All across the world people who are 22 years old and over are wakening up to find a wooden box on their doorstep this wooden box indicates when each recipient is going to die. This is determined by the length on string that each person finds in their box. Obviously great panic, anxiety, stress and worry ensures.

Would you open the box to find out your fate? And if so how would you handle it? Would you carve out the time to say goodbye to those you love, to set everything in place for after your death. Or if you found a short string would you decide not to want for whatever it is that is coming to get you to arrive, or would you end it all. Or would you not open it at all and just let fate decide when it is your time to die.

The measure is an interesting story. It poses the questions of what would you do if you knew that your time was nearly up? Or if there was a way to find out if you were going to die soon, would you take the opportunity?

I think the story is written really well and it is will definitely get those thoughts going.

5 stars. -- Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Firstly, I have to say, it helps that I have picked up this book at the right time to get the most out of it—I’m aimless and I feel like I’m not <i>living</i>—and this was a good kick up the arse.

I think it's interesting to consider how others will connect with this book depending on their relationship with life and death. It really does do its best to tackle varying responses to the boxes, across a wide range of beliefs and personality types, but it can’t tackle them all; I did, however, see myself in a fair few of them.

I genuinely think the author has done a fantastic job exploring the complications that the boxes present—emotionally, interpersonally and on an international scale. The immediate societal decline into discrimination and the manipulation of fear for political gain was of course upsetting, but very clever and entirely believable. (Unfortunately.)

So therefore... are some of the storylines predictable? Yes. But I think that’s because it’s so realistic, honestly. The things that I guessed before they happened, I guessed them because I was like “ah yes. This is what humanity would do.” And I didn’t mind that, because I enjoyed (I honestly don’t know if this is the right word, given the actual content) reading the fallout.

It was also very interesting seeing how reaction differ across countries (mostly this focuses on America). Italy was most notable for me, barely reacting at all… their culture already so full of art and family and food and passion; already so full of things that make life worth living! Rather than just the grind: work work success money.

I’d say that this book is a character exploration of the aftermath of an event, first and foremost--rather than action. And although there is a very clear end ( I think), as you get closer you start having to fill in narrative jumps, which could make it seem rushed. This almost knocked it down a star for me in all honesty, but the fact that it made me <I>feel</I> so intensely saved it. Damn I’ve shed so many tears over this thing--I couldn't even read it on public transport for fear of snotting all over the person next to me.

Still, the message is really clear: what will you do with the measure of time you have left?

And of course, as the book’s tagline suggests, the biggest question in the back of my mind while reading was consistently… would I look? Would I open my box. And (surprisingly?) after finishing, I think I know my answer.

I loved this book even though it made me have some uncomfortable moments thinking about life, death and everything in between. This is one of those books you talk about with friends and colleagues. I usually read as escapism however this book had me thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading it. The idea of knowing how long you have to live was both comforting and awkward. Do yourself a favour and read this book!

Mixed feelings about this one. The high concept is great! I do wish we'd been given a reason behind it though, even a small hint of one. I liked the story flitting about from character to character. Well-written, although it was little cheesy in places.

All over the world, people aged 22 years or older, are waking up to discover a wooden box waiting for them on their doorstep. The boxes are supposed to indicate how long the recipient has to live, depending on whether they receive a long string or a short one. Not surprisingly, panic ensues!

For some who received a short string, it was a chance to talk about, and contemplate death with their loved ones, a chance to say their goodbyes. Other ‘short stringers’ decided to just end it all, whilst some even chose not to open their box, quite happy to get on with their lives without that knowledge, to be free to be themselves. Knowing you’ll die sooner rather than later tends to make a person live life differently.

The Measure is essentially a story about love and relationships, and how each character and their loved ones deal with this extraordinary and frightening event.

There’s no doubt this was a well written and unique storyline, and is receiving many 5 star reviews, but it left me feeling quite down. This is possibly due to a combination of the past 2 years with the Covid pandemic, and the fact that whilst I was reading it, the news media around the world were leading with the invasion of a European country, making the world feel precarious enough. So, possibly reading about something else that was out of the control of the world’s population was presently a step too far from a personal point of view.

An interesting speculative story that leaves many questions unanswered. There was a lack of pace and large cast of characters so I did not connect with the narrative. A well written but slow read.

A great book, so unique and well explored. The characters and their motivations for opening or not opening their boxes are well set out and explored.

Where speculative fiction has often fallen short for me, The Measure was a much-needed example of the genre done right - not only is the concept solid but its also executed well!

The story begins with all humans 22 and over receiving a small box containing a string, the length of which signifies how long their remaining lifespan is. Those who discover short strings are forced to face the reality that their life will soon end, whilst those with long strings can relax knowing that they will likely have a peaceful death in old age; some people choose not to check their strings at all.

I particularly liked that The Measure focused on individual characters in different circumstances, whilst also examining the wider societal implications of the strings - one of the perspectives shown is that of a politician who capitalises on the fear that "short-stringers" are a liability to society now that they have nothing to lose and this informs his election platform.

***ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.co.uk in return for an honest review ***

The premise of this book grabbed me immediately. It seemed so full of intrigue and moral dilemma, however I found it really hard going. I cant remember the last time it took me so long to finish a novel.

