This is a difficult book to review. There were things that I did not enjoy (the style of writing, sexual undertones, and slow, meticulous details), but yet the book left me feeling uneasy and I cannot stop thinking about it. I can see how this book appeals to some, but not to others. The story is definitely more character-driven, filled with background suspense. The ending left me wanting something more, or at least something different. But, I guess that was the point of the book.

Rumaan Alam cleverly examines the dynamics between two families who are forced to live together under extreme and stressful circumstances. Amanda and Clay with their son and daughter rent an luxurious home on Long Island, a home that belongs to an older black couple, Ruth and G.H. A life altering event has occurred that has compelled both couples to live in the home together, left with no Internet, or any means of communication to the outside world. Much is revealed between the interactions of both couples that leaves us questioning how we relate to each other in terms of class and race, and how cut off from society we can feel without being plugged in all the time.

The plot caught my attention but quickly lost it because the writing style is exhausting. The vocabulary choices were too much. I tried to keep reading but stopped at 40%. Maybe next time!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Leave The World Behind is in some ways a very timely book for the present moment. It is a book which subtly describes its characters and their interactions as they deal with a very unusual and unnerving (or even frightening) situation. A white family is vacationing at a rental house when they hear a knock on their door. To their surprise, an elderly couple (they are Black) happens to be waiting and let them know that they are the owners of the house and have left NYC due to a total power outage. Since no one has any idea of what is happening or why, there is a great deal of suspense. One of the interesting aspects of this book is that it ventures into issues of race and class and stereotypes that the characters and readers might have. This is unlike any book I have ever read before. It is not a book where a lot of action is actively happening, but rather where small things happen and a lot happens to psychologically. Rumaan Alam certainly writes psychological suspense very well and weaves in the other issues seamlessly.

I was so eager to read this one and really wanted to love it, but unfortunately it just didn't work for me. It was so drawn out and slow, and I kept holding my breath waiting for something, ANYTHING, to happen, but it never did. Even at the end, the story just stopped so abruptly with zero explanation as to what was happening. I was also disappointed that the racism aspect wasn't really explored (and was barely even mentioned aside from a sentence or two), despite that being one of the main themes highlighted in almost every description of the book I saw prior to reading it. This one was bizarre, uneventful, and sadly just a miss for me.

What. In. The. World? I have no idea what I just read. This book was compelling and suspenseful. So many things happened, and they were all a little off-kilter, and that is a compliment. I couldn't stop reading, and I wanted to know what happened next and to find out what had caused all the fallout. In the end, I was a little let down because I don't feel like there was enough resolution for me. This was still a good read for me. I would recommend it, and I look forward to reading other books by this author.

A white family on vacation in a luxurious rented house on Long Island is surprised when an older African American couple comes to the door one night. The visitors claim to be the owners of the house and they are looking for refuge after a black out has struck the East Coast. There is no phone or internet service, but at least the electricity still works.

The blurb for this book says that the novel is “keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race and class”. I suppose that the publisher is marketing the book this way because a lot of people are looking for a race and class discussion at this point in time. However, this book veers off into a different direction. The publisher is obviously keeping this direction hidden so I won’t reveal it, but I will say that the book is less relevant than it could have been. Even though the book wasn’t what I expected, I did enjoy it. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publi

Leave the World Behind is a hard book to review. In it, Amanda and Clay and their two children are staying in a vacation house on a remote corner of Long Island when the owners of the house, a Black husband and wife, return to the house because of a blackout in the city. The family does not know how to respond to the owners and quickly realize that something major has happened on the east coast.. The TV, internet and cell service are off. The novel delves into family , race and class issues. The prose strings on in an almost stream of conscious manner. The descriptions of minor observances of life are often raw and ugly.

This one did pull me in, making me wonder what was going on the whole way. I was a bit worried that I would not like the end, but it actually worked for me. I liked the message it portrayed and found it quite timely.

3.5 stars

“Amanda had found the place on Airbnb. ‘The Ultimate Escape,’ the ad proclaimed. She respected the chummy advertising-speak of the description. Step into our beautiful house and leave the world behind.”

