I honestly can’t make up my mind if the Covid-19-ness of this novel holds it back or gives it a hook. Reunion, after all, offers an engaging story ... Even as I tried to extend the same generosity that the story grants its characters, I found myself nitpicking their behavior in a way I associate with social media, not novels. Could this be a side effect of Reunion being so true to life, set in a world with not only the same pandemic we experienced, but also the same algorithmic feeds we scrolled? ... I’m not sure how much power Covid holds as a source of narrative tension in 2024. Perhaps as novelists we need a few more years before we’re able to reflect, invent and make that period our own.
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