Welcome to Litsy!

I have not even read the first page yet, and already I want to ride on this train.

I‘m in the minority with this one. I enjoyed the beginning and getting to know the characters. Then it went a bit Life of Pi and I got slightly bored. I loved the idea of the train and the claustrophobic atmosphere. I liked Weiwei, she was a resilient little character and the ‘crows‘ were creepy. It‘s well written and described. However, I‘m not sure what to make of the ending. It was a bit anti-climatic for me. 3⭐️

A library book. I picked this one up as I thought it sounded a little different.

The TransSib but different. Between Beijing and Moscow the TransSib rail goes through a Wasteland of miracles. These miracles could harm the passengers that's why the train is impenetrable and doesn't stop. But this time the mix of First and Third Class passengers is different, and the train is said to no longer be safe. Secrets unravel on the 23 day journey that might change the passengers' lives for ever if they make it to Moscow at all.

Read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Katie Leung. Sold!!

I guess I'm getting the audiobook to listen to while reading.

The Orient Express meets Annihilation in this great novel about a train traveling though are area that has experienced strange and uncanny changes, and may even be changing the train and passengers who travel through it. The workers and passengers all have different motivations for being there, but one things remains the same for them all: by the time they reach their destination, they'll never be the same.

Take the magnificent train of Murder on the Orient Express, put the menacingly otherworldly landscape of Annihilation right outside the cabin windows, and you‘ll get a sense of this remarkable debut novel. I highly recommend braving a journey through the Wastelands aboard the Great Trans-Siberian Express—you‘ll discover mysterious stowaways, first class liars, a dangerous friendship with a world we have changed and which now seeks to change us…

4/5

Between Beijing and Moscow, there is a wasteland full of rapidly mutating flora and fauna that is as strange as it is terrifying. And there is a train that is the only way to safely traverse the wasteland without becoming infected by it. The story follows Weiwei, Marya, and Henry as they uncover the secrets of the train and wasteland.

I thought it was a wonderful book about how we can both change and be changed by the world around us.

📖 ebook: Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas
📗 non-fiction: The Fifth Trimester by Lauren Smith Brody
🎧 audiobook: The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain