Leave the World Behind - Book Review

I mentioned this book a few posts ago and finished the book that night.

 

Despite the fact that the "action" ramped up after I made the post, my overall opinion did not change.  In my opinion it was very poorly written.  I didn't find a single character sympathetic.  Things were happening and the characters were theorizing what may be causing those things to happen and none of them ended well and the thing was, I didn't care if they all died.  I just didn't care.

So the story, Amanda, Clay and their two children, Archie and Rose are going on vacation.  They've rented a perfectly lovely home that's basically isolated from society.  They spend their first day enjoying the pool and buying enough groceries for their two week stay.

That night an older black couple (Amanda and her family are white) show up at the door claiming to be the owners and asking to stay there because there is a power outage in New York and they live on the fourteenth floor and couldn't do the stairs.  Amanda is suspicious but Clay invites them in.  Despite them having keys to desks and knowing where things are in the house, Amanda continues to be suspicious.

Here's the thing, they decided that the New York blackout had to be something nefarious - it couldn't be anything else because no one ever loses power anywhere (if you couldn't hear it, that was heavy sarcasm with an eyeroll!).

The next day they lose cable and internet, which clearly means terrorists were involved (more sarcasm and eyerolling).  Plus, none of them trust each other.

Oh, and I have to mention the dynamic of the two women Amanda and Ruth (the black woman).  Amanda felt that Ruth and George (her husband) were intruding on their turf (Amanda was already thinking of the home as hers, even though she'd been there less than 24 hours!), while Ruth was put out that they left dishes in the sink and didn't make the beds, being disrespectful of her, since it was her house.  Amanda had paid to stay there and if Ruth had issues with how they'd treat the house, why rent it out?  

Plus, it comes out that George has tens of thousands of dollars in the house - you know, in case of an apocalypse or something (sarcasm / eyeroll).  Why would someone leave that kind of cash in a house they're renting out?  Why would they expect it would still be there when the guests leave?  I had a hard time suspending disbelief with this - and many other things.

 

What I've just told you takes up two-thirds of the book.  Right after that, there is a loud boom that is described as being so loud it can't be described (seriously, that was the description!).  At that point a bunch of odd things start happening to the point that if the terrorist talk started there, I might be buying into it but it started WAY earlier.

 

One of the reviews I pointed to in the previous post said that the author doesn't answer all the questions you may have.  Um, he didn't answer any of them but I didn't care because I didn't care who lived or died from fairly early on because the author did not develop the characters or make them sympathetic or even likeable.

 

And he head hopped constantly. And it wasn't just head hopping - he scene hopped constantly - within a since scene!  Very poorly written - very poorly written!

 

Bottom line, I thought it was a bad book and wouldn't recommend it.  The person whose review said it was the best book they'd read in 2020 - well, all I can say is it must've been the ONLY book they read or else they need to share the drugs they took while they read it.

 

I give it a minus eight stars!!!!