"These Lifeless Things" by Premee Mohamed - Book Review

 

 

   This review is most likely going to be very brief and relatively spoiler-free, so for those of you thinking about reading this book, don't fret!  Spoiler-wise, I won't be saying much because I only read the first 40 pages of the novella and then decided to stop. "These Lifeless Things" is a dual-narrative dystopian that follows Eve, a woman who's doing her best to survive an alien invasion, and Emmerson, an anthropologist who's reading Eve's journal. There's a bit of a time skip between the two narrators because the events that Eve is talking about happened about fifty years prior to when the anthropologist is reading it, so it can be a little confusing at first. As for the horror aspect of the book, it's pretty tame, so for those of you who consider yourself to be a "scaredy-cat", this book should be alright for you to indulge in. 

In case anyone is interested in having a broader look at the book, here's the synopsis that Mohamed added for the book:

Eva is a survivor. She's not sure what she survived, exactly, only that "They" invaded without warning, killed nearly all of humanity, and relentlessly attacked everyone who's left. All she can do to stay sane, in the blockaded city that's no longer home, is keep a journal about her struggle.

Fifty years later, Eva's words are found by Emerson, a young anthropologist sent to the ruins to study what happened. The discovery could shed light on the Invasion, turning the unyielding mystery of the short war into a story of hope and defiance.

    Overall, the premise sounded really promising to me because I love a good sci-fi alien invasion story. However, I ended up DNFing this novella. I typically don't write reviews for books I DNF because a lot of the time, it comes down to my personal preference. Usually, the book itself is perfectly fine and there's not much to critique, but this book was different. It wasn't just a personal preference issue this time, and there are a few things that I think are important to bring up.

I do want to preface before I go further that you have every right to disagree with me on anything I'm about to say, it's a free world and people have a right to their own opinions. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Moving on, the first thing I want to talk about is the whole dual-narrator situation. This might be a hot-take on my part, but I feel like this story would've been a lot better if it only focused on Eva's experience. The whole anthropologist side to the story was a good idea and could've been a great addition to the story if it had more depth, but as is, that side added nothing of substance to the story. I found Emmerson's story to be incredibly annoying to read because, for the first half of the book, they're just reading Eva's story. The only "substance" that's added is the fact that the researchers who are with them don't understand how Emmerson finds the journal useful. The other researchers constantly talk about how Emmerson shouldn't be part of their mission because they are studying physical things, testing theories, and trying to pinpoint the lasting effects of the invasion, while Emmerson is just reading "stories". All in all, I feel like Mohamed should have spent more time with Eva instead of bouncing between the two to develop the world some more. 

On top of that, knowing how short this novella was (116 pages), the biggest thing that took me out of the experience was that within the first half of the book, nothing really happened. Obviously, we got introduced to the characters and the world, but Eva's side of the story mainly focused on her, pretty much "moping". Every journal entry focuses on how she's constantly stuck inside and trying to process what's going on. She talks about how the group she's in has to scavenge in the mornings and have to hide in fear at night when "They" move around in the rundown city. Sure, we get a really good glimpse into Eva's mind, and that's really cool, but Eva doesn't really do anything for the first half of the book. That's what ultimately made me decide to stop reading because I was tired of reading the same thing over and over again. It just made me bored. That's the ultimate cardinal sin for an author: you can write about anything, but you just can't make it boring. 

I realize that the story probably picks up after where I stopped, and that I could've enjoyed it more if I stuck with it. However, I also feel like I don't need to continue reading something in hopes that it could get better. Personally, I feel like even if a book has the most magnificent, powerful ending that trumps every other book that has or ever will be written, it still is a terrible book if it doesn't catch the reader's attention in the beginning. A book isn't worth anything if only parts of it are good, and unfortunately, "These Lifeless Things" falls into that category for me. That's why I DNFed it and don't plan on going back to it. I really wanted to like this novella. Truthfully. However, it just didn't get my gears turning. 

As I said earlier, I would love to know your thoughts if you had different opinions from mine! If the premise of "These Lifeless Things" stood out to you, I still recommend that you give it a shot. However, if my opinion makes you hesitant, that's also okay. At the end of the day, we all have our own opinions!