This book started out great and interesting until it started to feel like the author wanted to insert every societal issues into the story. Then, it began to feel like more of main stream news going from divisive headline to divisive headline where the best solution is to "love and accept everyone" through it all because we are all "strung together,' It was all I could do to finish it and had to speed read the last 100 pages because it became predictable who wound up with who. This book felt like propaganda in favor of anyone who has felt discriminated against. ( )

This is the type of high concept novel that's probably most often read by people who know what it's going to be about. The description makes no secret of what's going on with the boxes. The book itself establishes them rather quickly. But, of course, it wouldn't be believable without characters initially doubting and debating. For readers who are used to plotlines where ordinary characters living ordinary lives suddenly aren't anymore, this can be rather tedious, but at least the characters in this book accept the truth and move on from these sorts of questions for good after a few chapters.

It's also true that the book starts out with all the obvious sorts of questions and scenarios you might expect. Will the characters choose to look or not? How will a couple react when one woman discovers a long string while the other has a short one? What about a man who barely has any time left at all?

Again though, after an initial period of working through this, the consequences and scenarios become more interesting. Some plot lines incorporated questions I was wondering about myself and things that I was hoping to see. Others took me by surprise in just the way I was hoping. It's clear the author spent time considering the global impact and wider social changes as well as individual impacts. The limited omniscient perspective, which rotated between several characters, also provided a wider view while allowing for the reader to learn what characters didn't necessarily know.

The biggest drawback for me was that the book was very US-focused. Despite having a diverse cast in terms of race, religion, and sexual orientation, all the point of view characters live in a single country and a major plotline involves US politics in a way that suggests it matters more than anything else. Although events and individuals in other countries are mentioned, it's done with about the same frequency as seen in the US media. Which isn't a lot. It was disappointing to get headlines about policies being introduced in countries like China and North Korea without going any deeper into the impact, while countries typically ignored by the US media again go ignored except during a brief conversation or two and a stereotypical "people are watching this from all these famous places" section. I wouldn't say that it's a book with broad appeal to an international audience, unless those readers willing to put up with this.

Despite that, I enjoyed the complexity that came from switching focus between multiple storylines. I also recognize that there wouldn't have been able to be much intersection between them if all the point of view characters had been spread across the globe. The book does tell all their stories well and give a satisfying conclusion to each of them.

The only trigger warning I can think of is for gun violence. Overall, the book never gets too dark or gritty, although of course it involves death. The point of view characters each go through their own emotional journey, but all are the type to persevere and seek a meaningful life with whatever time they have left.

I would recommend this for readers intrigued by the concept for the sake of watching it play out in a few otherwise-ordinary lives. You shouldn't go into this if you expect the mystery of where the boxes came from to be solved or for other fantastical events to take place. And you shouldn't expect it to cover the country where you live if it isn't the US. But if you want to reflect on life and death and how we handle the reality of both as individuals and as a broadly human society, you're likely to be satisfied.

Story of a time in the world when you received a little box that held the information on your longevity. It was either a short string or a long string. It got to a point when you could calculate almost exactly when you were going to die. The premise of the book was interesting but I didn’t really get too attached to the characters in the book. It became better toward the end of the book when people finally decided how they were going to deal with their strings. ( )

The length of a life measured by a string which everyone, twenty-two years and older, receives. This basic premise is almost enough to stop you reading this novel, however, the depths of the personalities introduced in the story bring you to you a wealth of thoughts and considerations. Although slow-moving initially you finally move you to life unfolding for several individuals. ( )

beautiful and surprising and and thought provoking. i loved. ( )