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Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel

Start date: July 2, 2015

Finish date: July 31, 2015

Discussion: Books of the Month

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What Members Thought

Apr 29, 2014 Ami rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites-of-2014, youmustread

This is an incredible book. The sort of book you should attend a midnight party at your local bookstore to get your hands on a copy. The sort of book you should call in sick to work the day you buy, because you won't want to stop reading it. I put this book down only to email everyone I know with the sort of subject line "OMG best book ever please read immediately" that could potentially be sent to the spam folder. This novel, friends, is the real deal.

Everything that follows deals only with in ...more

133 likes · Like · see review

Jun 09, 2014 Gremlin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, think-galactic

I'm giving this a 4.5, because I thought it was just so beautifully written. If I find that the story/characters stay with me over time, then I'll adjust this to 5.

Emily St. John Mandel has a languid, deliberate quality to her prose. It's thoughtful and evocative, which can be quite unusual for an apocalyptic tale - but that difference made thinking about a catastrophic plague much more meditative. This story is about life and connections and purpose. I want to think about this more before I con ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 24, 2015 Vickie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: booksthatmakemegowow

Epic sweeping tale set in the near-pandemic past and not-too-distant post-pandemic future told through many voices, mostly through the Traveling Symphony, a traveling band of musical and actor players who travel their route trying to bring a bit of joy into what has become a threatened and threatening world.
The story goes back and forth in time, using memories of the before and during of the pandemic that killed many and brought the best and worst out in survivors.
Different tethers tie the stor ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 10, 2015 Joyce rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club-choice, set-in-the-midwest

Great discussion of this book among the members of my book club. I enjoyed this post-apocalyptic novel very much. I tell myself I dislike dystopian stories yet I find myself reading them quite a bit. Could this be about the value of art? Is it about learning how not to be a ghost? I don't know but I often found it surprising and in the end quite hopeful. ...more

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Apr 05, 2015 Beth rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf, friend-bookclub, tuesday-book-club, foolscap-club

August Foolscap book club

This is not quite SF. It's definitely an SF concept, and in fact can comfortably take its place among other post-apocalyptic stories. But its interest lies elsewhere. In fact, it reads more like a book in which magic has died -- the characters don't seem aware that technology was created by people and that they can work to make simpler versions of this. Like, the power grid is down but no one attempts windmills or water power or steam. They wonder whether to teach their ...more

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Sep 20, 2015 Karen D rated it really liked it

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, music, eccentric-characters

I really enjoyed this book, much more than I expected to when I started it. It took a little while to get into it, to understand how the characters were connected, and to get the flow of the storyline, as it kept jumping back and forth between the pre- and post-apocalypse worlds. There's not much in terms of conflict, no real pivotal moment that the story builds to, but instead it's all about the character development, the relationships they build, and what they consider necessary for survival ( ...more

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Sep 19, 2014 Paula Hess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 stars. Yes another dystopian novel but, this one is for adults and I think it's very good. Mandel is an awesome writer. She brings you into the story with her eloquent writing and you are captivated till the last page. After the Georgia Flu wipes out 99% of the population it's 20 yrs later and a group of people are traveling the upper states and preforming Shakespeare to small audiences for entertainment. Mandel takes the story back before the pandemic and weaves a story of how some of these ...more

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Jan 19, 2015 Dana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dystopias, science-fiction, disease, shakespeare, strong-characters, flashbacks

Extremely well-written, character-driven, dystopian fiction with great use of flashbacks. So refreshing to experience a post-apocalyptic world not brought about by zombies!

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