like she never really showed any growth.
My least favorite part of the book was the worldbuilding. The ship doesn't even have a name as far as I can tell. The people on it have somehow managed to forget most everything despite it being such a short time span, and every time there was a reference to things like: the sun, the stars, soldiers, pigeons, sugar, soot, etc, I was immediately thrown out of the story. There was reference to prison, but no explanation of the government, and so on. I realize none of that matters, not if the world is ending, but it was jarring to constantly feel like they were on a hollow set playacting a story.
The book is laser-focused on the personalities and motivations of the two point-of-view characters, and that's what kept me enjoying the read. There's never any doubt about the end, Levien makes it very clear their world is doomed, but somehow that didn't ruin the emotional impact of how the characters face the end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette for this copy in exchange for an honest review.
The best part of this book for me was Tobias. I liked him. Myrra remained too morally gray and manipulative for my tastes - and while I understand the reasons for this - I felt like she never really showed any growth.
My least favorite part of the book was the worldbuilding. The ship doesn't even have a name as far as I can tell. The people on it have somehow managed to forget most everything despite it being such a short time span, and every time there was a reference to things like: the sun, the stars, soldiers, pigeons, sugar, soot, etc, I was immediately thrown out of the story. There was reference to prison, but no explanation of the government, and so on. I realize none of that matters, not if the world is ending, but it was jarring to constantly feel like they were on a hollow set playacting a story.
The book is laser-focused on the personalities and motivations of the two point-of-view characters, and that's what kept me enjoying the read. There's never any doubt about the end, Levien makes it very clear their world is doomed, but somehow that didn't ruin the emotional impact of how the characters face the end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette for this copy in exchange for an honest review.
June 16, 2021
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
This book has such a unique premise, and certainly delivered! The world is going to end, only it isn't the world we think of. It's essentially a very large spaceship that has basically become its own society, complete with various cities and landscapes and cultures. But it's on its way out, which Myrra, an indentured worker, finds out the night her employers kill themselves, leaving Myrra behind with their baby and an existential crisis.
Myrra had been facing fifty years of servitude, but is suddenly free- only if she can outrun the law, which will certainly be on her tail. Even more so as she is accompanied by the infant of a very wealthy and influential family. Tobias, meanwhile, is trying to make his mark in law enforcement, since many of his colleagues assume nepotism got him the job. When he's put on the case, his cleverness will stop at nothing to catch Myrra.
As Myrra runs, we get to see much of the world that has been built on this ship. And, we see how reluctant people are, no matter the evidence glaring at them, to accept catastrophic outcomes. It's so very relevant and thought provoking that no matter what Myrra told people, and no matter the events that corroborated her story, people believed what they wanted to believe.
This book is part survival story, as Myrra tries to find a safe place for herself and Charlotte. It's certainly part sci-fi, as the spaceship they live on is potentially to be stranded and unfixable in outer space. It's certainly part apocalyptic, as Myrra has inside information about the end of days. And it's incredibly emotional and character driven, with so much heart. And it begs the question, what would you do if your world was imminently ending? How would any human being react?
Bottom Line: Beautifully written and exquisitely emotional, The World Gives Way is a unique, genre-bending novel that I won't soon forget.
This book has such a unique premise, and certainly delivered! The world is going to end, only it isn't the world we think of. It's essentially a very large spaceship that has basically become its own society, complete with various cities and landscapes and cultures. But it's on its way out, which Myrra, an indentured worker, finds out the night her employers kill themselves, leaving Myrra behind with their baby and an existential crisis.
Myrra had been facing fifty years of servitude, but is suddenly free- only if she can outrun the law, which will certainly be on her tail. Even more so as she is accompanied by the infant of a very wealthy and influential family. Tobias, meanwhile, is trying to make his mark in law enforcement, since many of his colleagues assume nepotism got him the job. When he's put on the case, his cleverness will stop at nothing to catch Myrra.
As Myrra runs, we get to see much of the world that has been built on this ship. And, we see how reluctant people are, no matter the evidence glaring at them, to accept catastrophic outcomes. It's so very relevant and thought provoking that no matter what Myrra told people, and no matter the events that corroborated her story, people believed what they wanted to believe.
This book is part survival story, as Myrra tries to find a safe place for herself and Charlotte. It's certainly part sci-fi, as the spaceship they live on is potentially to be stranded and unfixable in outer space. It's certainly part apocalyptic, as Myrra has inside information about the end of days. And it's incredibly emotional and character driven, with so much heart. And it begs the question, what would you do if your world was imminently ending? How would any human being react?
Bottom Line: Beautifully written and exquisitely emotional, The World Gives Way is a unique, genre-bending novel that I won't soon forget.
July 11, 2021
I really thought this book had a good premise. Myrna is a you g woman born into servitude. Her contract will be up when she turns 50. She is currently working in the home of a very wealthy family. One evening, something wakes her, and she goes to find the mistress of the house about to jump off a wall (?) and kill herself. The only thing stopping her is she is holding her infant daughter, and she can’t quite do that to her baby. She eventually hands the baby over to Myrra’s care, and explains to her that their world, which is actually a ship, is about to come apart, but the government has decided to keep it a secret. She and her husband have decided to control their deaths rather than be sucked out to space. Myrra knows no one will believe that her “employers” have killed themselves, and that she will be blamed. So she takes the baby and goes on the run. But really, where are you going to go? And that’s sort of how I felt about this story. I guess some of the characters learned more about themselves along the way, but ultimately, I didn’t feel like the story had anywhere to go either.
March 10, 2021
I won this book through a goodreads giveaway! First: oh my god. Second: oh my god. Third: ohhh myyy goddd. This book was profound, dark, funny, heartbreaking, and uplifting. My emotions were all over the place reading this book. If you're looking for a book with a strong heroine main character, this is your book. If you want space age apocalyptic thriller, this is your book. If you want mystery investigation and cat and mouse suspense, this is your book. I encourage anyone who didn't win the giveaway to buy this as soon as they get the chance. I can see this becoming a bestseller. Simply phenomenal.
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July 1, 2021This book wasn't for me. Admittedly I am in a bit of a reading slump. I'm not averse to the young female protagonist but this one felt a bit too young. Going off the first 70 pages it just didn't feel like a character or set up I wanted to continue with. DNF.
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