Name: The Year of the Flood
ISBN: 9781844085644

Margaret Atwood

The sun brightens in the east, reddening the blue-grey haze that marks the distant ocean. The vultures roosting on the hydro poles fan out their wings to dry them. the air smells faintly of burning. The waterless flood - a manmade plague - has ended the world. But two young women have survived: Ren, a young dancer trapped where she worked, in an upmarket sex club (the cleanest dirty girls in town); and Toby, who watches and waits from her rooftop garden. Is anyone else out there?

The Year of the Flood

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale Set in the visionary future of Atwood’s acclaimed Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood is at once a moving tale of lasting friendship and a landmark work of speculative fiction. In this second book of the MaddAddam trilogy, the long-feared waterless flood has occurred, altering Earth as we know it and obliterating most human life. Among the survivors are Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Amid shadowy, corrupt ruling powers and new, gene-spliced life forms, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can't stay locked away.

Stefanie Viens

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I don't have any religious inclinations and initially wondered whether I was going to get annoyed at following a group called  God's Gardeners  throughout this story. It turns it was actually the opposite. I became very fond of the multiple narrators, and was genuinely intrigued by the GG culture. 

(SPOILER-ISH)

The tying in with the ending of Oryx and Crake was also perfectly executed, and I was extremely happy that these characters who initially thought themselves alone, managed to find each other. I was also happy to find that some felt their reunion to be bittersweet, making it a very real and human ending as well.

From the Booker Prize-winning author of Oryx and Crake, the first book in the MaddAddam Trilogy, and The Handmaid's Tale. Internationally acclaimed as ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by, amongst others, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Village Voice In a world driven by shadowy, corrupt corporations and the uncontrolled development of new, gene-spliced life forms, a man-made pandemic occurs, obliterating human life. Two people find they have unexpectedly survived: Ren, a young dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails (the cleanest dirty girls in town), and Toby, solitary and determined, who has barricaded herself inside a luxurious spa, watching and waiting. The women have to decide on their next move -- they can't stay hidden forever. But is anyone else out there? From the Trade Paperback edition.

Ilse

This book kinda disappointed me, maybe because my expectations were raised too high from how much I loved the Handmaid’s Tale and its sequel 🤷‍♀️ This book is 90% exposition that never seems to end. The start had me hooked, but I’d hoped it would’ve been a little more than just catching up to said start 😅

Towards the end it did pick up steam, but you have to drudge through the entire middle part to get to it. It’s a shame, but the themes explored were definitely interesting and it hasn’t nearly put me off from exploring more of Atwood’s works 😁

edith w.

Atwood returns to form fantastically in her latest work - The Year of the Flood. Her writing is engaging, quick, very clever, and at times deeply moving. I couldn't get enough of Year of the Flood. More of the same now, please!

From the Publisher:  The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners-a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life-has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have survived:  Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a God's Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spa where many of the treatments are edible. Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the ruling powers. Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating:  the lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad band make their way through this strange new world, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can't stay locked away. By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and uneasily hilarious, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most brilliant and inventive.

a novel

The year of the flood

Stephanie Honour

Typical Margaret: creative, spunky, and captivating.

Katheryn Sowers 

Sian Wadey

This was 'A Book And A Beer' read and as per usual I didn't finish it in time. I haven't read any Margaret Atwood before and I was intrigued to read The Year of the Flood. I generally apocalyptic fiction and this seemed right up my street. Starting with the negatives: it took me an age to read this, not sure why but it didn't flow as easily as it could; I found the sermons and the hymns boring although I understand for some they added more depth to Atwood's world; I struggled to remember who was who, but this may be linked to how long it took me to read it. On a more positive note, I found the world of the Gardeners believable and fascinating. Margaret Atwood is certainly creative in the ideas and products she creates in this fictionalised future. I liked the way the book was written jumping between the two time periods but I could have read more of the events during Year 25, after the Waterless Flood. Overall a strong read, but I won't be hurrying to buy Margaret Atwood again.

Melody Izard

Saint Euel Gibbons??
And I'm trying not see all the similarities to Hunger Games. But I will keep track here: rackhunks, painball, corpse corps, New You Spa, trackerjackers - tracking bees - so I guess I'm NOT not trying to see the similarities. 
I am loving this book though. 

My review:

A story that runs parallel with Oryx and Crake. The waterless flood has come and most people are dead. The one’s who aren’t, are starving and mean and might have done some time in “pain ball” confinement. The group of people who called themselves “God’s Gardeners” have an advantage because they learned to be self sustaining - how to grow their own food and forage for eatable items in the woods. Euel Gibbons is one of their celebrated saints. Things are dire and bleak – and that was before the plague came. A ray of hope is dangled in the form of the blue penis men and their female partners. My review may be dire and bleak too – but this is another fabulous book from Atwood.

Christina Wells

I was really into this book, but it ended so abruptly! I hate it when the last 10 pages of a book kind of ruin the experience. Overall, I'd have to say I enjoyed it though.

Mahasin S Ameen

This is the companion novel to "Oryx and Crake" and takes place at the same time. It tells of the 'Waterless Flood' that has happened through the eyes of survers Ren and Tobie.

Phil James

Stunning. I was really excited to get this book and it kept me that way right to the end. After reading her "Oryx and Crake" I was already anticipating a dystopian masterpiece but this parallel story brings the two of them into the league of modern classics.
I think anyone would benefit from reading "Oryx and Crake" first, although it's not strictly necessary, but then they wouldn't get all the resonances I did.

Frank Huang

By the author of The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace The sun brightens in the east, reddening the blue-grey haze that marks the distant ocean. The vultures roosting on the hydro poles fan out their wings to dry them. the air smells faintly of burning. The waterless flood - a man-made plague - has ended the world. But two young women have survived: Ren, a young dancer trapped where she worked, in an upmarket sex club (the cleanest dirty girls in town); and Toby, who watches and waits from her rooftop garden. Is anyone else out there?

The Year of the Flood

Reviews

Highlights