A tense story about a family vacation gone inconceivably wrong. After a blackout in NYC spooks the owners of the Airbnb back home, the renters are now faced with figuring out where they belong while facing what could be the end. Alam infuses the story with wit, humor, and lush detail while he explores the ways in which humans connect to technology, nature, and each other.

Leave the World Behind grabs you right from the beginning, and it mostly delivers on it's promises.

Alam's writing style is chatty and realistic, and it feels "contemporary." The characters are likable, but not so likable as to be unrealistic. They come across as individuals and not stock characters. This is the story of a family arriving at a remote rental house for a week's vacation, and it quickly takes on a creepy and (maybe?) menacing tone. To say much more would necessitate spoilers. I will say that the plot is intriguing and keeps you wondering what will happen next... but, in the end, not a whole lot actually happens. I can't decide, though -- does that make the tale even creepier? It's been a few days since I finished, and I'm still thinking it over. That counts for something, I guess.

3.5 stars. Would recommend.

An incredibly ominous, thrilling and wickedly smart book. I found myself not being able to put the novel down once I was able to really get into it. This was in part due to the writing here being incredible. Which was a bit unexpected for me, I'm not used to thrillers being so..."flowery"? But it only enhanced the story for me. I don't want to go into details beyond the plot description because I feel the slow reveal of what was happening was some of the most intense and interesting parts of the novel. I'm definitely looking forward to the upcoming adaptation even more now.

This was definitely not the book I was expecting, based on my previous reading of books by Mr. Alam! But, I was not disappointed and found a compelling, fast paced story that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Amanda and Clay are looking forward to their vacation week in the Hamptons, away from their work demands and busy city life. They’re planning to have a carefree week with their two kids. Of course, fate intervenes. Mixed in with strange events that could mean the end of life as we know it are interesting themes of race and class distinctions. Mr. Alam’s talent for fully developing interesting characters and storylines is once again present in this book.

I can’t think of a way to say more without revealing any spoilers, but you will be in for a wild ride. Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the opportunity to read Leave the World Behind in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A family travels to an airbnb in an idyllic location for a vacation. The owners of the house show up unexpectedly after a strange evening. Disturbing and post-apocalyptic happenings unsettle everyone..

This is one of those books that I wanted to race to the end to see what happens, and also read very slowly to savor the detail and astute observations of life as we know it in 2020. Calling this story timely doesn't really do it justice. I cannot recommend enough.

This is a tough book to review! I finished yesterday and am still mulling over what I think about it. On the one hand, I found the writing just sucked me in and I wanted to read every description and word. It was language to savor. But the story was by turns horrifying and grotesque, as well as compelling. It definitely touched on some of my worst nightmares! I don’t want to spoil anything by giving away the plot, but if you’re the little red bow type, this is not for you. 3.5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Clay and Amanda are on a vacation in a rented home in a remote area with their teenage children. On their second evening, a couple knock on the door claiming they are the owners. They left the city when a blackout happened and want to stay at their home. This night leads to suspicions of the couple's intent and leads to an unsettling story. When they discover the TV channels are gone and the internet is out, a slow growing horror begins that something might be horribly wrong out in the world. I'm giving this five stars because the story is still judging me days later.

4 stars

This book is...fascinating. At the start, a family of four is heading off to vacation in the country. The house in which they are staying is remote not just physically but also technologically, and that sense of place is well developed from the jump. These characters are overtly human; there is a noteworthy focus on their smells, their oily hair, their [insert all other natural but popularly 'gross' things about bodies here], and the like. Having finished the book, I appreciate this setup even more now.

There are some incredible turns here, (notably, the return of significantly more likable characters - Ruth and G. H. - who assert that the vacation home is their actual home and want to return to it with the aforementioned vacationing family) but this isn't a showy work by any means. You won't find jump scares here or even hints at them. The creepy aspects of this work are insidious, and the highlight of this for me is the narrator - by far the most fascinating character - who knows WAY more than the characters and readers do and who has a clear and arresting personality. I LOVED this perspective.

While the subject matter is super different in many ways, there are also enough thematic similarities between this book and our actual circumstances right now to make this feel especially - even frighteningly - timely.

Folks who are looking for a traditional thriller or an easily solved mystery won't get that here; this is much richer and more challenging than the average read. I'll be thinking about this one for...a long time.

LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND tells the story of Brooklyn couple Amanda & Clay who are vacationing with their two kids at a luxurious but remote Air BnB in rural Long Island. Late one night, they answer a knock at the door to find an older African American couple claiming to be the owners of the home. The couple says that there has been mysterious blackout in New York City, & they ask if they can stay there for the night. ⁣⁣
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But are they really who they say they are? And what really happened back in New York? And why is the cable, phone service, & Internet suddenly out?⁣⁣
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This book is my favorite combo: gorgeous, literary writing with a propulsive plot. First, the writing is absolutely amazing. Top notch. So smart & sharp. And the story itself is a creepy, suspenseful take on one of my favorite genres: apocalyptic fiction. ⁣⁣
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It’s got shades of Station Eleven & The Age of Miracles with a little (go with me here) Fleishman Is In Trouble thrown in. Besides being a joy to read that I could not put down, it also made me think about many uncomfortable things like how I might handle a major disaster as a mother (would I be honest with my kids?), & even how deeply reliant we are on our phones & the internet, especially when we’re not in a familiar place.⁣⁣
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It’s an examination of race, parenthood, & the myriad ways that people respond to crisis. It’s spooky, beautifully written, & absolutely haunting. I especially loved how the author struck a perfect balance between keeping you as confused as the characters, but also adding in little nuggets of information that the characters didn’t know. ⁣⁣
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The ending won’t be for everyone, but I loved it. I read the last few pages three times to really soak it in. I’ve read a ton of okay & good books lately, but this was a great one. ⁣⁣
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I devoured this book in one day! It was a spectacular novel that is fitting in perfectly into the strange times we currently find ourselves. I loved the writing style and was drawn into the story from the very beginning! Just loved it!!!

