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Book List: Social Distance at the End of the World

We’re getting a little stir-crazy at home, already. School, initially intended to be closed through April 13 due to the coronavirus outbreak, will now be closed til May 1, and frankly, I’m not sure the three of us are going to make it. There are a lot of jokes out there about introverts finally getting the alone time they need, but even my daughter, who can happily disappear for hours under blankets, texting her friends, watching videos, and reading in various formats, is upset about missing school.  There are, I think, very few people who don’t ever want any other people around. It must be something that catches writers’ imagination, though, because there are many stories and books out there about a single individual, or maybe a small group, left alone after the end of the world as we know it.  I’ve seen a bunch of lists for books about pandemics or their aftermath that suggest the same books more than once (The Last Man by Mary Shelley, Station Eleven by Emily St. James Mandel, The Stand by Stephen King, A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe,  The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton, to name a few). These are not so much books about pandemics as they are about isolation (or escape from) others, and I’m going to try and offer a few you might not have found on other lists.


1984 by George Orwell. The only thing that’s more disturbing than the way the members of society are set up against each other in this book is that things were about a million times more poisonous in the Soviet Union.  No one can trust anyone else; it’s social distancing as a lifestyle. I recently read the middle-school novel The Story That Cannot Be Told, by J. Kasper Kramer, which, while not entirely historically accurate, described the paranoia involved in just living daily life in Romania before Ceausescu was overthrown, which turned families, even parents and children who loved each other, against themselves in a way you don’t really see in 1984 as Winston is alienated from everyone around him and has no family.

Allison Hewitt Is Trapped by Madeline Roux. This is Roux’s first book, from before she switched to YA fiction, and it starts with bookstore employee Allison Hewitt, trapped in the break room at the bookstore with her coworkers after zombies take over. blogging her story. Thank goodness for the escapism of the Internet, right? This novel actually started as an experiment in fiction, with the entries actually published as a blog, when the publisher noticed and offered Roux a contract.

The Decameron by Giovanni Bocaccio. Seven young women and three young men are escaping the plague of 1348 together in a house outside Florence, Italy. Over the course of 10 days, each individual tells 10 stories, for a total of 100 stories, some tragic, some comic, some erotic. There are worse ways to spend your time when you’re keeping your distance from potentially deadly disease. Bocaccacio wrote for the common man, which in his time meant he wrote in Italian instead of Latin. There are translations out there that will make it easier on you that the version you can download for free, if you want to check it out.

Hollow Kingdom: A Novel by Kira Jane Buxton takes on the point of view of an intelligent animal, one who doesn’t really fit in anywhere: S.T., a tame crow.  Something has happened to his human, and maybe all the humans; they seem ill, are disintegrating, and have developed a taste for raw meat.  The animals, without opposable thumbs, are mostly trapped inside their owners’ houses. It’s kind of like The Secret Life of Pets with a lot less cutesy animation and a lot more unattached body parts, violence, foul language, and junk food.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. This book was awarded Vampire Novel of the Century by the Horror Writers Association in 2012. and shows the damage people take when they are really, truly, distanced from each other.

Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant. Dr. Isabella Gauley’s niece was the index case for  Morris’ disease, which appears to be measles at first, but eventually compromises the infected person’s immune system. The only way to keep people from getting infected is for them to go into a permanent quarantine before they get the disease. Based on the content of this novella, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Mira Grant has strong opinions about vaccination and affordable healthcare.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. There’s so much back and forth of humans and Martians trying to connect, distance themselves, or both, in this book, but the standout story on social distancing (although not the best story in the book) is “The Silent Towns”, in which a man who believes he is the last man on Mars after the colonists have abandoned it, discovers there is also a woman on Mars… but upon meeting her, decides he’d rather live alone.

 

It’s a bummer that the library is closed, but you can probably find these as ebooks through Overdrive, Libby, or Hoopla in the library’s digital collections. If not, you can always consider buying them! If you click on the image, it should take you to Amazon and, if you order from there, the site might actually make some money! Enjoy!

