bad things first: the ending was too vague for *me personally*, although i don't think it's unjustified; and, Bob's cult-leader-vibes were just an eensy bit too intense, especially in the earlier chapters

it's heavy on the symbolism and the imagery and the themes, and i love all of that stuff. the character voice in the narration is very, very strong, and i really enjoy the bouncing-around-the-timeline storytelling style in general. obviously the main draw of this book for a lot of people is how shockingly accurate it ended up being to the real-world covid-19 pandemic, and those elements are strong