Station Eleven
Ratings571
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings571
Average rating4.1
One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of "King Lear." Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur's chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them. Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten's arm is a line from Star Trek: "Because survival is insufficient." But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.
In a future in which a pandemic has left few survivors, actress Kirsten Raymonde travels with a troupe performing Shakespeare and finds herself in a community run by a deranged prophet. The plot contains mild profanity and violence.
Reviews with the most likes.
After winning this years Arthur C. Clarke Award, and constantly seeing it on Goodreads, I knew I wanted to give this one a shot. I appreciate the storytelling and literary side of this book more than the characters and the story. The narrative jumps time, focusing on a world before a pandemic, then again years into the future. The focus of the story is around a traveling symphony making their way around the Great Lakes. I liked the characters and the post apocalyptic world, and especially how the characters were connected, but was distracted by the Station Eleven storyline – a comic book created by one of the characters – which didn't add much to the story for me beyond it's symbolism.
Enjoyed it enough to continue reading it - some exciting moments, not sure i'd recommend it particularly to anyone else though
I had never heard of this book so I had no expectations. I only read it because I participate in my library's adult book club. My feelings about this book are conflicted. On one hand I liked it, but on the other I didn't. When I read the synopsis I got excited. I love dystopian/post-apocalyptic books. I feel as though I was cheated. Don't get me wrong it's beautifully written, but I think the synopsis lied to me.
This reads like a series of novellas. I hate novellas because just as soon as you get hooked on the stories/characters the stories end. That's how I would describe the timeshifting. There was one character in particular I loved from the beginning of the book, but I didn't get to read anymore about him until chapter 27. Characters I'm certain I was supposed to care about I didn't.
I love how interconnected it all was though. I just wish we could've gotten there with more plot and action. I was super disappointed by the "big" scene with the Prophet. All that build up for nothing to really happen in the end.
Not that it matters but I absolutely hate Shakespeare so I didn't enjoy those parts.
If I were describing this book I'd say it's literature meets chick lit meets dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction. I'm still glad I read it though and I can't wait to discuss it at book club next month.
I thought this book was overhyped. There were certainly parts I enjoyed, and the concept was interesting, but I felt the various threads weren't inter-related enough to leave me with a sense of completion.
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