A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World

"You can fall out of your own safe life that quickly, and nothing you thought you knew will ever be the same again."

I’m going to spoil this up front for everyone concerned before reading. Here’s my doestshedogdie.com report: The dog does not die.

New year, new amazing 5 star book! Teeeeechnically I started this in 2023, but the only date that counts is the date you log it as read, right? Right. If the rest of my 2024 reads could be this good, I’d be a happy camper.

The world has ended long ago, so long ago that Griz only knows it from tales passed down, and from what he finds when scavenging. His family lives on an island (maybe in the Scotland region? Being not from that side of the planet, I’m fuzzy on actual geography, but the setting/feeling sounds right), and very rarely sees other people. They’re a very close family, especially Griz and his two dogs Jess and Jip. A strange man arrives with a ready smile and a quick tale, and suddenly Griz is one dog less. What follows is Griz’s quest to get his dog back across a post-apocalyptic Britain. John Wick would approve.

First, to get out ahead of the complaints, this is a bit of a slow burn. Rather than it being a fast paced thriller of a sci-fi book, this takes place in the form of a journal Griz keeps of his journey, where we get to read his thoughts, his musings, and what he understands about the remnants of the world around him. It’s quiet in many places and doesn’t feature many characters (what with most of the population being, y’know, dead and all). But it was just so damn atmospheric and bittersweet, reading about how things have changed and how Griz approaches the world. This was all the slow parts about Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel that I liked best, wrapped up into one neat little package without all that pesky interpersonal drama getting in the way.

Major plot twist spoilers (seriously, don’t click this unless you’ve finished the book): And that 80% twist? I absolutely didn’t see it coming. I was really curious about the hints dropped by Griz all throughout the book, but I wasn’t expecting what was delivered. I guess I take book titles too literally.

I will say, what is it with the stylistic choice to not use quotation marks to indicate dialogue? This isn’t the first book I’ve read like this, and I still dislike the decision. But the book was just so damn good for me that I’m willing to overlook it just this once.

Just a really fantastic book to start my 2024. Read this if you like the idea of a quiet, introspective, post apocalyptic John Wick without killing.