I found a copy of this book at a Free Little Library and thought it sounded interesting. 

“The Measure” is a novel that follows several points of view as they all try to come to terms with the knowledge of how long their life will be. One morning, everyone over the age of 22 wakes up to find a box addressed to them with a length of string on the inside. Every string corresponds to the length of that person’s life. Now, with the knowledge of how long or short their life may be, everyone is left to decide how they want to live. 

This novel follows many points of view, and not all of them are connected to all of them. I really enjoyed and appreciated this because it gives the reader such diversity in experiences. Some of the characters have short strings and some have long, some do not want this to define them, while others do not want to know the length of their string. Everyone brings a different experience to the table and I think as a reader, seeing so many people react to this, really made the story feel more plausible. I think if something like this were to actually happen, people would react in the very same way. We would have people who would think short stringers are not worth as much because they might die. In the novel, one thing people pushed back on was that politicians with short strings should not be elected because they will not be able to serve their people well. I 100% think people would react much the same way. 

I think the idea of this book in general is interesting. Would knowing how long your life is going to last change how you choose to live it? Would knowing you have less time light a fire in you to live unapologetically? Would knowing you would live a long life bring you peace? I feel like part of what makes beautiful is that we do not know how much time we have, and I think knowing is such a double edged sword. Once you know, you cannot erase that knowledge. 

I found this novel to be extremely well-written. With so many points of view, it would be easy for the reader to not feel connected to certain characters, but I felt invested in everyone’s stories. The author really fleshed out all of the characters, and I felt drawn to everyone, almost, equally. Additionally, I felt like the messages behind this story were well said without being heavy-handed. My one critique is that I felt like some of the character’s stories were rushed at the end. 

I really enjoyed this thought-provoking work of fiction, and I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys analyzing human behavior. 

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Excellent plot, but not a fan of the execution. Read this one instead: Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty.

I cried multiple times in this book so I guess I’d say I cared about the characters. Or maybe I was just identifying with their feelings. In any case I enjoyed this book for the way it made me think about life, relationships and mortality but the

ending was so sad to me. I guess I wanted things to magically work out. I mean Amy dying too!?! 😫

But I guess that also was to impart a lesson, maybe the main lesson of the book - we don’t know what’s coming in life so live it with purpose. 

This book had me explaining the concept to everybody and asking the question "would you look at your string?" I love when books ask philosophical and existential questions and this did a lot of that. The actual system will never be explained, so don't read this if you're looking for a deep dive into the "why". However, you get to see a lot of the world's response as a whole, and it was a lot more governmental than I thought. I did have a bit of trouble connecting with the characters just because there were so many, but by the end I feel like I saw them as individuals who were all important to the story. This isn't a feel good story, but it's also not just straight depressing all the way through. I think it pretty accurately reflects human nature and how we may respond. I'll definitely be thinking about it for a long time.