I am about 80 pages in and there have been little bursts of interesting narrative, but then it'll go back in time and drone on about people in the "Before" era. I feel like my mom is updating me on a bunch of people she knows that I don't.
"Remember Gloria? WELL she recently moved to Connecticut where there's a big lake. I think someone even drowned there. Anyway, so Gloria moved and she met up with John. John works in architecture. Or accounting. One or the other. Anyway…"
Just long paragraphs of seemingly irrelevant information. Entire chapters of backstory that feel completely unnecessary.
It's spent more time in the past than in the present, when I thought the whole point of the book was to explore a world in the not-too-distant future ravaged by a global pandemic.
I'm especially uneasy because my fiancée and I do this sort of two-person book club and we alternate who picks the book every month. The praise for this one made me suggest it, but now I'm a decent way in and it's been interesting for like 10% of it. And yet I see so many "couldn't put it down!" reviews and I'm like "really? Because I can…"
Should I cut it loose and suggest we do a different book? Or is does all of this meandering pay off by the end?
by cparksrun