Ling Ma

When I started reading this book, my thoughts initially were: oh no, another post-apocalyptic dystopian novel. I nearly abandoned it a few times for that reason. I am not a fan of that genre. However, when more of the story began to focus on the narrator’s life leading up to and including The End, as this particular apocalypse is referred to, I was drawn into the story. Ling Ma is an excellent writer. I was disappointed with the rather, in my view, abrupt ending, and I am not really sure if there was a point at all, or if there was meant to be a point, so I could not give the book five stars. The four stars are based on the strength of the writing alone.… (meer)

Not so different a premise to be found here from that of Station Eleven. Albeit grittier than Mandel's offering, not too gritty and very readable. A portrait of a young Asian-American woman living in NYC when an illness caused by a fungus, not a virus, (but still from China) pretty much decimates the world population. Probably this nightmarish theme is deeply embedded in our psyches, since epidemics have occurred at regular intervals. No pretty ending here, but open-ended. I'm not sure that was the best idea, actually, it feels like a writer taking the 'tough' stance because this was as far as they wanted to go. ***1/2… (meer)