This book started off really strong but the middle was convoluted, dragged, and needed additional firming up as the plot was unclear. None of the characters were well developed and it mostly felt like the author ranting about things they did not fully understand. Should have been cut down 100+ pages.

Anthem by Noah Hawley is bizarrely entertaining and a think piece novel. Readers are provided a story that invokes an important commentary full of great character development and excellent pacing. While the prose is verbose and could have been edited more without diminishing the narrative; this novel remains important and an excellent piece of work.

If you, like me- are finding yourself disillusioned with the American dream and the myth of meritocracy, BUT also are holding onto hope because you would implode otherwise… I present to you a perfect book for all those feelings. This book horrified me & filled me with hope for the future.

This book functions on 2 levels- both as a dystopian about a near and very possible America, and as a love letter to the author’s faith in his daughter and those like her to build something better. He uses the breaking of the 4th wall (although, is that the right term for this medium? Someone set me straight otherwise!) adeptly & even if I hadn’t known that he works in tv/film, I think I could’ve inferred it from the pacing & imagery.

I’m still spinning out a little bit about it, but overall I thought it was an excellent.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book started out strong, and I thought I was really going to enjoy it even though it wasn’t my normal type of read. But, it ended up being mediocre. The story was interesting enough. Some of it seemed to be taken straight from our headlines. There were so many characters to keep track of. And then some of them had nicknames. Two main characters has similar names so I was always getting them confused. Some of it seemed to drag and go on longer than it had to.

I went into this book not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did but was pleasantly surprised by the way I connected with what was happening in the book. I was eagerly anticipating what would happen on the next page! Would recommend to fans of the genre!

This book was just not for me. Not right now. Maybe it all strikes too close to home or something…I’m not sure. I like to read to escape or at least find hope or connection. This book was just all the things that make me miserable about the world’s current state of affairs and then upped it even more with a suicide pandemic. Yes life sucks! It all sucks so bad. Let’s not wrap ourselves up in that misery even more.

While I enjoyed his first book, this one did not engage me as much. The plot seemed farfetched. But his writing is great.

A Dark disturbing novel so relevent to the time we are living. Global warming,a god like king , a Jeffrey Epstein character , a supreme court nominee. These are just some of the characters that makeup this addictive novel. Teenagers are commiting suicide by the thousands filled with anxiety by the world they are left to live in . Filled with fascinating characters that you feel yourself rooting for this tense thrilling novel is the ultimate page turner .

Anthem is fatalistically entertaining; depressing as hell but a solid read. Anthem also firmly establishes Noah Hawley as an author and not merely screenwriter/author; although Before The Fall was rather terrific, too. Hawley uses Anthem – hopefully – as a cathartic piece in order to make sense out of those four years of outright nonsense. Anthem deals with mass suicide, families trying to hold fast, over-medicated kids, the second civil war, and the prayer that humanity has for achieving peace in the near future. Heavy stuff indeed.

And did I mention? Anthem is good.

Anthem occurs in the extremely-near future, one as close as tomorrow. Young adults, teens, start dying in scores. This, of course, brings the nation to a state of emergency as scientists scramble for a cause and cure. A lot of people though? They are not believing it for a second. Thinking this is a hoax; a conspiracy. But the numbers are there, man.

Anthem, you see, is also about math. Or at least, a host of numbers. Hawley divides his narrative with these wonderful, although sometimes grim, asides that calculates population growth, subtracts loss of sea ice, adds vaccinations, and multiples net worth. Math, after all (and, you know, spoiler alert!), does not lie. One plus one always equals two. A .01% of 100 billion is the same calculation as .01% of 68k. This is not false news - a fact Hawley is screaming out.

And thank you for that, Noah.

Anthem is Noah Hawley’s The Stand where the mass suicide of the young is the new Captain Trips. Hawley’s Mother Abigail is the young Prophet who plans to rebuild society in a new utopia and fights back against a witch, the Wizard, trolls, Orcs, and the God King himself. Unlike The Stand, some of these evil sunuvabitches have real life, really-vile comparisons, making the situations even scarier. The book gets totally meta when one of the Prophet’s dark riders takes on the name of the Walking Dude himself, Randall Flagg.

In a world where hope, prayer, and belief seem inconsequential, Hawley reminds us that those tenets are real, believable, and necessary.

Anthem is dark, disturbing, and one incredible book.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is a really hard one to rate. I can see why the ‘starred’ reviews are all over the place. I think for me, it’s more of a “it’s not you it’s me” kind of rating. The writing had me initially hooked, and the first few chapters introducing a teen suicide pandemic, were really fantastic, giving me a bit of a dystopian ‘Euphoria’ vibe. But as the novel progressed, this genre-bending tale became too fantastical for me. And what is rare for me to say, just a bit too depressing. But I still appreciate the author’s skill and what he was trying to say. Obviously it’s dystopian, so maybe I’m at fault for needing a bit more hope, but I just couldn’t get past how dark and worrying this felt. Wrong time, wrong reader.

A worldwide unexplained rash of youth suicides, a Democratic President nominates a conservative jurist to the Supreme Court, a rash of statistics, stark reminders of climate change, a sudden nationwide spate of uprisings against the government, children breaking out of treatment centers led by other, heavily-armed children, an evil child-molesting billionare. I had quite a difficult time making a connection to all of these seemingly random things, I liked this author's previous work but didn't enjoy the plot of this one.

