Station Eleven: Captivating, yet Cringeworthy

Station Eleven: Captivating, yet Cringeworthy

Station Eleven is Emily St. John Mandel’s fourth and most successful novel that takes place in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world. The title Station Eleven is from a comic book in the story that plays a major role within the plot and eventually ties parts of the novel together. The setting of the book jumps around many times throughout the story. Many scenes that take place before the alleged apocalypse are mixed between scenes that happen after said apocalypse. Station Eleven eventually reveals the connection between the two settings to form an unexpected plot twist that plays an eye-opening role towards the end of the story. Although, the book shined in many aspects, it ultimately fell short of impressing the reader, resulting in an underwhelming finish to the story. Overall, Station Eleven was captivating, predictable and underwhelming because of the lack of character development, and the rushed “out-of-nowhere” ending scene.

Station Eleven is about a worldwide flu pandemic that kills off the majority of the population within a couple of months. It is centered around two main characters, Arthur Leander, a well-known actor and celebrity who lived before the apocalypse, and Kirsten Raymonde, a survivor of the apocalypse affiliated with a wandering group known as the Traveling Symphony. The book also takes the perspective of many other characters, although none of them play as big a role as Arthur or Kirsten. Kirsten’s story involves a conflict with a religious tribe led by a violent prophet who is revealed to be Tyler Leander, Arthur’s son who was born before the pandemic. The book also features constant flashbacks to Arthur Leander’s relationship with his ex-wives, and to Journalist Jeevan Chaudhary’s experience with the pandemic.

By constantly jumping back and forth to different time periods, Mandel creates a unique format for the novel, but fails to develop certain parts of the story. The conflict between Kirsten and the prophet was short-lived, and the climax was never particularly climactic. The climax (confrontation between the prophet and Kirsten) lasted a total of just four pages, which was extremely short since the entire novel was building up to the scene. The main antagonist, Tyler, was also so underdeveloped that the reader had no particular reason in disliking him. Mandel was putting too much focus into connecting the two settings in the story that she didn’t spend enough time developing it fully. Dieter, one of Kirsten’s close friends in the Symphony, was another example. Halfway through the story, he was killed by the prophet and his company; however, the reader didn’t know much about Dieter up to this point, so it felt absurd when Mandel paid so much attention to his death.

Along with this, Mandel added small hints towards the prophet’s identity which would help reveal the overall connection between the two worlds. Her intention was to help set everything up for the final reveal, but it only made the book much more predictable. The passage (page 59) that described the prophet’s appearance and speech revealed much more for the reader than it should have. The diction that was used in the prophet's speech along with his particularly formal voice reminded the reader of his father Arthur. Kirsten's description to his appearance along with the name of the prophet’s dog (which had the same name as one of the dogs affiliated with Arthur) couldn't make it any more obvious. Mandel ultimately spoiled the climax for the reader before they could even get to it.

Despite the troubles within the story, Mandel was also able to incorporate a well-done writing style, that helped the reader connect with certain characters. For example, during Miranda’s (one of Arthur’s ex-wives) death scene (Pg 227-228), the author added a change in sentence length, diction and voice. Short sentences were used in the last of Miranda’s moments, which helped convey how weary she was. The diction that Mandel chose during this scene also stood out within the story. It was very descriptive of Miranda’s location which gave the reader a good idea of what was happening. Along with this, Miranda’s  voice was very calm during this point in the story, which made the reader think that she had accepted her fate. This shows that Mandel paid a lot of attention to her writing style and structure, which was definitely an important aspect of the book.

Overall, Station Eleven was a unique and original book that created a captivating scenario through an apocalypse. The sections of the book were very elaborate and well-written but the ending turned out to be both underwhelming and predictable. Emily St. John Mandel focused too much on incorporating a plot twist to her novel, and ultimately fell short on many other aspects of the book.