This book is something else. I wish I had never read it
It’s so strange and badly written
Don’t waste your time

Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island for a holiday with their children away from the hustle and bustle of New York. One night as they are relaxing there is a knock on the door and it is a couple they have never seen before who say they own the house they are staying in. Something strange is happening in the world and these strangers turning is just the beginning.

When I heard about this book when it was first released I thought the premise sounded excellent and then I started to hear mixed reviews. However when I spotted this gorgeous, signed, sprayed edges edition in a local donation bookshelf I couldn't resist. Then it sat patiently on my bookshelf until... I heard the Netflix adaptation was just round the corner.

I know some people have hated this book, some people have DNFd and some people have actually loved it. So with such a divisive book I went in with low expectations and...I actually enjoyed it. I was fully immersed in the story right from the start and then when things started to turn I was fully invested in what was going to happen. I actually didn't want to put it down. Amanda and Clay and even their children were not the most likeable but then it was interesting to see how they changed with the arrival of the strangers at their door, not that they became any more likeable. I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone and it is not exactly fast paced but I found the story strangely fascinating. Like the characters I had very little clue what was going on and by the end I was no further forward but I didn't mind the ambiguity, especially as that played perfectly to the middle of nowhere setting.

This disturbing apocalypse novel is a good read, but takes a bit of time to get going, I wasn't as completely gripped as I would have liked to have been.

Beautifully written, and thoroughly thrilling.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read and review.

This was fantastic - pulsing, terrifying, strange and unusual, probably because it's very grounded in what real terror would feel like. I enjoyed it!

Exciting book to read. I couldn’t put it down once I started it and raced through it. Definitely recommend

I had seen such a mixed bag of reviews for this that I had no idea what to expect . Some classed it as a thriller, some sci fi , I'm still not sure !

I would say it's a sort of literary thriller, very slow burn to start off but also very eerie and has a weird atmosphere which gets the reader intrigued . It didn't take me long before i was gripped . It's a book that gets you thinking A LOT, what would you do in the situation, how would you cope, could this really happen !? This is going to work very well on screen , maybe even better that the book so I can't wait to see how it is played out.

This. Book. Was. So. Strange.

I'm not even sure what to say because a.) it's been a little while since I read it, b.) it left me slightly traumatised, and c.) WHAT?!
There's a certain scene that left me feeling deeply uncomfortable, and I almost experienced a sort of out of body experience from reading it.. I shalln't describe it because of spoilers, but let's just say it made me check my teeth.

The fact that I read this around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (when people were still a little unsure of everything and we were going into our first lockdown), only made it feel worse - because the book essentially depicts how the world might end. And I remember it having many strange overlaps with the real world at the time. Might have just been the wrong time to pick this up, but that definitely made me enjoy the book a little less than I might have in different circumstances..

Rating: 3/5
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for providing the ebook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I struggled to finish this novel. The premise was good but the pacing very slow and over wriiten. More careful and concise editing is needed.

Not a big page-turner, but keeps you interested so you want to know what happens. I see why a lot of people love this book but I did struggle with the writing style.

The blurb for this book really reeled me in. I think that the premise is really interesting and there were parts of the book where I was really hooked (particularly towards the end).

However, I found that the writing, mainly at the beginning, was so wordy. I didn't really need a massive list of every single thing that one of the characters bought at the shops, especially when it wasn't hugely important to the plot. This sort of thing was very common at the start of the book as well as some of the descriptions sounding rather odd and out of place.

This really did improve as the story progressed. I felt that Alam's writing really improved and this helped me to get into the story. I also feel that the character development became more realistic and relatable as the story went.

Overall, this story was interesting and I enjoyed reading it. I do feel that the beginning would have benefitted from a bit less flowery and excessive description, but I still found plenty to enjoy.

"George had expected human communion, but he forgot what humans were actually like."

This book was such a clever judgement of humanity woven into a creepy compelling plot.

A family rent a couple's holiday home for a week but after a few days the couple come arrive at their home asking to stay as a major blackout has hit New York.

I enjoyed the premise of this book and the little flash forward comments to give some idea of what would happen once the book ended.

Another interesting read that intrigued me from start to finish! I should start by saying the blurb makes this seem like it’s going to be a very different sort of book than it actually is but I enjoyed it all the same. Based on the description I thought it was thought it was going to be a home invasion scenario in which you couldn’t be sure who was telling the truth and which characters to trust. But, although there are suggestions of such to begin with, it quickly becomes apparent that that’s not what this story is about at all.

