On the Edge of Gone in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Nov 01, 2015 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-read

The Earth is about to be hit by a comet, which will drastically change the face of the planet. A few lucky people secure places in permanent shelters or on generation ships headed away from the devastation. For most people, like autistic Denise and her drug addicted mother, the best they can hope for is a temporary shelter during the impact and for a few days following.

But Denise her mother don't even make it as far as their temporary shelter on time. They are delayed, first because they are wai The Earth is about to be hit by a comet, which will drastically change the face of the planet. A few lucky people secure places in permanent shelters or on generation ships headed away from the devastation. For most people, like autistic Denise and her drug addicted mother, the best they can hope for is a temporary shelter during the impact and for a few days following.

But Denise her mother don't even make it as far as their temporary shelter on time. They are delayed, first because they are waiting for Denise's sister Iris, who has failed to return home, and then when they stop to help a pair of ailing women on the road who can't make it to their own shelter without assistance. It turns out that the women are in fact headed for a generation ship whose take-off has been delayed.

As Denise tries to make herself useful and convince the Captain of the generation ship to let them stay aboard she is confronted with the failings of her mother as both a parent, and a person totally unable to cope with the reality of their new situation. Over and over again the calculus of human worth is brought up, and for a young woman who is only just learning to find value in who she is, it is a stuggle she has to come to terms with very quickly.

Whether someone is useful only matters if you value people by their use.

Obviously a generation ship needs young people, but what does a young autistic woman still in high school bring to the table? What about a transgendered woman with no special technical skills? A drug addicted mother who could not hold down a job? Why these three and not three other people? The question of how to measure value in people and make choices in times of scarcity is not new and the issues are familiar.

Told from Denise's point of view, the book takes these issues and gives them a fresh perspective. It does a good job of portraying one individual's experience of autism without suggesting that this is what autism looks like for everyone in every circumstance. The family and social dynamics give the story a sense of painful realism, but still coveys hope. Overall I was impressed with my first book by Corrine Duyvis, and I'll be looking to read more from her. ...more

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Jan 15, 2016 Robyn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016

This one is just a beautiful character study, full of hope and heartbreak amidst chaos.

23 likes · Like · see review

Oct 31, 2015 Lindsay rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2016-favorites

There's a comet coming. The end of the world is here. So when you're an autistic half-Dutch half-Surinamese girl in a country that averages metres below sea level, and you're mother is a drug addict, things aren't exactly looking up.

In this version of 2035 there are spaceships and artificial gravity and a lot of people have already fled the Earth on hastily built generation-ships. So when Denise and her mother, on their way to an impact shelter, come across the last generation ship that hasn't t ...more

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Apr 05, 2016 Veronique rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, read2016, read2020

4.5* re-read

There are quite a few books out there focusing on the End of the World, each more horrific than the previous. On the Edge of Gone is quite a different creature, dealing mostly with psychology. How do you decide who is worth saving and who is not? And what would you do to survive?

Duyvis’s story tackles these huge themes in a brilliant and individual manner through the eyes of an autistic teenager. A comet is about to hit Earth. Denise and her mother have no way of reaching their tempo 4.5* re-read

There are quite a few books out there focusing on the End of the World, each more horrific than the previous. On the Edge of Gone is quite a different creature, dealing mostly with psychology. How do you decide who is worth saving and who is not? And what would you do to survive?

Duyvis’s story tackles these huge themes in a brilliant and individual manner through the eyes of an autistic teenager. A comet is about to hit Earth. Denise and her mother have no way of reaching their temporary shelter before impact, but by a turn of fate they find themselves on the last generation ship scheduled to leave the planet. But here lies the problem - they can only stay onboard until the departure when they’ll have to return to the surface where survival is sketchy at best. How can Denise prove her usefulness to get a spot on the ship when she is autistic and her mother is a drug addict? And where is her beloved sister Iris?

How do you define ‘worth'? And should this be linked to survival when you take into consideration the fate of humanity? Tough questions! By the means of a great cast, the author shows various ways of dealing with such an impossible situation, and astonishingly not all are horrible. Yes, many of the actions and things the characters say are beyond harsh, but however shocking they did ring true. From the first page, I was hooked in this tense narrative, but mostly by the amazing voice of Denise. Not only is she a great character, full of depth, intelligence and strength, but her autistic perception was a fascinating foray into her way of seeing the world, which is really not that different from the 'norm'. It did make me think of the narrator in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time but I feel Duyvis has gone much further here (understandable since she is autistic herself). Denise is a complex protagonist that shouldn’t be reduced to just one label. In fact, I found it very easy to identify with her. The plot is also surprising. Without going into it, Duyvis succeeded in creating an unexpected end (well, to me, and that doesn’t happen very often).

This novel might be shelved under the science fiction genre but don’t let this deter you from reading it if you don’t like this label. It is all about human interactions. ...more

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May 14, 2016 Helen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This tale is an enchanting take on a disaster/sci-fi movie. Earth is doomed, can humanity survive on a post-comet planet? Is there any other solution? An enormous generation ship is parked at the airport, undergoing essential repairs prior to lift off, but it isn't taking passengers. Our lead character is an autistic teen struggling to find her place in life, society, Earth and, dare she hope, space. Oh, and the poor cats! ...more

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Jan 15, 2016 Christina Pilkington rated it liked it

*3.5 stars

A thought provoking YA novel that asks so many necessary and important questions about how we value life.

My favorite part of this book was the many questions it raised about the value of a life. If you could only save a handful of people, who would you pick? How would you determine their worth? Would you pick only the physically and mentally strong, or would you look at the strengths an advantages of people who are often overlooked in society? Do people have to prove their worth first ...more

4 likes · Like · see review