Station Eleven in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jul 13, 2015 Halsted Bernard rated it it was amazing

What a gorgeous, atmospheric, gentle book about the end of the world.

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May 21, 2016 Marisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: grown-up-books, cruise-reading, the-book-so-nice-i-read-it-twice, postapocalyptic

Unique post-apocalyptic book in that there's not so much a single plot that's explored. It's more about a group of people, a series of coincidences. The point is not a single story...it's about how lives intertwine, and what that continues to look like after 99% of the world is gone. Worthwhile read, and great, engrossing and quick reading vacation book.

Reflections upon nearing the end of a second reading' almost exactly a year later:
- This book is even better the second time around because you Unique post-apocalyptic book in that there's not so much a single plot that's explored. It's more about a group of people, a series of coincidences. The point is not a single story...it's about how lives intertwine, and what that continues to look like after 99% of the world is gone. Worthwhile read, and great, engrossing and quick reading vacation book.

Reflections upon nearing the end of a second reading' almost exactly a year later:
- This book is even better the second time around because you aren't so concerned with figuring out what's going to happen that you overlook the beauty of the writing.
- it's incredibly good at illustrating - in the stark reality of looking back at it - the absurdity of our world, and how completely screwed we would all (will al?) be if it all collapsed
- it's mostly optimistic, you see the continuation of life, you see that communities can rebuild, people will still pursues their passion, we can re-stabilize...but, you know, it kind of sucks that 99% of the population died.
- the randomness of how communities formed. They got stranded in an airport together. They were a sales team from a marketing firm and got stranded at a company retreat.

Some quotes:
"It's not looking promising for a quick end to the emergency," a newscaster said, understating the situation to a degree previously unmatched in the history of understatement, and then he blinked at the camera and something in hime seemed to stutter, a breaking down of some mechanism that had previously held his personal and professional lives apart, and he addressed the camera with a new urgency. "Mel," he said, "if you're watching this, sweetheart, take the kids to your parents' ranch. Back roads only, my love, no highways. I love you so much." pg 234

"This can't be happening," the passengers said to each othetr and to themselves, over nacho platters and in angry clusters in front of vending machines. They swore at airport management, at the TSA, at the airlines, at their useless phones, furious because fury was the last defense against understanding what the news stations were reporting. Beneath the fury swas something literally unspeakable, the television news carrying an implication that no one could yet bring themselves to consider. It was possible to comprehend the scope of the outbreak, but it wasn't possible to comprehend what it meant." ...more

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