Oryx and Crake by Margaret AtwoodMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
"After everything that's happened, how can the world still be so beautiful? Because it is."
I hadn't heard of this book before picking it up, but it was by Margaret Atwood so... SIGN ME UP!
This second Atwood that I've read turns out to be another dystopian story, but altogether too similar to 2021 for comfort: a global pandemic (named JUVE for Jetspeed Ultra Virus Extraordinary) has wiped out all but one man.
Apart from THE HANDMAID'S TALE, it brings to mind another future horror novel with population and fertility as a strong theme: THE CHILDREN OF MEN, except where C.O.M and T.H.T. dealt with infertility, O.A.C. discussed overpopulation as well as the extremes of cloning and science gone haywire. The best kind of horror is the one that is all too plausible, and Atwood's take is fully fleshed out, with mad scientists doing their damndest to save humanity, only to push it to the edge of extinction.
One of the best scenes involved the last man left running for his life, with pigs as smart as humans in pursuit. I think I shall never look at the little pink porkers in the same way, ever again.
What makes the novel memorable is the build-up to Armageddon. What kind of education and childhood turns one into a genocidal maniac?
There's also a VERY twisted love story woven in, and some (negative yet truthful) Filipino representation thrown in. *sniff*
Reading O.A.C. in the middle of a global pandemic makes one realize... things could get so much worse. Let's pray they don't.
Apparently this is the first in a trilogy! And now the familiar online bargain book hunting begins.
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