The way this book is written would make it a 5-star read, and how interconnected the seemingly disconnected short stories in chapters would make it a 4, but I would give it a 3 for how I did not manage to connect with the characters - so I give it an average rating of 4.

We start with the death of an actor on stage on the same night when a worldwide disease starts spreading that is highly contagious and kills fast. We are spending some time in the postapocalyptic world where people struggle without energy and technology, with too few survivors, and losing people to a false prophet - but we also spend some time in the past, where we get insights from our characters past, origins, motivations, and connections.

I enjoyed the stories overall, but it took quite some time to grasp some of the connections that make this story interesting, while some of the bits were also a bit uneventful and plain, while others quite interesting, in contrast.