As the book goes on and thanks to little tidbits the narrator provides us, we start to see that what we’re actually party to is an imagining of how ‘normal’ people might deal with the immediate fallout of a global disaster. The characters know there’s been a major blackout in New York but that’s it; As their phones, TVs and radios aren’t working, they have no access to information about what’s going on in the outside world. Then they hear a ‘noise’ unlike anything they’ve ever heard before and the penny starts to drop. Between them they must decide what to do for the best in a situation none of them ever imagined they’d experience - should the visitors stay or should they go?

It’s such an interesting book and although it ends, as other reviewers have mentioned, rather abruptly, it’s one of those stories in which it’s almost better that the author didn’t carry it on any further. It is a cliffhanger of sorts but equally we are told little bits about the future so it’s not all that difficult to work out what happens and fill in the blanks. What’s left unsaid is far more terrifying as a result, imagination is a powerful thing.

Overall it’s definitely worth a read and will certainly make you think about the state of the world, and possibly reflect on how insignificant and powerless we are within it. Sounds a bit bleak but it’s a real thinker and made me want to hug my kids; I know it will stay with me for a while. Oh and for the Hamilton fans out there, ‘Every action has its equal opposite reaction’ - you’ll appreciate that.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

A gripping thriller with a slow burn of tension that forces you to keep reading - did want a slightly more defined ending, but still a brilliant book and looking forward to the movie!

Very scary and unputdownable book. It’s tense as you have to decide if the family on vacation are being tricked or if there is a real catastrophe going on. Loved this. 5/5.

Excellent. Gripping, absorbing, exceptionally well characterised. Wanted more! Will definitely look up more of Alam's writing.

Leave The World Behind

I was expecting to love this. Was so excited to read it...with all the hype about the soon to be movie/series...and I am loving post apocalyptic thrillers at the moment.

Unfortunately I really struggled...the beginning few chapters were page after page of analogies with similes and metaphors thrown in...so very many...it was almost unreadable at times....and they didn't even make sense! A few made me cringe and a few made me laugh. Not everything needs to be described that way...I get what a car is...I get what teenagers are like. It was just so unnecessary and so overwhelming! Just because you can use a metaphor...doesn't mean you should and I have never read so many in such a short space of time!

There was alot of description about small everyday things and so little about the story itself.

There were parts of the story that were fascinating but these parts were never fully explored and I found that frustrating. I understand the lack of information was part of the way the story was told but the over description of some aspects was in such contrast to the lack of description to the interesting aspects of the story.

To say we spent alot of time with these characters...I never fully understood, liked or related to them...which was a shame. Whatever lengths it went to to state otherwise, it was clear Amanda and Clay were wealthy. Not necessarily Hamptons elite but well enough off. To try and describe them as not seemed disingenuous.

I absolutely hated the ending. I don't want to put any spoilers so I can't say any more.

I can actually see a movie working very well...but the book itself didn't quite work for me.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well. I'm really struggling to clarify what I actually thought about this book. I was really looking forward to reading it - the premise is incredible! - but the actual reading experience wasn't as great as I was hoping. While I was reading it, I was glued to it, despite some overblown prose and images I could have done without (the yoga penis stands out here. Please, just no) but I felt kind of dissatisfied when I had finished it. I just wanted more from it - more creepiness, more answers as to what was actually going on. The ending in particular felt very abrupt and rushed.

I really liked the premise of this book, and I found it incredibly tense with a few genuine shocking moments.

However I did find a lot of the language in the novel to be a bit ridiculous at times, and the sexual language and odd and unnecessary (also vaguely sexual) descriptions of the young children's bodies was really off putting and spoiled my enjoyment of the book. Some of the language was really eye-rollingly bad! I also found a lot of the dialogue to be completely unbelievable and clunky. This definitely took away from what was otherwise a tense and thought=provoking novel.

Some reviewers didn't like the somewhat abrupt and ambiguous ending - however I felt this worked well in the context of the book and I thought was much better than a neatly tied-up conclusion, which wouldn't have worked so well for me.

Drawn in by the stunning cover and premise, I was intrigued by Leave the World Behind. But I think I went in with the wrong expectations and was thereby disappointed.
This starts off as a domestic read. We follow a white family going to vacation at a beautiful home in the middle of the woods outside of New York City. They’ve rented it via Airbnb. A relaxing holiday is interrupted by the arrival of the owners, who’ve returned following a blackout in the city. The owners are black. They move into the basement after they promise the family that they’ll get half their refund back for putting up with the intrusion. And uncertainty to the situation means the family remain stuck together for longer...
I think I thought this would be a literary fiction blend of psychological drama, like Little Fires Everywhere. Instead this book is actually a dystopian literature read. Personally I felt the author spreads himself thin attempting to dissect far too many themes and does justice to neither. Instead we get a convoluted mess. It doesn’t help that the characters have no idea what it happening therefore neither does the reader. The writing is atrociously purple with cringeworthy sex scenes. I’m afraid this didn’t work for me.