Leave the World Behind
Ratings161
Average rating3.3
Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older black couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe.
Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?
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In this book, a family is vacationing at an AirBnB in a remote part of Long Island when something terrible and mysterious happens. This has the build of a thriller but reads like contemporary fiction with subtle sci-fi. There are some really interesting character dynamics that provide commentary on race, class, and social mores in contemporary American society. I enjoyed it, and to some extent, enjoyed that the author doesn't spoon feed us all the answers; that's truer to the experience of disaster as it's happening. But the details aren't enough to be clear on the big picture, at least on the first read. Perhaps that's intentional but it did leave me wanting.
This book drives you relentlessly because, just like the characters, you don't understand what's happening or is going to happen & you're desperate to know. And it's frustrating because, just like the characters, you never really piece it all together. However, I think that is what makes the story successful & gives it such a haunting truth. I feel uneasy. And I still want answers.
A fine book, but TBH it was a ‘Skip The Line' book on Libby and I needed an audiobook to listen to when I pounded out some time-sensitive work, and I would not have read it had I known. I thought It was an average thriller and it was a world-ending type of situation, which was not what I was expecting and was very underwhelming. Heard they're making it into a movie and I think I would very much enjoy this in visual form.
