Patricia Fels

I read an interview with Robert Harris in the London Times magazine and was delighted to find "The Second Sleep" in Locarno, Switzerland, even though I paid a premium price for it (23 francs). However, in the end I was disappointed. I already knew too much about the premise from the Times story, and the rest of the story was more explanatory than mysterious. The danger to the protagonist seemed manufactured and the end too convenient. "The Handmaid's Tale" and Emily St. John Mandel's "Station Eleven" both feature more compelling, carefully constructed dystopian worlds. And their plots take interesting turns that are absent in Harris's book. Finally, the protagonists of the latter two books are more complex and fascinating.