This was a total mind-bender of a book.

Set in a dystopian future in which much of the population has been wiped out by a plague of giant mutated bees and a flu-like disease they spread, the book follows several groups of survivors each of whom has their own way of manging this brutal new world.

So far, so much like other dystopia-set novels,

But threaded through the narrative about these groups and their decisions to hit the road and leave the places they have been sheltering are passages from an enigmatic character known as The Deliverer. The Deliverer has lived many lives and keeps them documented in a series of books that are referred to often as they try to piece the world back together.

When the groups meet and discover they each have similar purposes and stories about the past, the nature of time and mortality take on a whole new meaning.

I can't give away too much of the story without ruining the various twists and surprises this book throws up.  All I can say is that the story does not play out in an expected way.  A weird kind of mysticism or magic threads through the storyline, never moving it into the realm of fantasy, but just skirting the edges of it.

I love books that make me think and leave me scratching my head when I have finished reading, and this is one of those books.  It's odd and eerie and in this current pandemic climate, strangely prescient.  If you enjoy books that are unsettling and keep you thinking until the very last page, I would definitely recommend.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

When a deadly Fly Flu sweeps the globe, it leaves a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, on a voyage devised by Nico's father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, raised in an old abandoned cinema; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together. As swarms of infected Flies roam the earth, these few survivors navigate the woods of post-apocalyptic New England, meeting others along the way, each on their own quest to find life and love in a world gone dark. The Electric Kingdom is a sweeping exploration of art, storytelling, eternal life, and above all, a testament to the notion that even in an exterminated world, one person might find beauty in another.