Finished Malorie, have Some Thoughts
(Spoilers + Incoherent Thoughts below the cut)
Mixed feelings about the book. I still think Unbury Carol is my favorite Malerman book so far...the cuts between POVs felt less jarring when random side characters were involved because there were so many characters involved it made sense there. But like here? Why did we need a POV from Dean? From Gary? Had the same issue with Bird Box when they did that random POV from Tom and Jules (although it ultimately fit there to give some context for the world.)
As per usual, thought that the descriptions in lieu of having visuals were amazing.
I thought absolutely the heart of the story was the Malorie/Tom dynamic and Olympia was an absolutely fascinating character(and her ability made sense and was so dope here...wish I could have seen more of it.)
I'm still mixed about the ending. On one hand, these books are (and always will be) about hope and living. And like, there was something great about Tom being right and his invention working and him being able to give the world its sight back, so I'm glad there was no "aha gotcha" that had him dying for no reason. But on the other hand? I don't think we needed that segway to that town of inventors. Like, we could have had a better moment on the train itself or literally anywhere else.
I definitely teared up a bit when Malorie met her dad again. I think that and Ron Handy were the bits that got me right in the feels.
But also: OLYMPIA MY BB YOU ARE 16 AND SEEING THESE HORRIBLE THINGS MY GIRL I LOVE YOU
Anyway, yeah, read the Bird Box books....Malorie is way more interesting ad a character when she's not #girl bossing it up as Sandra Bullock