4.5 
 To me, this book was utterly wonderful. It's become really hard to describe or even to pin-point what sort of reader would enjoy this novel. I think we can start, first off, by setting some realistic expectations. This novel is labeled as an Adult Sci-Fi Dystopian. This is an adult book but it is neither science fiction nor is it dystopian. Essentially this book posses the reader a question: what would happen if modern civilization simply collapsed and only about 1% of the population remained. There are no zombies, no crazy lunatic dystopian governments, no electricity, no cars, we simply reverted to a regressed way of life lacking in centralized government or any government of any kind. Just scattered people living in the skeleton of a once great civilization. 
 What makes this book different is that is jumps between years before the collapse and then 20 years after so that you have generations in limbo who carry memory and articles of our life now mixed in with people that were children when the collapse happened and only have vague recollections of that life but live with the oral history of those who were older. 
 The characters and POVs are various but they are all connected to one person - Arthur who dies on Day One of the collapse, it's the beginning. Arthur is an aging Hollywood actor who dies on stage while performing a play in Toronto. The story then branches out to all of these people who came in contact with Arthur one way or another and how everything intertwines together. It's a story of survival, of humanity, of human ingenuity but most important it's a story of reflection of our modern era. It has a wonderful message of hope and rebuilding and how humans need each other to live and survive. 
 This is not a fast-paced action book, it took me 4 days to complete which is longer than normal but I enjoyed taking my time with it because I felt that it was meant as a book to reflect on. Now, I can see how many people did not enjoy this because like many reflective books you have to be in the mood for it but I was and therefore it garnered a 4.5 rating out of me. Not high enough to be a favorite but who knows, if it sticks with me I might up it. I will definitely be rereading this in the future to catch all the bits in the beginning that I didn't realize were connected until the end.