Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam is not your typical suspense novel.
The best way to describe Leave the World Behind is that it is somehow both subtle and specific.
Human nature + the unknown + what we do when we are put to the test are themes throughout.
I will not lie – while it picked up at the end, I struggled with a good chunk of this book. Leave the World Behind is certainly not an edge-of-your-seat thriller. It is at times (purposefully?) slow.
The writing style is also in stark contrast to the books I normally read. One thing specifically is that I had a hard time connecting to the characters.
After I finished reading, I watched a couple short videos of Rumaan Alam talking about Leave the World Behind and I think if I had watched them while I was having Motivation Difficulties, it would have helped – must remember this tip for future reading!
What kept me going were the overall themes and that I was intrigued by the concept itself. Plus this line specifically I really enjoyed: “if they weren’t human, in this moment, then they were nothing.”
This book was hard to read while I was reading it, but I’ve been thinking about the concepts ever since. Maybe that’s just as important, if not more so. That almost makes me want to read it again – so I can see what I missed the first time.
The mystery of the emergency in the city also compelled me to keep reading because I wanted to find out what actually happened.
In summary, I’m glad I read it. It was easy to put down but impossible to forget about so I kept coming back to it. I think it’ s important to explore texts outside of our “reading comfort zone”.
Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam sounds more my speed – it’s about two best friends who grow up and have to find out if they can still be best friends. That’s definitely a concept I’m familiar with. I think I’ll give that one a shot next 🙂
Read more about Rumaan Alam and his other projects here.
Successful reading, friends!
