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A review by mabelsyrup
And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
what a weird little book, i went into it expecting a monster type of story and all i got was a strange story of a middle age man struggling with his mental health after the virus raids the world.
I enjoyed the chapters about the outbreak itself and the last 40 pages, it was very existential dread vibes. I did not enjoyed the fact that it was presented as the main character telling this story to a group of people and sometimes he'd like stop and acknowldge the crowd idk it threw me off. I get the idea that the author was trying to pursue with media control/literacy brainwashing and perceived reality and for the most part he got it although not without its fair share of self grandioseness
will prob edit this review when the 15 PEOPLE AHEAD OF ME RETURN THEIR COPY AND I CAN LOOK AT MY HIGHLIGHTS PLEASE
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edit: nvm i had them saved lol
"What if our very idea of what “being cured” means is wrong, and that rather than turning the signal off, we’ve done little more than to change the channel?"
“And they say it like they think I’ll see it as a happy ending. You’re cured. Boom. It’s over. But it’s not over, it’s worse, it’s so much worse. It would have been a happy ending if they’d gone and . . . I dunno, gunned us all down. Eradicate the story that way instead.”
"Perhaps civilisation is only whatever we think of as normal, or perhaps it’s the baseline normality we’re born into. It’s a series of expectations that shifts forward with each generation. A series of technological landmarks to tick off the list: electricity, refrigeration, the internet. The higher we climb, the further we fall."
"Remember how you couldn’t judge things like you used to? What was safe, what wasn’t, what’s good, what’s bad? It wasn’t possible to know by looking. Everything is so damned difficult when you have to assess it from first principles."
I enjoyed the chapters about the outbreak itself and the last 40 pages, it was very existential dread vibes. I did not enjoyed the fact that it was presented as the main character telling this story to a group of people and sometimes he'd like stop and acknowldge the crowd idk it threw me off. I get the idea that the author was trying to pursue with media control/literacy brainwashing and perceived reality and for the most part he got it although not without its fair share of self grandioseness
will prob edit this review when the 15 PEOPLE AHEAD OF ME RETURN THEIR COPY AND I CAN LOOK AT MY HIGHLIGHTS PLEASE
-----
edit: nvm i had them saved lol
"What if our very idea of what “being cured” means is wrong, and that rather than turning the signal off, we’ve done little more than to change the channel?"
“And they say it like they think I’ll see it as a happy ending. You’re cured. Boom. It’s over. But it’s not over, it’s worse, it’s so much worse. It would have been a happy ending if they’d gone and . . . I dunno, gunned us all down. Eradicate the story that way instead.”
"Perhaps civilisation is only whatever we think of as normal, or perhaps it’s the baseline normality we’re born into. It’s a series of expectations that shifts forward with each generation. A series of technological landmarks to tick off the list: electricity, refrigeration, the internet. The higher we climb, the further we fall."
"Remember how you couldn’t judge things like you used to? What was safe, what wasn’t, what’s good, what’s bad? It wasn’t possible to know by looking. Everything is so damned difficult when you have to assess it from first principles."