Becca Reviews: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

The Year of the Flood is a sequel to Oryx and Crake, the second book in the MadAdam series. Although when you read a few reviews you will see lots of fans of the book claiming it's not technically a sequel and you don't have to read the first book as this can stand alone. I agree and disagree. Yes you can read this book as a stand alone story but (for me) not in a good way. Furthermore, this book was published as part of a trilogy so in no way should it be considered stand alone.

I thoroughly enjoyed Oryx and Crake (5 stars). For both stories the plot is the same as they occur parallel to one another, both with a focus on different characters. The world as we know it ceases to exist after a human made pandemic wipes out much of the population. I honestly barely feel qualified to write about these stories as so much goes over my head. There are allusions to the fact that this pandemic was devised by two characters in the first book who were friends for years and played an extinction based game together on the computer. There is also a new sexual performance enhancing drug, BlyssPluss, which also may have resulted in the end of times. This is probably a me problem that I just didn't really follow the story that well.

Nevertheless, I still really enjoyed the first books characters, world-building, and crazy new gene-spliced creatures. Alongside the world-building of this post apocalyptic environment, we also witness what could be called value-building and even religion-building as survivors attempt to find ways to rebuild a form of society.

In TYOTF we follow Toby, a woman who joined The Gardeners (a cult like group who don't eat meat and grow produce on roof tops), and Ren, a younger woman who grew up with The Gardeners. Their stories converge and separate at various points. Without giving too much away, when the year of the flood comes along both characters just so happen to be locked, individually, in secure rooms which means they do not contract the virus. We follow their journey's through different dangerous areas, meeting, losing, and re-meeting with various friends and people they know from 'before'.

For me this book just fell so flat. Although similar to the previous story it actually lacked all of my favourite elements from Oryx and Crake, which is unfortunate. In this story we only hear snippets about new manufactured creatures, lab grown meat, and observation spheres that watch a new species of humans with blue bums and genitals, to name a few. Most of the plot can be boiled down to, characters move from A to B, characters are separated, and characters coincidentally meet again. Ren is also a weak and fairly 2D character who should really have better survival skills considering she grew up with The Gardeners and learned so much from them. The contrast between the characters of Toby and Ren is done well besides that.

The flow of the story is very slow and then all of a sudden everything happens very quickly at the end, including some horrendous sexual assault and even some cannibalism for good measure! Overall the story didn't give me more insight into the happenings in the world post the first book, which is what I wanted, but apparently not what Atwood intended to deliver. I understand it's a parallel story but perhaps a little too parallel.

I realise I haven't had many positive things to say. I think I probably only persevered with this book because I listened on audiobook, else I think I may have slapped this one with a DNF. There were some plot lines I would have liked to hear more about such as the 'high-end sex club Scales and Tails', the 'AnooYoo spa', and the story behind 'SecretBurgers'. Of course, the writing is great, the conceits are good, and I was somewhat interested in the story but only because Atwood is Atwood. I think if I had read this as a standalone story I would have enjoyed it more but if I was given the choice to read JUST this or JUST Oryx and Crake it would be Oryx and Crake every time. Furthermore, judging from the reviews of MadAdam, I'm not sure I'll be reading the third instalment (if we're allowed to call it that) anytime soon.

Read: 22/10/2024

Published: 22/09/2009

ISBN: 9780385528771

Price: £4.98 (GBP)