The characters were likeable enough, the storyline was easy to follow. It just felt like there was something fundamentally lacking which could have elevated the novel into being superb.

I'm not sure that I cared about any of the characters enough, and those who did pique my interest were not explored fully.

I found the ending quite disappointing. It was all tied up too neatly, especially when so much emphasis had been put on the journey of the short stringers. To end with "and they all died" just seemed like such a cop out.

An interesting premise, full of possibility, but more important, considering what you would do if you knew that your life would be a certain length. There are too many things to consider when you look over the whole of the human experience, but this book didn't try and cover the whole of humanity, it just picked out several very good examples and then considered what difference knowing how long you live would make.

After all, just because you have a long life, doesn't mean it's going to be a good one, just because you don't have that much time, you have to wonder if you'd try to do more and make more of a change in what you do every day, just to make up for the time that you won't have later.

As a premise, it's superb, I loved the idea behind it, but there were a lot of characters in it, some lasted not long at all, some were with us all the way to the end, and it wasn't always certain where the characters were going, with uncertainty being at the heart of this particular quandary. It made the characters more real, but at the same time, I found myself not wanting to get involved with those who had a shorter life, which is indicative of the power of the narrative within.

The premise of this book sounded fascinating to me and I was excited to read it. However, about a third of the way through my interest began to wane as I found I wasn't connecting to any of the characters and also that the storyline was falling flat for me. I persevered to the end but all in all, not really for me.

The title and premise of this story caught my attention immediately and I think the cover is looking great. It throws up some really interesting questions and dilemmas for the characters but I did feel it ran out of steam a little towards the final third. Some coincidences were just a bit too unbelievable and took me out of the story. Overall I would recommend this to someone who is into high concept books.

Such an intriguing concept; and a surprisingly moving book. I found the first third quite slow, but after that I was hooked. I would've liked a bit more on the effects of the strings on the world and politics etc - and some characters were sort of abandoned in favour of the main 4. But they were very absorbing and a solidly original read.

Not my usual kind of genre but I really enjoyed reading something different, I thought it was a nice read and something I would recommend to my friends and family.

This is such a great book that I'm still thinking about weeks after reading. When I put it down I was deep in thought, though not enough to distract from the story, and I'm sure I will return to this for a re-read at a different point in my life. Highly recommend!

I love the idea of this book - the starting premise is intriguing, captivating and original - but I just didn't love the execution of the story and the fact that (spoiler alert) we never find out why the strings arrived and where they came from: perhaps I missed the point?

One day everybody on earth aged 22 or over receives a box with a string in it - the length of the string corresponds to the longevity of the recipients life. Moral dilemmas ensue, both personal (whether to open the box or not; how to cope if you have a short string; how to cope with friends/family with short strings) and worldwide (should governments and institutions and employers have a right to know the lengths of people's strings?). Lots of interesting questions but I feel the novel never quite touched on the big philosophical questions, and the story was taken in adifferent direction to the one I hoped to read.

An original concept, well-written in an easy-to-read prose, but for me the story was never fully-realised.

This is an amazing book about the meaning of life. I can’t imagine what I would do if I knew how long I had left to live. This is one of them books that will make you think about things more important to you. It will be one of them books that people will be talking about for a very long time. I really enjoyed this not only for the detail, but it made me think a little differently. It has a unique storyline and thought it is apt for this period that we have been living for the last 18 months, 5 stars from me.

Such a great novel that hooks you from the start. Really got me thinking about what would happen if I had a box turn up at my door. Would I open it? Would I want to know the length of my string?

People all over the world, who are older than 22, wake up one day to find a box waiting for them on their doorstep, inside the box is a bit of string that will inform them how long they are going to live…. From there we read through various different characters as they try to come to terms with whether or not they should open their box, and if they did, what will their life sentence be? I don’t know about you, but I think I would probably open the box, I would want to know when I was going to pop my clogs and expire.

This reminded me almost of a dystopian novel where different groups of people have different living standards, and they all resent the others and those with better living conditions are subject to harassment from those who wish to be them, but at the same time, they aren’t particularly nice or understanding of those who are living with less than them. All of this really comes back to the age old question of “does it really matter?” I mean people for centuries have believed that from the moment you’re born your fate has already been decided, so what’s the point in trying to fight it? There isn’t anything you can do to change it.

I don’t recall who sent the boxes, why everyone over 22 got one and not everyone on the planet, and I don’t know what the purpose was… maybe I missed something? I’m not entirely sure but I have no idea why all of this happened. Which, as annoying as it can be, is actually pretty entertaining to me, I can see this being a film at some point in the future.

The concept of gaining the measure of anything is explored in this engaging novel, which got off to a hesitant start but eventually came together in a gratifying manner.
Imagine a future in which the entire planet's population receives a delivery of a wooden box delivered on their doorstep one day. Those who open it will find a bit of string within. Nobody knows where the boxes came from or what the string means, which added to the initial bewilderment and terror.
We eventually figure out that the length of the string signifies how much time is remaining. Naturally, this raises some interesting questions about how we spend our lives and how much authority others should have over us.
It became easier to acquire a sense of kinship with the characters as we gained a better understanding of the setting and saw how they responded to events. This raises some intriguing topics, and I believe this book will appeal to a wide range of people. The final message was pretty solemn.