I was totally engrossed by this book, and had a couple of very late nights reading it on my kindle in bed!
The opening is similar to 28 days later (or indeed, The Day of The Triffids) in that the main character, Neffy, is one of the few survivors of a terrible pandemic. She had been a subject in a trial for a vaccine against the new virus and had been given the vaccine and the virus in an isolated room in the facility. After a week of being very unwell, she comes through and the whole world has changed. Along with the four other remaining/surviving members of the study she is trapped with dwindling food and water, afraid to go outside and with no internet or phone signals.
Much of the book is exploring Neffy’s backstory through the dual devices of letters she writes to an octopus she used to care for in her role as a marine biologist, and a machine created by one of the other survivors which (in the few people for whom it works) allows you to relive memories is a very vivid virtual reality type way.
There are themes of captivity and freedom and moral dilemmas from the ethics of studying octopuses in captivity, to donating an organ to save a family member, to sacrificing one person to save many etc.
I found the book deeply moving and thought provoking. The ending was a little abrupt, and I needed to unpack it, and look online at what other people thought before I could let the book go and move on, but I think ultimately the ending was optimistic, if vague enough to need your imagination to fill in the details.
Sarah Wray Writer 