Dog Star Review

Before you don't see the movie, read the book

On the literary post-apocalyptic novel bleak-o-meter, this lands somewhere between The Road and Station 11.

I added this to my libby based on some TikTok’ers list of sci-fi novels that looked good and didn’t realize it was post apocalyptic (and not sci-fi) until I saw the trailer for the movie version coming out. Then it popped up as available in Libby. I almost just returned it, thinking, “I am not in the mood for post apocalyptic right now. Given the trajectory of things, I’d prefer to just experience these things when they become real next year.”

But I ended up really enjoying the book. Not the bleak parts and they are there, but the narrator is pretty compelling and relatable. Hardly any plot to speak of (see “literary” above), but a breezy, accessible novel with a few bits of brilliant prose that stay with you.

The forthcoming film is directed by Ridley Scott, which you’d think would put it fairly high on my to-watch list, but I really don’t have high hopes for translating this to the screen and the trailer already betrays some sensationalized departures from the book, so we’ll see…