The Measure

Imagine if the universe gave you a birthday gift

I saw that a lot of people were reading this book recently and after reading the fantastic summary I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon. I'm glad I did because this was an engaging read the whole way through; I'm not sure if I would rank it as a modern classic but it's well-written and accessible.

After reading about intelligent spiders and super-advanced AIs for the last few months, it was nice to pull back and read a book with a simple, but incredible premise. One day every person over 22 is inexplicably given a box that contains a string whose length is a representation of that person's lifespan. The Measure simultaneously evokes 2009's The Box and 2011's In Time, but this book is far better than either film in its exploration of humanity and its character writing. The story is delivered as a multi-narrative, and it's the perfect structure to pair with such a premise as you get to see the effects of the strings across a cross-section of well-developed characters.

The writing was a standout feature of this book. Despite the large ensemble, each of the primary narratives has exquisite characterization and truly gripping dialogue; the multitude of stories interweave in the most unexpected ways all the while peppering in gorgeous vignettes and personal stories. The passion of the author is evident in how they connect each interaction and character development to the larger narrative, effectively illustrating their points. There are several intelligent choices as far as story structure and narrative design that impressed me, and the degree to which all the stories connect (even in the smallest ways) is something I wish more authors aspired to achieve.

A core issue I had with the book is its lack of depth in exploring oppression and division. Although some characters are “short-stringers,” their struggle primarily revolves around loss rather than oppression. The author briefly touches on the topic during a support group session in the ‘Fall' section, where Maura questions why they (the short-stringers) have to be the only ones fighting for change when short-stringers already have enough to deal with. However, this message falls flat as most of the following chapters focus more on the characters' romantic relationships rather than exploring the strings' larger effects on the world. Overall, while the book touches on important themes, it could benefit from delving deeper into the experiences of the oppressed characters.

Another issue I had was that the book comes across as preachy and opinionated, an observation that may resonate with some readers. That's not to discount the poignant and heartfelt message, because after all what better, or more appropriate place is there to speak to your truth than in your own novel? I would simply note that the tone can, at times, slip into condescension. As a speculative work, it presents a believable future, but the rhetoric (especially in the early chapters) reflects the current state of the world, and, despite being relatable, tends to evoke derision and exhaustion in me. The book's main message is about how we create unnecessary divisions, but the constant preaching detracts from the complexity and nuance of that message. Although I agree with the author's viewpoints, the allegory and delivery can feel like a purity test at times. It's important to note this flaw, especially given recent instances of book banning. Conservative readers may dismiss this book as “woke fiction” or something equally unfounded.

Thankfully most of the novel is a web of beauty and tragedy that does its best to bridge gaps in ideology with moments of humanity. There is a tapestry of fate that's woven within the narrative, mirroring the string's prominent role in the story. Looking past some of the sloppy messaging, there is a gorgeous and multifaceted collection of stories to get lost in. There are some truly touching moments towards the end of the book that appear like mana for the faithful, a reward for readers that stuck through the Sunday service. Each character's journey evokes a thoughtful pause and in some cases, all but forces the reader to put the book down and think.

Qué será, será
Whatever will be, will be

TL;DR: This that good good. A big beautiful tapestry of a book, that despite being a little on the nose delivers heartfelt moments and leaves you thoughtful and teary-eyed.

Creating a mystery box is not particularly challenging, that being an airplane crash some place isolated from time and space, a galleon lost in a reimagined version of hell, or the world waking to spaceships humming over the stratosphere. It's seldom a challenge.

The challenge is, in fact, opening the box to a satisfying, elegant resolution. As much as we are tempted to label books as good or bad, my particular appreciation stems significantly from the wondrous nature of how an abnormal situation is resolved, and how logical or sensical that resolution is when confronted with the established world built within the plot.

This is my preamble to establish that my particular taste and expectations may not match everyone else's, and your experience and appreciation for this novel may be dramatically different from mine. And why is that important?

Because the mystery box here is interesting until, half way in, it becomes clear that it happens in a universe with no cameras or monitoring systems. In fact, this version of our world is devoid of scientists or engineers, and is populated - apparently - by suburban cutouts of people who never really feel real. It's a superficial analysis of the social and political implications of a society in disarray, but one where every single actor is, at the core, a high middle class woman in costume. This is particularly notorious (and, at times, embarrassing) when, in order to build the world, the author throw a number of caricatures of stereotypical personae with no particular depth other than resembling House of Cards characters.

The light poking at politics and sterile commentary on social justice is insufficient to detract from the fact that the premise does not function as a plot device. Any attempt to establish a realistic response to the premise is very quickly discarded in favour of (what feels to me) an attempt at a soap opera-y pulls of the proverbial heartstrings - in fact, it is at par with the low expectations from the readership in terms of vocabulary and short POV chapter structure. And all this was, for me, unsatisfactory.

It is entirely possible this is just a novel intended as light summer reading. And that's OK. I guess.

Your mileage may vary.

I enjoyed this novel, truly, but would've enjoyed it more pre-2016. It's a bit too dystopic (read: close to reality) for me now.

The author uses a heavy-handed metaphor to hammer home the unoriginal message that we shouldn't let our differences define us. Also, we should all live fully in the moment. Here's the allegedly thought-provoking premise: one day in early March, every adult in the entire world receives a small, wooden box, containing a piece of string. How this happened, or who is responsible, is never explained or explored. Pretty quickly, scientists determine that the length of each person's string is a measure of how long they will live.

Before you can say “blue eyes/brown eyes classroom experiment,” a dichotomy develops between those individuals with strings denoting a normal lifespan and those predicting an early demise. These “short stringers” are barred from certain professions, dropped by health insurance plans, and labeled as potentially violent criminals. The novel primarily focuses on several members of a support group for short stringers, and their friends/lovers. There's also a moustache-twirling evil politician who stirs up more short-string paranoia, campaigning for president as the only long-string candidate who will keep the country safe from the dangerous others. The parallels to DT45 are not subtle.

The only characters with any depth are two military academy roommates who make an unprecedented choice with their string that has far-reaching repercussions. By the end of the book, thanks to the monolithically progressive Young People of the world, everyone realizes that #AllStringsMatter, and that the length of your life isn't as important as what you do with it (there is literally a “Live Like Your String is Short” t-shirt).

If you believe that racism and other -isms can be solved if we all recognize our similarities instead of our differences, this is the book for you. But if you realize there are no easy answers to the racist, homophobic mess we're in, you will likely find it as patronizing and ingenuous as I did.

I was hoping for a lot more from this one, but for the most part I enjoyed it. The narrator is fantastic and I always enjoy audiobooks when read by her.

The story itself is good. I loved the beginning as the strings come into play and chaos and of course fear of the unknown ensues. What irked me was that it went from being dystopian to contemporary and left a lot of loose ends. For this alone I went with a 3 instead of a 4.

I did enjoy the underlying moral of the story, just wasn't expecting it. Not really into politically based, contemporary fiction. Would have loved to have more of the Sci-Fi/Dystopian element instead.

DNFed at 150 pages. The characters were one dimensional, all the stories were too similar to each other, there was too much politics and the author tries way too hard to make this book seem woke. It really felt like the movie “Don't Look Up” but bad.

The premise of this book was very intriguing. The delivery...not so much. Seemed like it focused more on protesting for rights than the actual strings themselves. So many questions were left unanswered. Also, the ability to swap strings or fake them entirely seems to be a pretty big plothole. The author clearly stated both were possible, so couldn't all the “short stringers” use either to get around the discrimination they were facing?

What would happen if one day each adult over 22 years of age found out exactly how long they would live? This book explores the impact that knowledge would have on individuals, their relationships, and society as a whole.

Coming from someone who is not a big fan of science fiction, or speculative fiction as this may be better categorized, I am surprised how much I love this book. The premise is intriguing and pulled me into the storyline immediately. In addition to the engaging premise, the beautiful prose and character development make this story stand out.

As the story begins, everyone over the age of 22 receives a box with a string in it. The string is either short or long in correlation to the length of each person's life. The storyline follows several different perspectives of individuals to reveal how different people react to the situation. It explores how the knowledge of one's lifespan could affect one's choices and relationships. It shows both the positive and negative ways people might behave if they had this powerful knowledge.

One of the best aspects of this novel is the characters. The author creates such vivid characters that are relatable and lovable. The reader becomes invested in their storylines.

I particularly enjoyed the exploration of how the leaders of a country would respond in a situation like the one in this book. It left me thinking about how our society would behave and how it might impact my life if it were real. To me, that is the sign of a good book. I cannot wait to recommend this one to people I know so I can talk about it with them.