 

 

Book Review: Hollow Kingdom: A Novel by Kira Jane Buxton

Hollow Kingdom: A Novel  by Kira Jane Buxton

Grand Central Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1538745823

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

Hollow Kingdom is literally a bird’s eye view of the apocalypse: it is narrated by a smartass domesticated crow S.T. (for Shit Turd). S.T.  was raised by Big Jim, and lives with him and his dog, Dennis.  S.T. is an independent-minded, educated bird who has watched plenty of television and is addicted to Cheetos: he has developed an admiration for humans, and affection and loyalty to Big Jim. One day Big Jim’s eyeball falls out, and he starts acting mindless. S.T. attempts to cure him with medicines he collects at Walgreens, to no avail, and on his trip to and from the drugstore, realizes that whatever has gone wrong with Big Jim has happened to the other humans as well, and it’s not looking good for the animals, either, especially pets. S.T. and Dennis leave Big Jim, braving a variety of hazards together, from angry bears and malicious crows to deadly tigers,  to visit Onida, a mysterious creature who is supposed to be able to tell them what is going on. S.T. learns that humankind has been attacked by a virus through their electronic screens after consuming more than their fair share of resources and losing touch with nature, so the world can return to balance.  He decides that it’s his mission to rescue other domesticated animals trapped in their houses now that the humans are gone. This is quite a challenge, since neither he nor Dennis have opposable thumbs, useful for opening doors.

The horrific thing about what’s happening to the humans is that they aren’t dying suddenly, or even slowly. They’re just deterioriating, still alive even when there’s nothing really left to animate, except for those who are evolving into something even more dangerous. Mostly aimless, they are triggered into action and violence by the appearance of a screen or the “ding” of a notification. S.T. can see a bigger picture than most of the other animals, but as a domesticated bird, he is not used to being in the outside world. What’s interesting is watching him balance his attachment to humans, and especially Big Jim, with his newly rediscovered relationship with nature, as trees, vines, and all kinds of animals retake the city.

In all the books of apocalyptic fiction I’ve seen, I’ve never come across one quite like this. Original, funny, and sometimes grisly or gross,  even though it takes place during and after an apocalypse it ends on a note of hope.  This bird’s eye view of the end of the world is definitely worth a look.

Contains: some animal harm and death.

Book Review: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

The Cabin at the End of the World  by Paul Tremblay

William Morrow. 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0062679109

Available: Hardcover, paperback, mass market paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Paul Tremblay is at it again, screwing with the minds of readers, playing a morality game that results in a twisted read worthy of film version due to its close characters, claustrophobic setting, and themes that he refuses to shy away from.

Tremblay’s previous books, A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, both toyed with the reader’s sense of reality and the supernatural. In The Cabin at the End of the World, Tremblay drags the reader into what seems to be a simple home invasion story. Nothing is what it seems, though: this is a tight, utterly uncomfortable, well-told tale of horror that requires the reader’s intellect and intuition to untangle whether there is a supernatural factor to the story

A young girl, Wen, plays outside with her grasshoppers, while her parents, Eric and Andrew, are inside, relaxing on a peaceful family vacation in the woods of New Hampshire. Nothing is supposed to be anywhere near them: no stores, neighbors, or distractions.

Then Leonard arrives. A hulking man, he speaks calmly to her and appeals to her innocence before announcing, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong, but the three of you will have to make some tough decisions. I wish with all my broken heart you didn’t have to.” Three strangers emerge from the woods and enter the cabin. They  inform the family that the end of the world is inevitable, unless the parents make a heart-wrenching decision that will ruin them.  Are these strangers cold-blooded psychopaths who sought out this family, or is there something more at play?

The way Tremblay paints the characters of both the family and the intruders, is what drives the story. To say more would kill the suspense, but suffice it to say, the emotional heft of this tale will leave a scar behind.

Highly recommended reading for readers of great suspense.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Editor’s note: The Cabin at the End of the World  is a nominee for the 2018 Stoker Award in the category Superior Achievement in a Novel.