Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood has given us both a terrifying and fascinating look at a possible future, one that seems more realistic than the many others that have been written. I could not put it down and the characters are especially endearing.
Rated of 5
by Sarah W. (Frenchtown, MT)
A Small disappointment The Year of the Flood is a futuristic, apocalyptic story with a set of fairly interesting characters. It is a companion novel to Atwood's Oryx and Crake, in that it shares the setting and some of the characters of this earlier novel. While I found Oryx and Crake to be a fascinating and rewarding read, The Year of the Flood was a little harder to get engaged with, and ultimately left me with less of a sense of awe at the author's tremendous imagination. I call it a small disappointment because I hold such high hopes for any novel by this author, but it is a worthwhile book.
Rated of 5
by Joanne G. (Kennesaw, GA)
A Newbie's Review
I jumped at the chance to preview a book by an author of Margaret Atwood's stature. The Year of the Flood is my first Atwood reading and I'm new to the futuristic genre. It takes a while to get into the flow of the time periods, but narration by Toby and Ren is an effective style to develop the characters and the plot. By the end of the novel, I began to care more about them.
Atwood's scene descriptions are vividly picturesque and coupled with the The God's Gardeners Oral Hymnbook have great cinematic possibilities. I found the futuristic vocabulary more trite than humorous and didn't feel my mind had been expanded into future shock. My conclusion: Ms Atwood lives up to my expectations as a writer but I'd like a more intriguing plot.
Rated of 5
by Carol H. (East Greenwich, RI)
"We're using up the earth. It's almost gone."
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel of an alternate reality set in the not so distant future. Its steadily building narrative reads like a chronicle as it slowly reveals the story of the Gardeners, a quasi-religious group that has decided that living "green" is the answer to a disintegrating society. What makes this novel come alive are the distinct personalities of the Gardeners and Atwoods detailed depiction of a society in the process of destroying itself from within.
Year of the Flood reads like the middle book of a trilogy (I haven't read Oryx and Crake which came before) but holds up on its own. I don't think it will appeal to everyone, too little overt action, but I gave it four stars for an absorbing story well told.
Rated of 5
by JD (NY librarian)
Compelling
Margaret Atwood describes a chilling future where science and corporations have run amok. I found her description of this world rich and her main characters well developed. It was both an intellectually stimulating book and an enjoyable read. I would have given it five stars except that I felt certain aspects of the plot were too contrived.
Rated of 5
by Angela W. (Bronx, NY)
The Survivors
“The Year of the Flood” offers a parallel view of the future world depicted in “Oryx and Crake”, but from a decidedly female perspective. We meet the two main characters – Ren and Toby - each living in isolation after most of humanity has been wiped out from what they call the ‘Waterless Flood’. Switching between past and present to show how the world is and how it got that way, the back stories illustrate that the women are not perfect, but that they possess traits that many of the characters in “Oryx and Crake” lack: They are resilient and realistic and human.
Rated of 5
by Kathy S. (Coral Gables, FL)
ended too early
This book has good character development, but I kept waiting for the story to get going, and then it ended. I would of liked more of the "current year", even if it meant a longer book. I felt like she wrapped things up too early and too neatly.
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