Station Eleven (Review by AmberBug)

Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel 5/5	Published September 2014 First Sentence "The King stood in a pool of blue light, unmoored."
Publisher's Description: An audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame, and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, from the author of three highly acclaimed previous novels. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time-from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains-this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.
Dear Reader, Love, love, loved this... and you will too (I hope). This is yet another story that happens to be post-apocalyptic, but to my surprise also features pre-apocalyptic and present day (we get to see it all go down). The main focus isn't on the tragic events but more importantly, on the characters brought to the stage. Yes, stage! Much of the plot centers around acting and more importantly, Shakespeare! This gives a little more of a whimsical side to the doom and gloom of an apocalyptic world. We travel back and forth in time, a technique that I love (but only if done right). One of the characters we meet, Arthur, is an actor with three ex-wives. Two of the exes are interwoven into the story as well as his best friend Clark. We also get introduced to Kirsten (I think it's Kirsten and not Kristen but please, let me know if I got that wrong), whom was but a small child when the "flu" came and wiped out 99% of the population, she knew Arthur through the "King Lear" play they both acted in. As we follow her into the future, we see her grown-up and grouped up with a traveling symphony that puts on Shakespeare and plays classical music to the towns they pass. The group is tight knit and quirky. At first, I didn't think I'd like reading the chapters that involved them because I'm not that into "Shakespeare", "acting" and "symphonies", but the story flows so well, those parts became some of my favorite ones. Mandel has given us a fully imagined world that you can easily picture yourself in. She also includes SO many references to our present day society but she uses them in the "past" sense because the world is left without novelty items, such as comic books. Speaking of comic books, I fell in love with the character, Miranda, who ends up writing this very intricate sci-fi comic that survives the apocalypse and keeps popping up among the future. I loved everything about those bits and I really hope the publisher or Author comes out with a "comic" side project to bring these to life? I'm sure anyone who falls in love with this book would agree. We want a Station Eleven comic, pretty please?! What else can I say that'll convince you to read this one? This story isn't like any other doomsday novel you've read before. The writing is beautiful. The characters are brilliant. The settings are done so real you feel yourself pulled into the story. You start wanting a "reset" to the life we currently live in, you can imagine yourself without all those distracting "extras". I think that might be enough reasons... don't you? Run out and get this one when it comes out, it's not to be missed. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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Eleanor & Park (review by Arianna)

Eleanor & Park Rainbow Rowell 3.5 / 5	Published 2012 First Sentence "He'd stopped trying to bring her back."
Publisher's Description: Two misfits. One extraordinary love. Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor. Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
Dear Reader, I read this a while ago, but it's taken me some time to get around to writing a review.  I guess because I didn't love OR hate it, really, so my dispassion helped me avoid considering it really at all.  I actually did LOVE reading it, weirdly enough.  It was an engaging story which I couldn't stop listening to.  The audiobook was read by two different voices (Eleanor's and Park's) and it was well done by both the (I think they were) teenaged readers.  The story was really interesting: Eleanor is a new girl who was considered a serious "weirdo" in the 1980's by her schoolmates, who connects with quiet but cool Park over comic books and music.  I loved the premise, of course - I was certainly never the "cool kid" in high school, so I understand Eleanor's situation (although I was lucky never to be treated as poorly as she was!).  I loved the idea of the two bonding over the kinds of things I love.  I loved that they were two misfits who found love with each other, and how they supported and cared for each other so well, despite all of the obstacles to their being together.  And I don't really know what I didn't love about this book, but there was definitely something.  As much as I could really relate to a lot in the book, I just couldn't connect to it on the level I wanted to.  There was something holding me back.  And that's why I haven't been able to review this well - because I can't really pinpoint my feelings towards it.  I would definitely recommend this book to people, too.  I just can't express why I would, save from that it's about the 80's and mix tapes and teenage romance and how you feel at that age that you can save each other from the rest of the world.  I'm gonna change this to a 3.5, at least (I had it rated as a 3 before).  I'm sorry that I can't really review this one well.  (Maybe part of it was the build-up from others who had read and enjoyed it - almost nothing lives up to the hype, I've found, and my expectations are probably always too high.)  I'd still definitely recommend reading it.    Yours, Arianna P.S. Amber's review of this book was WAY more articulate than mine, and actually explains why she felt the way she did about the novel.  I think she's right - it started off GREAT, but didn't stay great, and that's really where the problem lay with it.  I think the ending was ultimately also great, but the middle had some blah-ish parts.  Plus, she's right: having to be dragged back to the feeling of teen angst and super-dramatic relationships might just have not worked as well with those of us who were lucky to survive it and move past it, haha.  Thanks, Amber!

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