Amanda and Clay rent a secluded house in Long Island on Airbnb for a quiet vacation with their two children, leaving their busy lives in Brooklyn behind. Soon after arriving there, they receive unexpected visitors late at night: the owners of the extremely expensive and beautiful house. Who also happen to be Black.

Ruth and G.H. have fled the city after a blackout has swept the East Coast. While their Long Island house still has electricity, there is no cell service, internet, or TV. Amanda is reluctant to trust this couple, but not because she’s racist, she assures herself. She and her husband are good, white Liberals. They’re professionals. Who would assume that a Black couple would own this house?

“He wore a rumpled blazer, a loosened knit tie, a striped shirt, those brown pants every man over thirty-five wears. He held his hands up in a gesture that was either conciliatory or said Don’t shoot. By his age, black men were adept at this gesture.”

As the two couples and the two children begin to get to know each other, panic slowly builds. Weird things are happening all around them, and they still cannot get confirmation that anything is actually wrong. The reader knows more than the characters do, given Alam’s asides about everything happening in the area and the city of which the characters are ignorant.

“The leader of the free world was sequestered beneath the White House, but no one cared about him, certainly not a little girl tripping through the woods and thinking about Harry Styles.”

I recently heard this book described as a thriller, but I don’t know if I would categorize it as that. It definitely is suspenseful, but there isn’t a villain. This is an examination of race and class in America, with the characters put into an increasingly terrifying situation. As the panic continues to build, the connections between the characters and the characters themselves change and grow. I would describe this as more of a literary suspense novel.

The characters in this book are well developed, and the prose and dialogue are well written. That being said, I did not find myself dying to find out what happens next. Suspense novels are just not my thing. If you love suspense, I would highly recommend picking this one up!

Thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to have the chance to read this book, so thank you NetGalley! Unfortunately, it was not for me. To backtrack, I loved the premise and I was very invested in where the story was going, weird stuff and all, and then it just ended. I was disappointed, though I'm assuming that was the point.

Like I said, I loved this up until about 60%, then it just went haywire. There was so much potential! However, I realize this has been getting amazing reviews, so don't let me review deter you from reading.

Will all dystopia feel impossibly dated now? The first third, before it all goes wrong, is a joy, and then the end of the world drags - just as the real thing feels.

A chilling tale that feels even more relevant in 2020. A smart story with perspective that jumps from character to character making you connect with all of them equally.

Usually I wait a few days after finishing a book to think about what I have read and put my thoughts in order. With Leave the World Behind, I am making an exception. This story was so unsettling, I am hoping that writing a review will drive the story from my mind and I can be free of it.
The book begins with an introduction to Brooklyn residents Amanda and Clay and their two teen-age children as they prepare for a week’s vacation in an Air B & B in a rural area of Long Island. The first chapters read like an exercise for a writers’ workshop. Here, for example, is just one descriptive paragraph: “The car was not so new as to be luxurious nor so old as to be bohemian. A middle-class thing for middle-class people, engineered not to offend more than to appeal, purchased at a showroom with mirrored walls, some half-hearted balloons, and several more salesmen than customers, lingering in twos or threes, jingling the change in the pockets of their Men’s Wearhouse slacks.” So much artful cleverness can soon grow tiresome, but fortunately the author shifts the focus to what happens not long after they have settled in to their vacation home. The owners turn up on their doorstep with news that there is a black out in New York City, and they have left their city apartment to take refuge in the country.. Their country house has lost internet and cell service, but for some reason, does still have electric power. This unexpected disruption of their idyllic vacation week results in suspicion, consternation and hostility on the part of Amanda and Clay. The fact that the couple seeking shelter are older, obviously well-to-do, and African-American seems to foretell cultural clashes in many arenas. Alam, however, is not going for the predictable. What follows are a series of unexplained natural events made more disturbing because all means of communications have been wiped out. Our dependence on easy access to information is shown in many ways, none more disturbing than seeing Clay, trying to get into town, lost on the deserted back roads because his GPS isn’t working.
Over the course of the next day tension escalates with a horrific explosion somewhere above, strange behavior on the part of local wildlife, medical emergencies and teenager Rose disappearing. Alam offhandedly gives the readers some possible explanations for what is happening but our frightened band can only wonder and worry.
Do not expect a tidy ending either for the characters in the story or the readers. And at a time when we are all struggling with isolation, world tensions and medical emergencies, this is not an easy book to read. You may love it or hate it. It reminded me of the classic apocalyptic novel of 1959, Alas Babylon, which dug deeper and wider than this book and left the reader a little more hopeful. Some issues don’t go away, no matter how advanced we think we are. Or possibly that false reliance on advancement has made it even worse.

