This book caught me unaware. I didn’t know anything about it, and from a quick glance at the cover I thought it was going to be something light/happy (I dunno, the flowers?) but boy howdy I was wrong. The hints were there all along, the font is harsh, the literal string, but I went in knowing nothing. It was a selection of my library book club, and it was definitely an emotional roller coaster.
The premise is this, and I’m not giving away much because this is how it starts, ripping off the band-aid and putting the reader off kilter immediately. One day, every adult in the world receives a box with the wording “the measure of your life lies within.” Upon opening the box, a string is found, and the strings vary in size. No one knows where the boxes of come from, but their arrival turns the world on its head. What was once a mystery, the amount of time you have left on earth, is now a puzzle you can solve, if only you open your box.
This book follows several characters as they understand what their strings mean, and how their lives and decisions are now impacted in this new world. Though disparate at first, there are many connective threads (pun intended) with all the different characters and Erlick has written a tight novel that can seem a little too convenient at times, but I appreciate the choices she made and overall found it a thought provoking read. She doesn’t take any easy way outs, or conveniently tie up all the strings (pun again intended) so she has woven a story that feels very real, a “what if” this happened today, right now, to us. It was a very emotional read for me.
The question the reader is left with at the end, would YOU open your box? And what kind of difference would it make in your choices? I missed the book club meeting where they talked about it, but in the end, my answer is yes. The uncertainty, and being an outlier of a person who DIDN’T know would be too crushing, and I’d peek, and then have to deal with the consequences.
