„Die Verlassenen“ von Tom Perrotta hat mich thematisch wirklich angesprochen: die Vorstellung, dass plötzlich ein Teil der Menschheit verschwindet, ist unheimlich faszinierend. Die Atmosphäre ist dicht, stellenweise melancholisch und lädt zum Nachdenken ein. Ich fand es spannend, wie unterschiedlich die Menschen mit diesem Ausnahmezustand umgehen und welche psychologischen Folgen das Ereignis für sie hat. Allerdings war mir die Erzählweise oft zu episodenhaft. Es gibt keinen wirklichen Konflikt oder ein Ziel, auf das die Geschichte hinarbeitet, sondern eher ein lose verbundenes Panorama verschiedener Schicksale. Für mich fehlte ein wenig die emotionale Wucht oder ein Moment, der die Handlung auf eine höhere Ebene hebt. Auch der Einstieg und das Ende wirkten recht abrupt, fast so, als würde man zufällig mitten in eine Geschichte hineinspringen und sie dann irgendwann einfach wieder verlassen. Insgesamt ein Buch, das interessante Fragen aufwirft, mich aber emotional nicht so stark berührt hat wie andere Geschichten. Für Leser*innen, die atmosphärische Gesellschaftsstudien mögen, bestimmt ein gelungenes Werk – mir persönlich fehlte ein wenig Tiefe und Zielgerichtetheit.

2.7 stars This isn't a book for impatient readers. And even patient ones might be hard put to it. This also isn't the book companion to the HBO series made from it. I didn't watch it myself but compared notes with a colleague after I'd finished reading. And it turns out they took the basic premise and some elements, and then mixed, edited, rewrote and added to the rest to make a decent TV show from it. They seem to be good that way (see also ASoIaF vs. "A Game of Thrones"). This book basically is a lengthy story of different people dealing with different kinds of (unexpected) loss in a smallish town in somewhere, USA. Some turn to "shallow enjoyments" to numb their pain, others to fanatism of the "sectish"/religious kind, some to complete seclusion. And they do that lengthily and expansively to quench any feeling of sympathy you might have had for the protagonists. Still, I trudged on because I had the feeling that at some point after this long build up there had to be an amazing plot coming. And after merely 390 pages, there it was. Kind of. Sort of. The book ends with a homicide mission to pretend there was a serial killer that becomes a suicide, a cult-leader's baby from a teenage mum getting dropped at someone's front porch to be adopted by a grieving mother in dire need of therapy and her ex-boyfriend who was dumped by his wife for a sect of smoking mutes, and the teenage daughter of said ex-boyfriend hanging out with the local pothead twins instead of joining her mum's sect. Which makes this almost a happy ending in a very screwed-up way for some characters - I guess. What started it all in the first place, the disappearance of a huge part of the population, isn't really a point for anyone anymore, it seems. What is the author's core message here? I've no idea; and I'm not sure he had either. So why did it still get 2.7 stars? I liked the premise and the general idea about showing what a random bunch of people disappearing in the blink of an eye does to individuals and a society. Some parts were quite amusing and some observations about humans and society were rather clever. And the last 50 or so pages were one quick, though weird run.