First, let me say that I know many readers and librarians who adored this book. Unfortunately, I am not one of those readers, but I acknowledge this is entirely due to my personal tastes rather than a fault of the author. I read RICH & PRETTY by Alam several years ago and it was not for me. Yes, he writes very relatably (is that a word?) and eloquently about the banal mundanities of quotidian happenings, but unfortunately, for me this means his stories come off as banal and mundane. I thought I would give this one a try because of the great reviews I saw, and it definitely has a more original and intriguing premise than RICH & PRETTY, but that wasn't enough to make me enjoy the book. Perhaps you will have better luck!

A middle-aged white couple and their two teenage children have their vacation at a luxurious, secluded Airbnb interrupted by a late night knock at the door. The black owners of the home are at the door with a story of a major unknown event that knocked out the power along the east coast.

Over the course of the next few days, tensions surface between the two families and fear is the overriding emotion. There is no cellphone, radio, or tv reception, leaving them totally cut off from the world with no idea what is happening beyond their four walls. The third person omniscient point of view allows the reader brief glimpses into what is happening in the outside world. It becomes clear a cataclysmic event took place. The lack of details and the unknown adds to the overriding sense of menace. (The same type of technique that made Bird Box so terrifying.)

The author give the reader a look into the thought processes of all involved, which reveals hidden biases. The underlying themes of age, class, race, and the blindness of modern life bubbles beneath the surface. I give credit to the author for respecting the intelligence of his readers by handling them all with a light touch, which makes more of an impact. The beginning chapters meanders along and what looks at first glance to be mundane filler, such as the vacationer’s grocery list, is very revealing, as it is later made clear.

Atmospheric, character-driven, and thought-provoking, this is a literary mix of genres that totally worked. I read it in two sittings and when I wasn;t reading it I was thinking about it.

A taught and seductive atmospheric thriller unlike anything I've ever read. A tensely woven exploration of personality, full of insight on the modern human condition. Full of notorious topics, like racism and classism, and seemingly mundane tasks, all are explored in this uniquely suspenseful surrealist prose.

Thanks to Ecco and Netgalley for the e-book of this title to read prior to publication in October.

Amanda, Clay, Rose and Archie travel to a remote part of New York for their vacation. They’ve rented a house with a pool and a hot tub, that’s not too far from a beach. The first couple of days go splendidly. Then one evening there’s a knock on the door that terrifies Amanda and Clay, the parents. They finally open the door and a black couple, claiming to own the home they’re renting, stands there stammering about a black out in New York City where they have an apartment.

They want to stay at their house thinking it’s safer. Yet Amanda and Clay feel totally unsafe and full of questions. How do they know the couple is telling the truth? Where is their car? Are they going to kill them and the kids while they sleep?

As they all get to know each other, they become friends. Then a strange thunderous noise cracks the glass in one of the sliding doors. Nobody knows what causes it.

Then the daughter, Rose, sees hundreds of deer in the yard. They all see flamingos in the pool. What is happening? They have no cell service, no tv, but they do have electricity. Still they can't find out anything. Clay says he'll drive into town and see what he can find out.

Alam has a knack for compelling text that keeps the reader coming back for more. His characters have real flaws yet you tend to like them.

One of the reasons I gave this book four stars was I found the omnipotent viewpoint jarring until I figured out what it was. I also would have liked a more satisfying ending and a trigger warning about the focus of the book. Some books I'd rather not read while in this pandemic.

But it was still a great read, and I highly recommend it.

Chilling and all too realistic, with a pervasive feeling of doom amid the beautiful summer countryside. Horrifying and terrifying.

I received a ARC copy for an honest review #LeavetheWorldBehind #NetGalley

I loved this book. It was thought provoking as well as entertaining and challenged me to look beyond the easy. It covers many situations we face today like parenthood, race, class and how we will react in crisis. It surely hits home in our current pandemic situation.

Amanda and Clay head out on vacation to a remote area of Long Island when catastrophe hits--or does it? The home they rented and the week the planned with their teenagers goes awry when news of a sudden communications and electrical blackout in the city comes from an unlikely source--the supposed homeowners who show up in the middle of the night.

