Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

This was the first book on my A2 reading list. I remember questioning this as I read the first few pages. It was like a alternate reality book you'd read at middle school (primary school if you go to a normal system). I haven't read any of her other books but I don't think they're anything like this! The book sounds weird. It is weird. I know you're not meant to judge a book by its cover, which is good, because there wasn't much to judge. The front cover was only the title and a pig on the front. Ok...

At the start, it introduces a snowman who lives in a tree. When I first read this, I thought it meant an actual snowman but it's just a guy's name. Weird name. He gets his name from an online game and it's stuck. He lives on a beach with Crakers who bring him fish every week but they want answers from Snowman about his previous life.

The narrative switches between each main character who describes their lives before they get to meet each other.

Snowman, originally named Jimmy, lived near the labs his father worked at. His father creates new species like rakunks (a raccoon and a skunk) and pigoons (a pig and a baboon). They sound amazing! Unnatural combinations but sounds interesting. Once they're said a couple of times, you think of them as real animals. However these experiments split up Jimmy's parents which leads to Jimmy's mother running away.

Oryx is the one who Jimmy loves, after first seeing her in a porn movie (interesting first sight), he never believes they'll physically meet. Oryx was poor and promised a job by a man. She and many other children went but it turned out to be brutal and creating pornography. Oryx soon escapes and tries to teach people about the BlyssPluss pill.

Crake and Jimmy were originally great friends until different educations weakened their friendship. Crake is very clever and goes to the equivalent of science school whereas Jimmy is not clever enough and goes to a humanities faculty (nothing wrong with that).

The book is weird but I love it because nothing is ordinary. Each page you turn, something new happens that you could never have thought up. It's so unique and like nothing else. There's so many new ideas that are unlike anything other books.

Snowman, Jimmy, ends up on his own because Oryx's pill begins to cause disease which wipes out everyone. Will Snowman find anyone? Will he find the others? Will he have enough food to survive?

Hope you enjoyed this and I will get back to you on the next book I'll have read. Bye