I love Emily St. John Mandel's writing and how well-woven her stories are. There is the perfect mix of dark in her realistic dystopians. I also enjoy how her books blend into one another. I'm going to have to go back and do some rereading just to find all the little Easter eggs.

This story is something altogether unique and holds a great power to it in just initiating thought. It really did make me look introspectively, which doesn't happen to me a lot when reading fiction. So major kudos for that.

While I absolutely enjoyed this read, I will say that it was maybe still just a bit overhyped and so, even though I really enjoyed it, I found myself saddened that it wasn't a 5-star read. I honestly can't quite even put my finger on why. I just didn't hit hard enough? That may partially be due to the fact that I read Sea of Tranquiity prior to this one and that one just totally blew me away. Regardless, this is still 100% worth reathing. The writing in this book is just fantastic and I appreciate every word. The character work is also really well-done. Few of the characters are really written about thoroughly, but still each and every character feels intensely real. I don't know how she does that when some of them only exist for a small handful of pages. It's a realistic society with interlocking cogs that just makes sense. Even the crazy feels right.

There is a lot in this narrative that just made me think. About humanity, about how we value life and other people, and about how much we honestly take for granted from day to day. Beautiful, lyrical, and warranting of a reread.