Name: elizabeth's review of The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien
Item: The World Gives Way
Rating: 3
Author: elizabeth

Marissa Levien

"In fifty years, Myrra will be free. Until then, she's a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract--butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles. But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated--and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles' orphaned daughter and the terrible secret they died to escape, she runs. With time running out, Myrra must come face to face with the truth about her world--and embrace what's left before it's too late"--

The World Gives Way

Shay Henrion

In a near-future world on the brink of collapse, a young woman born into servitude must seize her own freedom in this glittering debut with a brilliant twist—perfect for fans of Station Eleven, Karen Thompson Walker, and Naomi Alderman. In fifty years, Myrra will be free. Until then, she's a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract—butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles. But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated—and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles' orphaned daughter and the terrible secret they died to escape, she runs. With time running out, Myrra must come face to face with the truth about her world—and embrace what's left before it's too late. A sweeping novel with a darkly glimmering heart, The World Gives Way is an unforgettable portrait of a world in freefall, and the fierce drive to live even at the end of it all.

A Novel

elizabeth

This one drew me in right away, and there's good pay-off in terms of plot-driven conflict and action. Most of all, I was compelled by the Don't Look Up quality to it, as it points to the seeming incapability of human society to face our current climate crisis. 

That said, I think my passion for this kind of climate-adjacent lit set my hopes too high or made my investment too great, leading to my greatest issue with the novel: The world is concurrently too over-constructed and underdeveloped to provide a relevant reflection of our real-life crisis. The world reminded me of the world in
  Senlin Ascends
: contained but massive, making a somewhat passable microcosm of our own "spaceship earth." For a novel with so many allegorical ties to real-world climate change, it seems like it would be essential to make the world one that we love, that we owe something to, that provides. But because this world was man-made, and with a relatively short history, it lacks the weight that I feel it should have. Without this foundation, I don't know if the novel uncovered any interesting perspective in the way I wanted it to (i.e. in the way Octavia E. Butler or Margaret Atwood do in their speculative fiction). 

So, separating the novel from what I hoped it would be, I can say that it's just...good. Middle of the road. Glad I read it, but won't be reading again.

Jerilynn Hallett 

Why aren't more people talking about this book!

Kristen Claiborn

** spoiler alert **
           	First, a big thank you to both Marissa Levien and Redhook/Orbit Hachette Book Group for gifting me an advanced reader copy of this book. My monthly book budget is approximately $0 (to be fair, my wonderful husband-to-be has gifted me a Book of the Month Club subscription, so it’s not exactly $0), so receiving books at no cost is the highlight of my life. I likely wouldn’t have run across this book in my regular book circles, so I am especially thankful that I received this one via a Goodreads giveaway. 
	In 2021, we are all well aware that our planet is in a state of environmental crisis, whether you opt to believe truth or have a head-in-the-sand attitude about it. For many of us, there is the looming question as to what will happen to us if we manage to completely destroy our home. This book explores one of the potential options. We are introduced to the world 150 years after leaving earth, for reasons that aren’t entirely made clear, but the logic led me to assume Earth had met its demise. On a huge ship barreling through space, an entire world was built to bring humanity to another terrestrial location, but alas, engineering wasn’t entirely flawless and the ship is facing destruction. The story follows Myrra, an indentured servant, on the lam after her owners died by suicide but left their infant daughter in her care. We follow Myrra and her pursuers until, quite literally, the world ends. 
	This book felt like a mix of Robert Heinlein meets Snowpiercer. While I have never been a fan of science fiction, I have always been fascinated by space travel (proud member of Governor Bent Elementary’s Young Astronaut program!). Fictionalizing the end of the world has become trendy, but Levien wrote it beautifully. Myrra’s character is both resigned yet fierce in her resolve to someday not be somebody’s slave. When the opportunity fell (bad choice of word?) into her lap, she ran. She was given both ingenuity and courage to flee with a baby that wasn’t hers but that she felt a strong need to protect. Her pursuer, security agent Tobias, grappled with his own identity while tracking down the fleeing contract worker. He had grown up under a cloud of criminality that he felt compelled to disprove. In the end, their lots in life mattered very little as they shared intimate moments while waiting to die. It was fascinating and imaginative, keeping me intrigued throughout. This was an impressive debut effort. I almost hope Levien’s sophomore work is a follow-up where we discover the world didn’t fall apart. Seems unlikely though.

Rina

I feel bad for this but I called it at 44%. At that almost halfway point I still wasn't invested in the plot - although the premise of this book was really interesting - or the characters. The dual pov didn't really do it for me, especially when one was such a chore for me to get through I put the audiobook on more than 2x speed just to get through it. I also wasn't a fan of the info dumping. I thought the narrator did a good job though, it was just the execution of the story and the logic of the characters weren't doing it for me. But all those aside, I would be open to trying this again in another format.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Shay Henrion &
The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien

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Shay Henrion &The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien

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The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien