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I thought this might end up being a 5⭐ read for me but things didn't come together for me in the end.

Hawley has written a book that I feel years from now will be a cult classic because of the honest, although bleak, insight it gives to our current society. I loved the characters and what they each represented and how their storylines all came together. I was just disappointed by the fantasy elements at the end.

Still a great read though.

This was a great book until the end. There was so much reflection of contemporary society & a dark, hopeless, bleak future expressed as an epidemic of teenage suicides. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the two main characters. The fantasy elements at the end knocked the book down a little for me because they felt out of place. I would still suggest that anyone interested read it. ⭐⭐⭐💫

"There they are, America's future. Alone at first, then all together."
Anthem by Noah Hawley
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

This book is blowing my mind. It's wow!! I don't know if I have ever tagged so many pages before. 🤯🤯🤯

Rainy day here in Florida….great day for reading ❤️

Reading with my little #dorkie #dogsoflitsy

Bedtime reading. Good-night.

This is one odd book about the end of the world and a ragtag group of kids trying to save it. He‘s a terrific writer and if you haven‘t read After the Fall, read that one too.

Anthem describes a very bleak yet realistic future for America and Gen Z. It was really hard to read a book like this while the world is still dealing with Covid and Putin is talking nuclear weapons. I am very scared and try to escape in my current vacation (Oman is so peaceful it‘s soothing) and my books. A light pick for the book.

#52BooksIn52weeks #AuthorsNote
#pop22 #PublishedIn2022

(Pic: Sultan Qaboosh Grand Mosque in Muscat)

This is a really hard one to rate. I can see why the ‘starred‘ reviews are all over the place. I think for me, it‘s more of a “it‘s not you it‘s me” kind of rating. The writing had me initially hooked, and the first few chapters introducing a teen suicide pandemic, were really fantastic, giving me a bit of a dystopian ‘Euphoria‘ vibe. But as the novel progressed, this genre-bending tale became too fantastical for me. (Continued in comments)

I just want to add that even though it is an integral part of my vocabulary, I had never seen “farkakte” written down until I read Anthem.

I had to reset my password and log in after two-plus years to tell everyone how great this book was.

This is like a nightmare smorgasbord of our recent and current societal calamities and dysfunctions and worst people. 😳 And some of it feels overwrought, even as it all feels possible and true. And there were oddities of structure and audiobook production. But I was into most all of it! 🤣 (Minus some musings on empathy that felt reductive.) A good read if you're in the mood for grim + punchy + philosophical.

“This isn‘t a fairy tale,” the back of this book reads. What is the opposite of a fairy tale? A nightmare? Then that is what this satire portrays. A deeply depressing not so future America that shows society‘s effects on teens and adults. Almost a warning: this is what will happen if we continue to act the way we are acting.

In the aftermath of January 6th, Anthem takes us to a world where hopeless teens are killing themselves & our nation is in the midst of a civil war.
The first 100+ pages were gripping. But then all the teens started to all sound alike, which was confusing. When you couple that with the author breaking the 4th wall, it took me out of the story. We are also left hanging as to what happened to TWO pivotal characters, which really really bothered me.

My latest library book and my favorite reading buddy, Hank. I‘m not very far into this one, so I‘m not quite sure how I feel yet. I will say that I have to take little breaks. It‘s not a book I could read in one sitting. I‘m looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

I loved Hawley‘s Before the Fall for how clear eyed it is about the modern day US. This book looks at a possible very near future US that is frankly pretty bleak, though feels depressingly realistic. What I take issue with is that one of the storylines suddenly swerves into a Wild West/Mad Max type story with basically no warning and for me the shift just didn‘t work. Other parts I thought were terrific.

Thousands of teenagers across the country are committing suicide, but why? In this story dedicated to Gen Z, Hawley takes current events like Jan 6 and Jeffery Epstein to a near-future dystopian world. There are teens going on a quest, partly for vengeance, in the middle of a US civil war. Very cinematic in its violence, and the quest was video game-reminiscent. Don‘t skip the epilogue! ⬇️

💯 #HopePunk (thanks for explaining, Cindy) #Booked2022

This new release is dark, disturbing, violent . . . and recognizable. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#anthem

So I got my second tattoo today 😄

“Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. ... Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.”

Tupac Shakur

I did not expect to spend the afternoon wrapped up in this! I HATED Before the Fall, but this is so different. I‘m enjoying it for the same reason I enjoyed The Blinds - an unusual take on a thriller.

Also, I‘m loving the new Libby look. 🎧

Loved this ultimately… though at times it terrified me

This is a solid book club read. It‘s a read that will really make you think about how we currently live life. Truly enjoyed it from the characters developmentand even the authors interaction with the reader. #bookclubreads

B&N Book Club 💫