Leave the World Behind

Lit. Fic.

I was intrigued by the description and the potential themes explored. But the whole thing just fell flat for me. The white parents were awful and, frankly, dumb. The black couple was actually super nice to them. But it all got so tedious and unexciting and repetitive. And I really didn't care about the white parents. I feel like there were so many points in the narrative for awesome, disturbing decisions, but it seemed like Alam didn't know how to make those decisions. The characters wouldn't have even needed to do much more than what they did, but the narrative itself could have done so much more. And the end...the anti-climactic, vague end. Rose is the only one using her head. We have no REAL idea what's going on, only vague clues; we have NO idea how it will end, because just as things get really real–the book ends. Right where most would have begun. Maybe it's because I actually read horror, but I was so completely underwhelmed by this book, that it all just...didn't work at all for me.