Under the Blue

I've been lucky enough to read an early copy of this beautiful book. It was a place to escape to (ironic, given the subject matter!) and has stayed with me over subsequent days, like a searing light around the edges of the everyday.

I (and probably a lot of other people) have been avoiding pandemic-adjacent literature for at least a year now, resulting in many books on my TBR being left unread on my shelves. However, when I picked this up I (for some foolhardy reason) thought I could handle it. I absolutely could not, and that makes being objective about Under the Blue very tricky. I absolutely raced through it, partially motivated by not wanting it to be what I read before bed two nights running. I found the factual "Afterword" to be really chilling.
I loved the contrast between the two central POVs, very rarely feeling annoyed by moving between the two narrative threads.
Like Station Eleven, there's a lot of consideration of the act of living here - both in the midst of catastrophic world-changing events and in "normal times". However, there's also some really interesting thought around morality and ethics, and some evaluation of humankind's role within the universe.
I gave 4 stars rather than 5, as I think outside of the context of the current climate, without the "coincidences" discussed in the Afterword, I wouldn't have been as subjectively bowled over by this as I was.
Nonetheless, we are living in the current climate regardless, and I found Under the Blue to be utterly gripping. I can foresee myself returning to it and thinking about it more in the weeks to come.

Under The Blue - Oana Aristide

𝑨 𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒑 𝒃𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒃𝒍𝒖𝒆 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒖𝒏: 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕-𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆. 𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅?

𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝑨𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎. 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂, 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝒆𝒓𝒂 𝒃𝒚 𝒆𝒓𝒂, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆. 𝑨𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚'𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕 - 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 - 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒖𝒊𝒕.

Ever wondered what you would do in a global pandemic that was rapidly wiping out humanity?
I used to wonder what I would do if a tidal wave hit when I was small, I had all sorts of scenarios in my head about surviving..well obviously I would survive!
This book is a humdinger to read during an actual global pandemic during lockdown and does make you feel really quite edgy, especially when you go out for a walk and see no one and the roads are empty.
This is an apocalyptic road trip in essence following Harry, an older man and artist, Ash his young neighbour and Jessie her sister, a doctor as they travel to escape the ticking time bomb of nuclear meltdown in Europe once everything breaks down in the wake of a catastrophic pandemic; I for one did not know this would happen...note to self, escape to Africa at all costs
You can feel and smell the raw destruction described, the smell of death, a bloated cow, what a disease can do to the body and the heat, the relentless heat.
The story moves between this and another strand in the Arctic of a couple working on an AI programme who will be able to predict future pandemics etc and their outcomes.

I love the characters of the road trip thread they feel real and I felt more absorbed into their story, I was less engaged by the AI story in the Arctic, it felt less relevant to me but the threads drew together at the end to explain some aspects of the story more fully and then made more sense to me.
It is a very timely, thought provoking novel encompassing climate change, humanities effect on the planet and that it really doesn’t need us as much as we think.