“There’s the story, then there’s the real story, then there’s the story of how the story came to be told. Then there’s what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too.”

I was a little nervous to start MaddAddam, because while I quite like the first book of the series, Oryx and Crake, I didn’t love the second, Year of the Flood. So I was worried about how things would wrap up. Luckily, MaddAddam was fantastic — probably the best of the three.

“The people in the chaos cannot learn. They cannot understand what they are doing to the sea and the sky and the plants and the animals. They cannot understand that they are killing them, and that they will end by killing themselves. And there are so many of them, and each one of them is doing part of the killing, whether they know it or not.

MaddAddam begins with a recap of the series so far, which I was grateful for since it’s been almost two years since I finished Year of the Flood. However, if you’ve never read the first two, you won’t want to start here. The story so far is just too bizarre. After the recap, we launch into the final scene of Year of the Flood — Toby and her friends are attempting to save Amanda from the Painballers, while Jimmy-the-Snowman raves in the background and the Crakers do their thing (see? nonsense if you haven’t read them). This book focuses on Toby and Zeb, and their small group, as they try to survive with the looming threat of the Painballers in the background. It’s also about the Crakers, learning to live among “real” humans (and vice versa). I think the Crakers are what made the book for me — especially a young one named Blackbeard. They’re just so fucking likable in their naive childish way. We also get to learn more about Zeb’s journey, as well as his relationship with Adam. It ties the whole series together, and made me want to reread the first two again.