Should these owner be trusted? Should Amanda and Clay? Read it to find out.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Publishers, and Ecco for this advanced reader's copy of Leave the World Behind by Rumann Alam.

Wow. Just, wow. That could be it, the whole review. I'll say a bit more even though being longlisted for the National Book Award should be enough to convince anyone to read this book. This is the story of one family's vacation, interrupted by the arrival of the rented vacation home's rightful owners. Why the owners return is a question best answered by reading the book. Really, read the book. I don't want to give anything away so that's all you get for a synopsis.

Rumann Alam does an outstanding job of keeping the reader engrossed in two parallel stories, one happening in and around the vacation home and one happening everywhere else, without actually changing the setting of the story. Is this a thriller? Kind of. I would call it a modern horror story. It definitely terrified me. Don't let that stop you from reading it though.

Who's this book written for? Everyone. You'll be better off for reading Leave the World Behind.

You could argue that this is the perfect book to read during a global pandemic or the last book you'd ever want to read. What starts off as family getaway at a luxurious rental home slowly becomes more sinister. Amanda and Clay hear a knock at the door one night only to find the homeowners there, wanting to spend the night. Was there really just a blackout or is there more to the story? This is one of those books where the tension and uncertainty crept into my real life and often had me remembering a sordid detail and thinking "was that in the book or did I just read that in the news?" Alam keeps you guessing until the bitter end.

On the second night of their vacation in the Hamptons, Amanda and Clay answer the door of their Airbnb rental to a couple claiming to be the owners of the house. Apparently, there's been a major blackout in New York City and they didn't know where else to go. The mystery, the creep factor, has little to do with the question of whether these people are who they say are. It becomes clear fairly quickly that they are telling the truth and that there has been a major event of some kind, but with cell phones, landlines, internet, and television all out, no-one knows any details. Cue the dramatic music.

This book was very suspenseful, due to two things: First, the characters' lack of knowledge. The reader, through the omniscient narrator, knows quite a bit more than the character do about what's going on. Not that it helps. Second, this book is deeply introspective. Alam slides seamlessly from the perspective of one character another, and we are privy to each one's sense of insecurity that they aren't responding "well" to the crisis. And it turns out that the inside of peoples' heads during a mysterious calamity is a deeply creepy place.

Review // Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
⠀⠀
❓Literary Suspense

💗 Fast-Paced, Menacing, Suspenseful AF

📖 Clay and Amanda, a white couple from Brooklyn, are on vacation with their kids at an Airbnb on the rural tip of Long Island. A Black couple knock on the door late one evening, claiming to be the owners of the home. Something terrible has supposedly happened in Manhattan. Clay and Amanda are suspicious and skeptical. Then things start to get weird.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Things To Know
✨ THIS BOOK SCARED ME! The suspense was real. Granted, I don't read much horror, and I'm a huge scaredy cat who slept in my parents bed until I was, like, 12. But really, this was incredible! It wasn't horror in the Riley Sager sense, but was much more literary. Lots of tension, cultural explorations and political commentary.

✨ Speaking of literary, I'm glad I read this one on my Kindle because I used the dictionary feature on almost every page. Remember the spelling bee in the movie 2Gether, where someone was given the word "susurrus?" This was the first book where I've ever seen the word susurrus. Now I know what it means!

✨ Not only was this a horror novel, but there was brilliant social commentary. This may be the first great pandemic-era novel. It's very much a Trump-era novel. It's a BLM-era novel. Alam explores race, class, family dynamics, fear itself and the end of the world. As a Bangladeshi man married to a white man and raising Black children, he has some really interesting insights.

✨ I'm a sucker for books that take place on vacation. There were a few chapters where Clay and Amanda were simply food shopping for the Airbnb and I was like yaaaas! I wish I was food shopping for MY Airbnb! Descriptions of room arrangements? Check. Long poolside afternoons? Check. Steamy vacay sex scenes? Check. I loved it.

✨ The book has already been optioned by Netflix, starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts. Hop on the bandwagon early!

