“I didn't know what to do. I can't do anything without my phone. I'm a useless man.”
Author: Rumaan Alam
Page Count: 241 pages
Genres: Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery-Thriller, Speculative Fiction, Apocalyptic
Content Warning: Racial Micro-aggressions, Profanity, Explicit Sexual Content, Body Horror
Recommended Age: 16+
“Step into our beautiful house and leave the world behind”
Synopsis:
Set in the present, Amanda and Clay, a middle-class and middle-aged White couple, decide to take some time off from their hectic and uneventful Brooklyn life. When searching for a place to stay for their family vacation, Amanda finds the ultimate retreat: An Airbnb in a far-off corner of Long Island, in the heart of nature, a quiet and relaxing getaway from their supposedly stressful lives, miles away from the bustling NYC. This exquisite Airbnb is serene, idyllic, and shut off from the rest of the world with minimal cell coverage.
The couple enjoys a relaxing, "low-key" day at the Airbnb with their kids, just the kind of vacation they had been dreaming of. But when an elderly couple claiming to be the Airbnb's owners knock on their door at midnight, Amanda and Clay's hopes for a peaceful holiday are quickly dashed. The owners, G.H. and Ruth Washington, a Black couple in their sixties, show up with the worst possible news; all of NYC is facing a “major blackout”, and all the cell towers and other satellite technologies are down.
While Clay takes their word for it and lets the Washingtons seek shelter in their “second home” where the electricity and water are working fine, Amanda can't shake the feeling that something is off. She refuses to believe the duo's reasons for being there.
As the story unfolds, racial tensions become apparent as both couples are disconcerted by each other. The events that follow entail a string of mishaps, mayhem, and the subtle but not-so-subtle probing of one another in an effort to uncover the facts before all hell breaks loose.
Review:
The book is only somewhat as intriguing as the blurb. The choice of vocab is complex, pretentious, and exhausting to the point where I had to check the dictionary every 5 seconds! and I’m not even exaggerating -_-;; The story dives right into the characters with extremely (and I mean extrememlyyyy) pompous words. Because the author thought that Amanda's grocery purchases were a significant reflection of her character, there is a whole fricking page devoted to them! It was counterproductive, and the writing style definitely put me off.
Now on to the stuff that did work for the book:
The story is narrated in the third person and the omniscient narrator tells it in a brutally honest—almost cynical— and speculative tone. The plot line occasionally oscillates between the past, present, and future, which will keep you hooked for the most part. It's unsettling, ironic, ambiguous, and highly engrossing once you really get into the story. However, it's slow-paced beyond one's comprehension.
The central themes seem to be capitalism, consumerism, technological dependence, climate change, race, and humanity. The witty and insightful take on how the absence of tech devices leads to phantom tingles and withdrawal symptoms, as well as the effects of solitary confinement on humans, really stood out to me. The story and the ending will either blow your mind or leave you disappointed. As for me, I'm still blowing hot and cold. I wouldn't give it more than a 3/5 tho.
There's also a book-to-movie NETFLIX adaptation!
Starring Oscar awardees Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali.
Check out the trailer here 👇
Quotes That *Stuck With Me*
“You never know when a time is the last time, because if you did you could never go on with life.”
“Parenthood was never knowing what was going to hurt your kids, but knowing only that something, inevitably, would.”
“She wanted her colleagues to need her as God wants people to keep praying.”
“They had asked themselves questions when they decided to have children — do we have the money, do we have the space, do we have what it takes — but they didn’t ask what the world would be when their children grew.”
“She did like cooking, but was that because convention forced her into the kitchen until she'd learned to enjoy time spent there?”
“Symbols don't mean anything; you invest them with meaning, depending on what you most need.”
“The building lacked a thirteenth floor because that was terrible luck. Simply pretending it wasn’t there was better.”
“Sometimes distance showed a thing most clearly.”
“Enjoying a moment is a victory.”
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