January 25, 2024
My latest completed journey!!! Ann Christy you have moved me
“What’s with the porch lights?” he asks. “Seems like a lot of energy.”
“They’re LED, so it’s actually not a big drain, and it’s tradition around here. They turn on all the porch lights at night just in case there’s a survivor somewhere to see the light. It’s kind of sweet, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. It’s sort of hopeful.”
“Yeah, exactly like that. Hopeful.”
this book has a pretty interesting sci-fi take on the apocalypse. rather than zombies, the remaining humans have to contend with "Loopers" — people trapped in svarious time loops, forced to act out a set stretch of time in their lives indefinitely. "Breaking" the loops by startling the affected loopers or touching them causes them to go berserk and attack someone; but unlike a zombie story, the attacks are more inconvenient than anything. The real issue is that "breaking" the various time loops kills the individuals trapped in them, which raises a heft of moral concerns as the survivors have to get supplies and housing, and often can't accomplish this without disrupting and killing those frozen in time.
I feel like from gleaming the above paragraph you can kind of tell what kind of tale it's going to be; it's one of life, love, memories, the beauty of life's finity and time's infinity... The story avoids getting too bleak and focuses on a 12 year old girl (though she ages significantly over the story) and her exploits as she works with other humans to rebuild society. The narrative jumps forward and back in time on several occasions, and is punctuated by journal entries from several characters, but it never got confusing for me. The presentation means there's no real "plot" for most of the book, and the stakes aren't much either; it's a lot more of a slice of life kind of story, but I found the world and its mysteries really compelling, and even in the slower bits I was moved by the main character's heart and the life she did her best to live.
It's kind of hard to compact exactly what it says in the end (and i'd rather not spoil it anyway) but the ending was something I could only describe as "truly beautiful" and brought it all together. it's one of those kinda esoteric finales that'll have you thinking about it long after you finished it; my favorite kind! i couldn't help but cry a bit at the end...
I'm still ruminating on it but I feel like I know in my heart that it's already a favorite for me. The concept and vibes were just right up my alley... if the author's other works are like this, then I'm definitely giving them my attention at some point!
if you're interested in a little sci-fi time-based apocalypse with a lot of heart, give your attention to The Never-Ending End of the World by Ann Christy