The deal: This is definitely one of those where it’s better to go in as blind as possible, but if you must know, it’s about a privileged family on vacation in The Hamptons whose world is turned upside down when the couple who owns their Airbnb comes knocking. It’s definitely not horror or anything though, so if that’s not your thing, don’t worry. (P.S. I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for this review.)

Is it worth it? Okay, so I liked this but there was something that kept me from loving it. It could be that Alam's writing (which is absolutely gorgeous and deserves every bit of hype) gave me such a lush sense of what could be that I hungrily wanted more? It could be that I was expecting it to be more of a “Parasite”-esque look at race and class? It could be that I was just assuming there would be a lot more action and kept waiting for something, anything to happen? Either way, there’s something to be said for an apocalypse story existing in a space that’s quiet and strange and a bit mundane, because ultimately, most of us don’t live in a Michael Bay film. In related news, the adaptation rights have already been scooped up by Netflix — it’ll star Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, and “Mr. Robot’s” Sam Esmail will be directing. So yeah, you’re probably gonna want to read this.

Pairs well with: Your dystopian vice of choice, included but not limited to: cigarettes, ice cream, arrogance, sex, boxed cake mix, masturbation, etc. etc.

B+

Definitely a page turner, nut it left me wanting so much more. I understand the device of leaving things to the imagination and the unsettling effect of not wrapping it all up, but I found the end dissatisfying. In many ways. I loved the book but please write the sequel.

Two families are forced to spend the weekend together after a blackout in the city. No one really knows what caused it and if they're even safe in the house at all. Class and racial tensions ensue on top of apocalyptic uneasiness.

I wanted to like this book so much. However, it just fell flat for me. The overall premise is good. I liked the class and racial themes. What lost me was slow pacing and the feeling that things were just constantly too vague. I felt confused at times or like the story would drag on things that could have been said in one page instead of multiple ones (like Amanda and Clay actually entering the house). I understand it takes time to build up tension and, at some points, the vagueness added to the feeling of unease in the book. Regardless, I would have loved a little more clarity. Maybe, more straightforwardness would have helped alleviate the feeling of always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then I wouldn't have been disappointed when it never did. As far as characters, I felt they were believable. However, I just didn't feel like I knew enough about any of them to really connect with one of them.

Even though this book wasn't the best pick for me, it definitely has a specific audience in mind. I recommend it to someone who likes slow-burn mysteries with tons of ambiguity or disaster stories focused on families, especially with children.

What did I just read? Was it a family drama? A horror book? A metaphor for the Trump era & subsequent pandemic? Whatever the author's intent, it was all over the place with spotty writing.

What a refreshingly unique book about a family vacation that takes a bizarre turn as the world seems to suddenly be going crazy. The writing is smart and original, and I love that the author doesn't spell everything out so that a lot is left for the reader to figure out and imagine. Really cool story!

I wanted to love this one but the writing really threw me. It felt extremely wordy & unnecessary and right now, I don't have time (or attention span) for that. I think I'm in the minority though, I suggest you try for yourself!

A white family of four from New York escapes the city to a rented home in Long Island. But before their vacation ends, the older Black couple who owns the home arrives with news from the city: Something has gone terribly wrong, but no one really knows what. There's a blackout, no phone reception, and a general sense of dread. As the two families adjust to each other's presence, they're unprepared to adjust to the strange disaster they're experiencing.

Creepy! That's this book in a word. There's a real "boiling a frog" method here. You start off in comfortably warm water, watching a privileged, unaware family enjoy their vacation. But then things heat up, first with racism and prejudice, and then with a growing sense of unease, and finally with real horror. This was tough to read during an actual pandemic, but the parallels of this book (written before the COVID crisis!) are remarkable. The families try to maintain some sense of normalcy in the face of unprecedented fear, confusion, and danger. I wish we'd gotten a little more context by the end, but the ambiguity makes it all the more haunting.