I feel like I've been duped. The premise of this book sounded infinitely more interesting than it actually was and the ratings I've seen for this book seem disproportionately high. I was bored for most of this. I had to force myself through and narrowly avoided a reading slump. I played through the entire trilogy of the Spyro games just to avoid reading this book... I love dystopian science fiction. It's in my top 5 favorite genres, but this was mostly sad and depressing. Ordinary people waiting for their deaths. There were way too many perspectives to follow and any one of them could have been swapped out and it would still be the same book. One of the characters talks about other dystopian books that I feel like the author tried to pull from, but this book doesn't stand up to The Hunger Games or The Handmaiden's Tale. Yes, there was an opressive government, but no overturnng of said government and we don't even find out where the boxes come from. I feel like I've read enough political fiction from actual disenfranchised groups that I'm just not interested in dystopian versions from non-disenfranchised groups anymore. Ugh. I'm sad because I really thought I would love this.

This book was an interesting read. I was hooked to start, then lost interest, then hooked, then limped along to the end.

I appreciated the premise and the varying viewpoints, it just wasn't as compelling as I hoped. 

Everyone wakes up one morning to find a box with a length of string inside of it, which shows how much life they have left. Besides the immediate implications of knowing how many years of life you have left, the book dives into how society would change - if you only had a year left to live, why would someone want to employ you, for example? - plus people would want to approach relationships knowing their own or their partner's lifespan.

Truly moving and rising good moral questions while also touching hearts. There were aspects which might be considered as needing a second look, be it the fact that the spotlight was very quickly turned to people instead of the origin of the boxes (I can imagine in real life it would last a lot longer wondering about extraterrestrial life and whatnot) or the lack of conspiracy theories about the messages in the boxes, the unexplained things like the 22 year old mark or the calculations for the exact year of death. But I assumed it was either an editorial choice or the author's option to focus quickly on the eight characters and their own look at things, which were already a lot to talk about - and in some cases not even fully explored, maybe. In any case, the consequences - expectations from the government to rule things, the rebellion from the short stringers, the stupidity from the long stringers trying out ways of dying, the whole Lord of the flies attempts at ruling everyone, political use of the boxes, couples making out or parting ways after knowing what would happen, people leaving town and jobs to ‘enjoy life'... it was all very absurd and yet very possible, and it left me thinking for hours after finishing the book - which regardless of academic literary quality is for me the shining star.
Also, even if I had seen the ending coming, it was sad and fulfilling in equal measure.

Wow! I loved this book so much!
I will be on the lookout for other work from this author, I felt so deeply connected to the writing.

This was a great book, and it's premise has provided me with hours and hours of material to ponder about.  I did think that the story was a bit too political/partisan...but I suppose it was unavoidable, on some level.  I just hate how people are so divided about EVERYTHING.  Anyway, the book was a great one though!

I can't help but gush about this book. If you read one speculative fiction book this year, make it this one! I just loved the story and how it was told from alternating POVs only for them all to come together at the end and make sense as a whole. This felt like an ancient Greek choir where each voice adds their own special touch to the overall arc ot the story. Just loved loved loved it!
E. B. White ‘I arise every morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savour the world. This makes it hard to plan for the day.'

A VERY surprising 5 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was NOT expecting to enjoy it even.. dare I say.. LOVE this book as much as I did! I'm much more of a thriller and horror reader so the thought of reading Magical Realism made me skeptical. I read it for Talk Bookish To Me (Gwen's) buddy ready and ommmmggg did it surprise me in so many ways. The deep emotions and thoughts this provokes is so intense, I was crying while listening to the audiobook at work.

There are many characters so at first I thought that was. A shoe in to not be interested in them.. but you learn about their lives on such a deep and emotional level and see fall in love with these characters and you see how their stories connect.. it's just so beautiful.

It poses the question of what would you do if you knew how long you had left to live. Or if you knew your loved ones time. How would you live life differently? How would you treat others?

This was an undoubtedly powerful read and I'm so thankful I took the chance to read it regardless of genre “preference”.

This was amazing and I feel like would be a great discussion as well.

So happy I read it!

An absolutely fantastic book!

A very thought provoking read, with a wonderful cast of characters with the exception of Anthony Rollins and his wife, Katherine! They were the worst and I really couldn't stand them.

The book was beautifully written, with plenty of sad and heartwarming moments. I loved how, when the need arose, people were quick to come together despite the efforts of others to cause division.

I'm so indecisive, I have no idea what I would have done if I'd found myself with a box on my doorstep!

Thank you to PH and Nikki Erlick for the chance to read this book.

Highly recommend it!