3.5 stars
Finally read The Day of the Triffids after leaving it sitting on my TBR pile for literal years - I wasn’t blown away (some parts of this book haven’t aged particularly well) but I did enjoy the plot and the dystopian aspect of it, as well as the writing, even if I never fully warmed up to the characters.
.
Set in a version of the Earth where giant walking plants (with fuck-off stingers) have become commonplace, one man wakes up from surgery to a world gone mad. The majority of the population has become inexplicably blind, and the triffids seem to be getting ever more confident in their antics.
.
My favourite thing about dystopians is watching the way in which new societies and orders are established - I find it endlessly fascinating seeing the way different types of people respond to crises. I love reading about the quest for survival, even if it is harrowing at times, and terrifying to envision how quickly moral codes break down and people resort to mindless brutality and violence. The ending of this book particularly left me feeling shaken, as it’s frightening to think that if the end of the world did arrive, a faction like that might be set up to ‘reestablish order’.
.
The main character though... I never warmed to him. And I found him a bit tiresome. I understand that in situations as extreme as end of the world as we know it you would probably form bonds quicker than you would normally, but I felt like for most of the book the guy was just pining after a woman he had only just met - but she was his true love now! And there were some ridiculous comments made which I couldn’t quite tell were coming from the protagonist or Wyndham himself.
.
But if you’re a fan of dystopian fiction I’d still recommend picking this one up as it is still an enjoyable and unsettling read!