Book Review: Leave the World Behind | Rumaan Alam

Leave the World Behind

The Stats

📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚

BOOK: Leave the World Behind

AUTHOR: Rumaan Alam

@rumaanalam

Publisher: Ecco Books @eccobooks

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐

Published: October 6, 2020

https://amzn.to/2IhCleH

The Review

The Title/Cover Draw:

  • It has the minimalist graphics that are the trend right now. A lot of people raved about this book and I just had to know why.

What I liked:

  • At first there were a lot of interesting mystery elements. You never really knew what was happening.

What I didn’t like:

  • There were some grosser incidents. I was listening to this on audio book and once or twice I had to stop listening because it effected me so badly.

What kept me reading:

  • I just wanted to know what the heck was happening!

The Characters:

  • Even though there were only 6 characters, I kept mixing them up for some reason. One of those reasons might have been because the way they reacted to happenings and noises was just so strange. The noises scared them, but in reality they reacted in a haze, only concerned about food, sex, and vacation activies. 

The Ending:

  • It was abrupt. I almost didn’t understand that it had ended and wondered if my version got cut off. And it really didn’t explain all that much.

The Narrator:

  • Marin Ireland was really effective because of how the disasters were told. It was just matter of factly emotionless. 

Reminds me of:

  • Cabin at the end of the world but less gross.

All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Libro.

Small Summary:

A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong

Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older black couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe.

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another? 

Suspenseful and provocative, Rumaan Alam’s third novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis.  

*****

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