The silver bubbles on your skin are the first sign. But by this point, even though you can't see it, your mind is turning to mush. You are forgetting everything to the sickness that is spreading like wildfire across the United States. Joy, who somehow does not get sick, finds herself in The Hospital, where she and others like her are waiting and donating their bodies to helping find a cure. The endless waiting, the swirling winter, it plagues Joy as thickly as any sickness. As lonely as a person can possibly be - can Joy find a way to feel anything real?
I tried this one because I do enjoy apocalyptic fiction - and the premise of this one does not disappoint. A raging epidemic, a select few that are immune, that plot line grabbed me. But Joy is a tricky person. And I mean TRICKY, the wells of her sorrow and loss, the depth of her pain and desire to mute it all, that was hard for me to read. I never found myself relating to Joy as a character - and there are several extreme coincidences, completely crucial to the plot of the story, that I just found myself unable to completely immerse myself in. The writing is SO BEAUTIFUL, I mean, this author has a captivating way with words, but sometimes the things she is saying and talking about are just dripping with hopelessness and depravity, it reminded me somewhat of The Road. Almost like I was walking around in a strangely psychedelic dream, high on some kind of drug, with things trudging along very slowly. Things seemed like they SHOULD matter but I just couldn't figure out how. Every once and a while something beautiful would shine through but mostly not. I can see why people like it, but the lack of real redemption just makes it too dark for the place I'm in right now.
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