I began this book with great anticipation and finished with deep disappointment. Thank to the author, publisher and NetGalley

Oof, I knew going in this would be a difficult one to read and review, and it certainly was. The subject matter is dark, dark, dark. I agree with the reviewers who found this thought-provoking and an interesting socio-political commentary, but it was so depressing it became a bit of a slog for me. Not something I'd recommend be read mid-winter, but maybe a book I'd consider revisiting or recommending when I can take a walk outside to remind myself the future is not quite so bleak.

The writing is absolutely amazing. However, the subject matter is utterly soul-crushing. Also, I don’t appreciate the glib and condescending way mental illness and medications used to treat mental illness were portrayed. I am so tired of the stigma and this isn’t helping. Overall, I was miserable reading this book.

The post-Covid future has arrived.
“Anthem” by Noah Hawley is a cautionary tale that unfolds a short time in the future, just a few years after the COVID-19 plague swept the planet. Before every game, concert, gathering; before every great event there is the national anthem. It is only fitting that in this moment in history, one that defies comprehension, starts in this manor; a nine year-old girl named “Story” with a supportive family, a busy life, and a beautiful voice, sings “The Anthem”.
Hawley says so much in so few words, “The summer our children began to kill themselves was the hottest in history.”
The narrative unfolds in separate but connected present tense stories; some are “now,” and some are “before.” In additional passages, the narrator talks directly to readers, making observations and commenting on events. This tale is filled with average people, extra ordinary people, smart people, delusional people, bad people, and people who gather in the rain, arguing over whether or not they are getting wet. All are people readers know by different names.

The familiar world is replaced by something unrecognizable. The future that people dreaded has arrived, and America is having a nervous breakdown, teetering on the edge. Information and disinformation collide in a mashup of “A Clockwork Orange,” “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”(“Blade Runner”), and “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” God is mad; California is burning; the world has gone crazy, and there are clowns.

I received a review copy of “Anthem” from Noah Hawley and Grand Central Publishing.
The narrative poses this question: “How many grown-ups does it take to change a light bulb?” The answer is, of course, “None,” because they do not want to change; they like the “light” the way it is. Plan your time wisely; once you start reading “Anthem” you will not be able to put it down. Even after you turn the last page, it will remain with you. Now, all we have to do is change.

How to describe this novel? Depressing, scary, hopeful, sad, reflective, horrifying, frightening, thought provoking, too close to the reality in America today to be a comfortable read. The main characters were easy to root for and their trek through the story moved quickly. The author’s reflections on empathy were spot on. I guess I just don’t want our future to be like this.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Book Group for the ARC to read and review.

The absurdity of Vonnegut meets the dark fantasy of Stephen King's The Stand in this speculative tale filled with fantastical creatures that is decidedly not a fairy tale because it's too close to current reality.

In Noah Hawley's Anthem a new plague is spreading - teen suicide. Young people are systematically ending their lives in droves with only the symbol "A11" for explanation. The apocalypse has arrived in an eerily familiar world and it's up to one ragtag group of teens to save the world.

I'm not sure whether Hawley has contributed anything new to the "legitimate political discourse" as humanity hurtles full throttle into the End Times, but he has written an incredibly provoking and horrifically entertaining modern classic quest of good vs evil.

Pairs well with Don't Look Up.

This is more than just a "pandemic" book. It's incredibly thought provoking and such an important read. 5/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I finished reading this book (which I tabbed more than I have ever tabbed any other book that wasn’t used for college in my entire life), I messaged my best friend in a flurry of praise and said this: “A lot Vonnegut, a little Pahalnuik, some Gabriel Garcia Marquez, some cool 4th wall breaking from the author put to great use. It's magical realism + dark satire + scathing sociopolitical commentary.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the masterpiece that is Noah Hawley’s “Anthem”. I’m not even sure there is a manner in which I could describe what this book is, what this book means, how this book affected me, how much I want to shove it in people’s faces and beg them to read it. How I want to tell them, “This is a book about a group of teenagers, but I wouldn’t put it in the hands of teenagers unless they asked, because who really needs to read it are people over the age of 35. As a matter of fact, I think this should be required reading for anyone old enough to run for President”.

“Anthem” is a scathing indictment of the adults of America. And it’s a very virulent entreaty for the readers of this book to listen to it and to take it seriously, even if its wit and whip-sharp humor come on a barbed tongue. Everything about this book is quintessentially American, but it’s been turned dark and cheap like America has been turned dark and cheap in the eyes of the book’s main characters. To this book’s main characters, the adults of America are the problem, and the youth are the solution. It’s an opinion I happen to share in real life, but in this book there is the open civil war between the right and the left (or, as Hawley puts it, the party of truth versus the party of truth), and the much more subversive civil war, which is the old against the young.

The youth is wasted on the young? Don’t tell Noah Hawley that.

This book is not a happy book. This book is tragic. This book is dark. This book is terrifying in some ways and exultant in others. This book is as profound as it is humble. I’ve never read anything like it before and I don’t know if I will again.

But I know I will never be able to read it again for the first time… I will never be able to recapture that feeling. And that feeling of reading a perfect book is something all readers long for. I cannot recommend this book enough.