ARC - MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 11 days

Publisher - Bloomsbury

Blurb from Goodreads

A man-made plague has swept the earth, but a small group survives, along with the green-eyed Crakers – a gentle species bio-engineered to replace humans. Toby, onetime member of the Gods Gardeners and expert in mushrooms and bees, is still in love with street-smart Zeb, who has an interesting past. The Crakers’ reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is hallucinating; Amanda is in shock from a Painballer attack; and Ivory Bill yearns for the provocative Swift Fox, who is flirting with Zeb. Meanwhile, giant Pigoons and malevolent Painballers threaten to attack.

Told with wit, dizzying imagination, and dark humour, Booker Prize-winning Margaret Atwood’s unpredictable, chilling and hilarious MaddAddam takes us further into a challenging dystopian world and holds up a skewed mirror to our own possible future.


My Review

Before I put my thoughts I want to express that my issues with this book are a lot to do with not realizing it was part of a trilogy. I would strongly recommend to everyone they should go and read the first two before purchasing or attempting to read this one.

The book deals with the aftermath and current struggling of a small group of survivors after a man made plague has slammed earth. Along with the few survivors is "Crakers" a species created through bio-engeneering, gentle creatures to replace humans. The tale follows Toby, Snowman the Jimmy, Zeb and a few other characters throughout. As they try to survive and get on with "life" as best they can, along side the Crakers and avoiding the painballers who are hell bent on violence and destruction.

The book gives a four page catch up on the previous two books, this is no where near enough for someone who hasn't read anything of the previous story as this book is very much a follow up to them. The book is heavily focused on Toby and Zeb's relationship as well as throw backs to Zeb and his brother Adam's relationship. To be fair to the writer, when it was dealing with Toby and Zeb or going back to everything that happened with Zeb and Adam I could follow it and what was happening, it just seemed almost everything out with this I didn't understand what was going on.

Creatures and a lot of terms mentioned throughout the book I had no idea what they were, although pizzlies and grolars explanation was covered. Mo'Hair herds I assume are cow like creatures, Pigoons I think may have been huge pigs although I am not sure were they bio-engineered or a cross with pigs and something else? I think had there been an appendix with the unknown words and a brief explanation, at the front or back of the book, this would have made such a huge difference to my reading experience and understanding of the tale. Sadly I spent a huge amount of time confused reading the tale and not always sure what was going on or how it came to be. After 200+ pages I felt I understood a bit more of the hows and whys but it was hard going. I think if your a fan of the previous books you will get on well with this as it gives closure on the main characters and where their paths lie. I struggled with the tale, terms and what was going on most of the time although I did enjoy reading about Zeb and Adam so for that reason I am giving this book a 2/5. My thanks to Waterstones for introducing me to a new author and giving me an advance copy to review in exchange for an honest review. This book is available to buy now from all good retailers.

View all my reviews