Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam is one of the strangest books I’ve read in a long time. I was interested to read this because it got some great pre-release buzz, is a 2020 National Book Award Finalist, and was a Read with Jenna pick for October. Well, unfortunately, this book fell short of my expectations. It is a story about 2 families who get stuck together during a blackout and subsequent strange occurrences. Aman’s writing style and use of words is somewhat interesting, but the story just didn’t come together for me. I felt like there were just too many topics trying to be covered – racism, husband-wife relationships, sex, teenagers, obsession with electronics, self-doubt, etc, and none got fully explored.
Obviously, this books was picked for awards and book clubs for a reason, so even though it didn’t work for me, be sure to check out other reviews before you completely make up your mind.
832 Book Review 