About the Book
Seven courses, seven guests, twenty-four hours that will obliterate everything.
When recent NYC-transplant Liz Brinkley and her husband are invited to an exclusive soiree by their neighbor, “lifestyle guru” Britta Harris-Che, Liz’s immediate thought is hell no. Britta is insufferable, and Liz is wary to leave her young children with a barely-teenage babysitter. And yet she RSVPs anyway, trying to extend an olive branch to her withdrawing husband, who seems desperate to get in with the cliquey elite.
They’ve barely made it through their first round of champagne when a “red alert” comes through their phones, and every channel on the television tells the same story: strange atmospheric masses, reported to look like “glimmering clouds,” have been spreading through major U.S. cities and killing anyone they touch. Authorities have just one clear directive: Find shelter. Immediately.
A collective panic seizes the dinner party; all the guests have children at home. In the mad dash to their cars, they see it: a shimmering net floating over the town. The street is littered with wrecked cars and dead bodies. Leaving now is not an option. Instead, the group launches into survival mode, grabbing supplies to take shelter in the hosts’ wine cellar. But everyone has very different opinions about the best plan from there.
Liz becomes increasingly willing to do anything it takes to get back to her children. As the glimmering clouds continue to kill anyone who steps outside, the tensions and suspicions among the party guests near a boiling point. But she begins to realize that there may be others in that cellar even more desperate than she is.
My Review
The drama really kicks in right away, taking us to a terrifying night that unfortunately in today’s world, didn’t actually seem all that far-fetched. When a disjointed group of adults gather at the demand of lifestyle guru Britta Harris-Che, tensions are already high. Britta’s picture-perfect marriage is on the outs, Liz is upset to be without her children and around women she doesn’t particularly like, the men are acting off with each other and then a red alert goes off. No one knows what to make of the warning they are receiving: “glimmering clouds” are spreading through US cities and beyond, killing everyone in its path. The orders are to stay inside and take shelter immediately. The adults panic and try to get home – only to indeed see a terrible scene outside: glimmering clouds, dead bodies, and absolute chaos in their wake. They have no choice but to stick together and try to survive one of the most surreal nights in history.
I was worried I wouldn’t be able to follow the storyline because what is “glimmering clouds” supposed to mean, but after living through a pandemic and being terrified of mail and hugs, I guess not much can surprise me anymore. I thought the author did a great job of expressing how terrified the characters were of something unknown and essentially unexplainable, and how that can cause you to act out of character. I actually felt breathless in a few moments, wondering what would happen to everyone as I turned each page and felt the panic for them. To be separated from your kids during something like that had to have been a gut punch for Liz, and watching friends (or frenemies) turn on each other and become suspicious of every little move was sad but not shocking. When you are in those situations, I imagine it truly gives you fend for yourself mentality.
While I really enjoyed the majority of the book, something about the ending let me down just slightly. The entire book is that one night, told from the perspective of multiple characters. At the end, it shifts to the future and the aftermath of what happened, and it felt quite jarring and sudden. There really wasn’t any explanation for what the glimmering clouds were, but I also don’t know if that’s on the author to create an ending for something as (hopefully) fictional and out there as what was described in the book. Maybe it’s best to let our own imaginations fill in the blanks. But there was still something that felt lacking when I turned the final page. I didn’t get a ah-ha moment like I would have liked to but I still thought it was a very interesting read and one that I would recommend.
4 stars