"The old burned. The new grew. Clay kept driving. What else was he supposed to do?"

Leave the World Behind was like a strange soft fever dream of a book-- the world might be ending--no one is sure, but these two families are sheltering together and trying to remain civil. The author's writing style is really interesting...lots of descriptions and flowing prose for things that could easily be said Inna few sentences. Both families are equally bland and unlikable enough that I wasn't sure if I was supposed to feel a certain way about them. Yes, there's some racial tension and it was interesting to see how the moderately wealthy white family reacted when they found out they were vacationing in a wealthier Black family's home.

I enjoyed the story, but the plot was too lackadaisical for me. There's no real conclusion or explantation and I was left with so many more questions than answers. I suppose if you like open ended stuff this could work for you. It certainly was an interesting book to read during Covid-19 times.

One of my favorites of the year! I inhaled this book in 24 hours. It was suspenseful, funny, touching, scary, thought-provoking, and sad. It was (as has been said) the perfect book for our weird times. An insightful look at fate, the wonder of an everyday life, and the relentless worry of parenting. Highly recommend.

This book was totally bonks and I couldn't put it down. The writing was so smart and the story so big and so small at the same time. I loved it.

Page-turning, suspenseful this book captured my attention from the beginning. The book follows a family on vacation in the countryside. Their second night, a couple knocks on the door stating they own the home and would like to stay. A blackout has happened in the city. What follows is a series of unsettling events that leaves the reader questioning who to trust and what exactly in unfolding. This book was a creepy, slow burn-- in all the best ways.

Depending on just how twisted your mind is, Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind may just be the perfect or the most horrible book to read during this unending COVID social isolation. What begins as an isolated AirBnB getaway for a husband, wife, and their two teenage children quickly turns into an exercise in terror and helplessness as the owners of the house show up demanding to stay with them because there's some sort of unknown emergency happening in the city. The house has no wifi, cellphone, or television service so there is no way to know what's going on.
While the author's word choice was at times weird and weirdly sexual (multiple uses of the word tumescent and using the word pudendum to describe a young girl's body), and the marketing really played up the barely existent racial tension of the story, this book was expertly imbued with a constant tension that gripped me until the last page and that I think many will relate to right now.

This book is so spooky! It reminded me a little of Parasite, but set in the apocalypse. The writing is really beautiful and lyrical, and some passages have even a little bit of a whimsical quality to them, even though everything happening is absolute horrible. Seriously...something that happens to one of the characters is one of my absolute biggest nightmares. It starts off a little slow but then about halfway through it really ramps up and it's hard to put down. Other reviews have mentioned that it doesn't have much resolution, and this is true- I literally gasped out loud when I reached the end of my e-copy. I can't explain the feeling of swiping to the next page and seeing the acknowledgements when surely there has to be more! But I don't think that is a complaint, I actually thought it was a pretty strong choice. As a result, I went back and read the last two chapters and caught even more details and ended up liking it even more. One thing I think this book pulls off well is the narrator does not think highly of the white characters- like at all. I don't think one good thing is said about them the entire book, all of the descriptions and modifiers are negative, and the commentary never hesitates to reveal less than pure motivations on their behalf. I think sometimes that's hard for me to read, I prefer books that really love its characters, but I think again, this was a strong choice and made parts of the book work.

This book is really something. It is ominous, creepy, beautiful, suspenseful, totally dreamlike....everything at once and also something so singularly unique, like nothing that exists. There has been so, so much speculative apocalypse/climate disaster fiction coming out this year (it seems to be to 2020 what cults were to 2019) but Leave the World Behind really sets itself apart from the same tired narrative. At first I found the narrator a little pretentious - Alam peppers the text with a lot of obscure vocabulary words and allusions - but once I fell into the rhythm of the third-person omniscient voice I was totally enveloped in this story of a family vacation gone seriously dark and couldn’t stop turning the page.

Clay, Amanda, and their two children (white) are renting a house in rural Long Island when the owners of the house (elderly, wealthy, Black) show up in the middle of the night following a blackout in Manhattan. Something is happening; everyone comes to terms with this knowledge in different ways and at different times, but eventually they all accept that something horrible and irreversible is happening and they have to figure out their role in the context of the groups’ response to it. An emotional examination of the state of society, our relationships with technology, and our relationships with each other (both within and outside of family units), this book is a memorable and haunting cautionary tale. I think it will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Leave the World Behind in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a story of two families, one renting a home for a vacation and the second, the owners of the home. The owners return suddenly one night, asking to come in because there was a blackout in NYC and they're frightened to go to their apartment in the city. The story follows the internal thoughts of each character as well as what appear to be apocalyptic events taking place around them. The story was suspenseful and intriguing but I felt like the ending left me hanging.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read this digital ARC.

I loved the writing of this book and how real the characters felt. I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know how it would end for all of them. But the ending left way too much hanging for my taste. The world in the book has clearly changed in a horrific way, but we don't get many clear answers or a definitive ending. Some people may not mind that, but I like things a little more wrapped up than this book provided.