The Three: A Novel by Sarah Lotz

Four plane crashes. Four continents. Three survivors.

The survivors are children and they are acting peculiar.  Conspiracy theories run amok and religious fanatics quickly come to the conclusion that these three children are harbors of the apocalypse. Pervasive rumors suggest that a fourth survivor exists.

Lotz writes in a documentary style using excerpts from the interviews of various characters, giving the book a case study feel, almost sociological. Very, similar to Max Brooks, World War Z.

The book starts of in a spectacular fashion. It follows the plane crash of, Pam Donald who leaves behind a very cryptic message, which is the start of the four horse men of the apocalypse theory. This plane crash is the MOST interesting part of the entire novel....it all goes downhill from there. That's not to say there aren't interesting passages because there are, it's  just that, the story never reaches the height of the first chapter.

There is no actual resolution, no answer, no definitive explanation. It is left to the reader to determine the outcome, which is just wrong.

This book is a challenge...in that for the first time in years, I had to look up the definition of words and learned about very interesting places in the world. I didn't know what necklacing was, or what sushi-mitsus' were. Sushi- Mitsu are, Japanese ghosts and necklacing is a pretty f-ed up way to kill someone.

Then there's yuki-onna, hikikomori, obfuscation, prurience and capgras syndrome. Look them up...because they are very, very interesting and don't get distracted by Aokigahara, or the Suicide Forest or Sea of trees like I did. I was much more distracted and intrigued by small details in the story, rather than the story itself. 

If you don't get bogged down with small details and researching the unknowns like I did, you might enjoy this book more because you won't realize how much more interesting, Aokigahar and capgras syndrome is then the entire story. With that being said...know that this book had so much promise but it veered off course and falls flat. 

Grade: C