Read If You Like:
✨ Get Out
✨ Lovecraft Country
✨ Rear Window

Another new favorite, that I flew through in only three days! This one is out on October 6.Thank you so much to @netgalley and @harpercollins for the advanced copy!

I find it challenging to put to words how I feel about this book. The premise is that a white middle-class family from New York—Amanda, Clay, and their two teenagers Archie and Rose—rent a vacation house on Long Island to get away from it all for a week. However, on the second night of their stay, the homeowners, an elderly black couple named Ruth and G. H., show up unannounced on the doorstep with ill tidings from the city. Apparently, there is a city-wide black out; no one’s phones have service, the TV isn’t working, and the landline is disconnected.

Primarily, this book is about the bonds between people—between parents and their children, between husbands and wives, between brother and sister, and between complete strangers. How do we treat other people in unforeseen circumstances? When the world feels like it is ending, do we reach out and care for strangers, or do we turn them away?

I don’t believe this is our first pandemic literature, since the gears of publishing turn slowly and I requested this from Netgalley at the end of September, which would allow Alam and his editors and publishers only a month and a half to throw this together. However, it does hit differently when we’re all sheltering in place at home, which is no doubt why Netflix snapped up the film rights in a bidding war almost three months before the book’s release (https://deadline.com/2020/07/netflix-julia-roberts-denzel-washington-sam-esmail-leave-the-world-behind-auction-rumaan-alam-novel-1202989464/). In general, I think that if your mental health has tanked due to the pandemic, you may want to skip this book, but if you’re really in the mood to read something that reflects a lot of what is going on now, definitely pick it up.

The prose is not going to be for everybody. It is told in third-person with an omniscient narrator, which means that you bounce between various characters’ feelings and observations without a lot of transition, as well as the occasional aside to tell you what is happening to the rest of the world I really enjoyed this style and thought that it really helped me to get to know the characters, but I know it is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

One thing that kind of bugged me personally was how open-ended the ending was. If you get into this book and you are looking forward to find out what is going on by the end, don’t hold your breath; we never get down to the nitty-gritty of what is really going on. This book is about people and the relationships between people. It is not a science-fiction novel about how the world might end or the horrific events that lead to the novel’s premise. The ending feels very unfinished—when I reached the end, I was shocked there weren’t any more pages. There isn’t a whole lot of resolution, not only with the overarching “what is going on with the world” plot but also with the more insular plot between the two families.

It’s very thought-provoking, though. This is one of those books where I immediately want to reread it, to try to pick it apart so that I understand more of it. Although it is lacking in some aspects, it was so intriguing and a very quick read, so even if it doesn’t end up being your cup of tea I think it’s worth a read.

** Note for Netgalley: this review will not go live on my blog until October 6. The link I have provided will not work until then.

Race, class, privilege, and family all intersect in Rumaan Alam’s new novel that takes place as the world is ending. This really is an incredible work of literary suspense that feels all too real. ⁣
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I felt increasingly unsettled, anxious and claustrophobic as I read this. We are in the midst of a pandemic, after all, and in a nation with Trump at the helm, a sense of doom is always hanging in the air; a new catastrophe around every corner. Something is happening. The reader never gets an answer as to what that something is. This is what is most terrifying to me; the unknown something. A something that could very well be waiting right outside my door. I still get chills when I think about it. ⁣
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Some very complex language and abundance of detail made it difficult to get through at some points, but I feel like it was all very purposeful and I learned the meaning of a few new words. ⁣
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I highly recommend this book. It will stick with you. It would make an excellent book club pick! ⁣

This book promises more than it delivered!

From the first page - I was anxious to find out what was happening - how it would turn out and wanted a "happy ending".

Fast read - a little to explicit in some areas - definitely something to make you think!

I was excited to read this and there were moments that felt like it could be good but mainly it didn't work for me. Lots of descriptions of events and things that slowed down the reading, descriptions of bodily functions that seemed over the top and a wholly unsatisfying end. I wanted to know more of what happened but was left with just hints of what was to come. The characters were mostly very unlikeable and the overuse of exclamation points was weird. I did read an advanced reader copy so maybe those !! will be edited out of the final copy. There were times when I was engaged and some definitely good, creepy vibes so it wasn't all bad but overall, just not a good fit for me.

I think the premise of the story was great and would make a good movie, esp since many seem to feel this book felt more like a screenplay anyway. This book seems to get lots of love already so I am surely in the minority.

"Leave the world behind," promises the tagline of the Airbnb ad where this book takes place, and is also the title of the latest book by Rumaan Alam. I had to really think about how I felt about this book when I initially finished it. After thinking it over for a week, I've now decided it was good but not great.

The premise caught my attention, as I tried to imagine how awkward it would feel to have the homeowners of a vacation rental show up on your doorstep late at night and then proceed to stay in the house with you. It's their house, but you're paying to rent it. Who is the host and who is the guest?

The reason for the homeowners coming back to the house is a major power outage in New York City, where our vacationing family lives as well. The question is, what happened? Is this a natural disaster? An act of terrorism? The beginning of a war? With the blackout and lack of any phone service, answers are hard to find. And unfortunately for us readers. we never find out either, which I found disappointing.

The book was written pretty well, but in a more sarcastic tone than I usually read. Some readers may interpret it as humorous or cynical, but the style almost caused me to stop reading.

My main complaint was the ending - or lack thereof. I was hoping for some type of resolution but was left looking for more pages to finish the story.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing advanced access to a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was not what I expected from Alam's previous work, which I really enjoyed, but it was absolutely gripping. Alam can't have known the moment we'd be in right now when he wrote it, caught in the middle of a pandemic as wildfires rage across the west coast, after two hurricanes slammed into Louisiana, but the eeriest part of the book is how perfectly he captured the feeling of abandonment and disbelief when something cataclysmic happens. The way he describes the family in his book, who slowly come to realize some unknown event has totally changed New York City and maybe the country, feels so similar to what has felt true during this long nightmare stretch—abandonment, fear, longing for normalcy, grief. This book is gorgeous, and It will haunt me for a long while, particularly the last line: “If they didn’t know how it would end—with disease, with more terrible noise from the top of Olympus, with blood, with happiness, with deer or something else watching them from the darkened woods—well, wasn’t that true of every day?”

This was a doozy. It eventually became difficult to put down & left me feeling very creeped out. I was a little put off at the beginning with the pretentious use of language, it felt like the author was trying too hard to elevate this story beyond your typical post-apocalyptic thriller. I'd say the author did achieve that, but not through the use of archaic and unnecessarily complicated language.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes to be a bit creeped out, and wants a solid page turner.

Possibly the most perfect book to capture the feeling of the year 2020. A sometimes dreamlike but also sharply authentic portrayal of American life, adolescence, parenthood, work, death, and family. Not to mention a stirring examination of race and class. Also, the actual end of the world, or something close to it. What would we do at the onset of civilization's collapse? Be worried, sure. Seek information. Try to act. But we'd still eat dinner, watch TV, have sex, and fret about inane things while trying to grapple with (and probably denying) the sheer gravity of the situation. This entire book felt like a very specific moment in time that I hope to never experience myself. But man, it feels awfully plausible that it will happen in my lifetime or that of my kids. Anyway, this is certainly one of the year's most dazzling, penetrating, and downright stunning books.

"Comfort and safety were just an illusion. Money meant nothing. All that meant anything was this--people, in the same place, together. That was what was left to them."

Leave the World Behind is a phenomenal book that bowled me over. With aspects of dystopia, Alam creates tension in close quarters, examining race relations and how we react when placed in situations outside of our control. The world is crumbling around these characters, but they have no idea what that means or what the extent of it is or how they can stop it - if at all. As the world slowly shows signs of deteriorating around them, these two families come together to wait it out...or face their fates together...

I was excited to read this book, and it exceeded and subverted all of my expectations. It is a simple visit to a vacation home, but even from the beginning there are ominous notes. The writing is crisp and lovely. Time to read his other books!