Review: Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood

MaddAddam (MaddAddam Trilogy, #3)MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Listen up all you lovers of Divergent and The Hunger Games—read the The MaddAddam Trilogy: Oryx and Crake; The Year of the Flood; MaddAddam trilogy to understand why the master of all dystopian fiction (or as she calls it, “speculative fiction”) is Margaret Atwood.

In the first volume, Oryx and Crake, we are introduced to Crake and Jimmy, teenaged friends who follow different paths in life because of, you guessed it, one went to a much better college than another. Crake is a mad genius who unleashes a deadly virus on the world so he can repopulate the planet with his peaceful, loving Crakers. However, some human live and this sets up the rest of the series. This book is one of my favorites of all time.

The second installment, The Year of the Flood, tells a simultaneous story. I can’t describe it in detail now, because regrettably it has been a few years since I read it. Now the earthy, hippie-like Maddaddamites are introduced and a few more survivors are uncovered.

In MaddAddam, Jimmy is discovered by survivors of the Maddaddamites who attempt to nurse him back to health after an episode with the viscous Painballers. Zeb is the charismatic leader of the group and Toby is his consort, a middle aged healer. Together the group mounts an attack on the Painballers in cooperation with the Pigoons, pigs who are bred with human traits of intelligence (this world is filled with fascinating hybrids like Mo’ Hairs, goats who have tresses of flowing human hair). Their goal is to figure out a way to live and repopulate the world with human/Craker hybrids. SO MUCH FUN!!!

My only complaint about this series is that too many years have passed between installments and now I have to read them all again in order. Some people to whom I have recommended the books have found them too dark. Call me crazy but I often find humor in darkness, and I have found plenty of humor in this series.

You're lucky, you get the chance read them all in order quickly!!!


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