The Measure begins with an interesting concept: One day, everyone over the age of 21 receives a box containing a string, its length indicating the length of your life. The book itself takes on many of the issues that have always plagued society—racism, discrimination, anti-LGBT, etc—and frames them in a new context. 

However, the story itself gets bogged down by too many perspectives and too many heavy handed attempts at the same message. We get it. Whether your string is long or short, you should live every day like it’s your last. Ultimately the story drags too long as Erlick tries to weave each narrator together.