I'll be honest, I was nervous to finally pick up an Emily St. John Mandel book. I have heard wonderful things about how she constructs her stories in a deeply introspective, yet accessible way. I was afraid Station Eleven wouldn't live up to the hype. So I was ultimately so happy to have enjoyed this book.

Station Eleven follows a few different, interconnected points of view across timelines. The central narrative straddles what is basically the end of civilization as a deadly plague ravages the world and decimates the population in a matter of weeks. We follow some characters lives before this collapse, some after, and some between the two, but all linked in unique ways.

While I did find some of the jumping to be distracting, I did enjoy every point of view and the care the author took in developing each of them. They were all beautifully written and complex, however the main POVs were written to be a bit flawless. FYI if you prefer your characters to be a bit more rough around the edges.

Regarding the pacing, the pre-collapse chapters were deeply introspective while the post-collapse chapters had a healthy balance of action and internal monologuing. Each chapter seamlessly wove into the next one to create a very interesting web of narratives that each inform a part of the story. I found it to be very compelling and well executed.

The story itself was quite interesting. There were parts of it I found difficult to read, not because of the pandemic or the fall of civilization, but because of the depressing thought of evangelical extremism persisting after the apocalypse. I've had too much evangelical extremism in my life lately..

I was considering jumping into Sea of Tranquility right after this, but I'm now energized to pick up The Glass Hotel first to really savor St. John Mandel's writing. I can't wait to dive into her other works.