I remember seeing this book in my fantasy book club, so I went for it without checking out what it was actually about. A post-apocalypse story? Yay, that was a pleasant surprise that soured pretty soon though.
Well... I love this subject - post-apocalyptic world trying to make ends meet, characters developing on a bleak background.
But it is hard for any writer to jump over Cormac McCarty with his The Road and Stephen King with The Stand. And Mrs Mandel didn’t do the trick, in my opinion.

What I didn’t like about the story:
- Too many secondary and tertiary characters that became one big mesh of names without any depth of personalty
- The only two interesting characters - Arthur and Miranda - didn’t even survive the flu
- Not enough bleakness, trash and desolation for my taste

But there are some good things too, otherwise I wouldn’t have finished the book: - I was amazed by the comic story part
- I liked Miranda and was very sorry when she didn’t make it
- I was curious to see how different people adjusted to the situation. A nice take on the collapse