I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Measure by Nikki ErlickPublished by The Borough Press on July 5, 2022
ISBN: 9780008491536
Genres: Fiction, General, Dystopian, Literary, Thrillers, Suspense, Friendship, Romance, Contemporary
Pages: 349
Format: Hardcover
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Goodreads
‘GRIPPING AND POIGNANT’ RUTH HOGAN, bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things
‘CLEVER AND ENTERTAINING’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
‘A THOUGHT-PROVOKING READ’ PRIMA
Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.
It seems like just another morning.
You make a cup of tea. Check the news. Open the front door.
On your doorstep is a box.
Inside the box is the exact number of years you have left to live.
The same box appears on every doorstep across the world.
Do you open yours?
THE MEASURE
IT’S THE DECISION OF A LIFETIME.
‘EXAMINES THE BIG LIFE AND DEATH QUESTIONS IN A CLEVER AND, DARE WE SAY IT, ENTERTAINING WAY’ WOMAN & HOME
‘ONE OF THE MOST LIFE-AFFIRMING NOVELS I’VE READ IN A LONG WHILE’ CHRISTINA DALCHER, bestselling author of Vox
‘DESPITE ITS CHILLING PREMISE, ERLICK’S NOVEL IS AN ESCAPE FROM — RATHER THAN A WINDOW INTO — OUR OWN TERRIFYING REALITY’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘COMPELLING AND HEART-BREAKING’ Bridget Collins, bestselling author of The Binding
'A SHARP LENS FOR REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS' DAILY MAIL
‘A HEARTFELT PARABLE FOR OUR OWN UNPRECEDENTED TIMES’ Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of One Two Three
‘BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED AND HUGELY IMAGINATIVE’ Claire North
‘BRILLIANT – I COULDN’T STOP READING’ Christina Sweeney-Baird
‘UTTERLY ORIGINAL AND WONDERFULLY MYSTERIOUS’ Jessica Anya Blau, author of Mary Jane
‘A HUGELY COMPELLING STORY, WHICH DREW ME IN FROM THE VERY FIRST PAGE’ Freya Sampson, author of The Last Chance Library
‘AN IRRESISTIBLE HOOK AND A STRONG EMOTIONAL HEART’ Luke Allnutt, author of We Own the Sky
The Measure is a colourful epic. A sharp, smart outlook on the depravity of society. A propulsive plot with hidden undercurrents. An author that has her pulse on the future of dystopia fiction.
The Measure is going to make you cry! It came out of the left-field for me. One minute I’m reading and the next I’m imagining their positions. My husband, my children, me…what would I do if I was faced with the same fate? Life would of course change, but I would change everything too – my lifestyle, my way of thinking, I’d want to take advantage of every day, every moment, the little stuff would feel like a shooting star…committing its stardust to memory, a piece of history.
Told through multiple perspectives we get to see how other people come to terms with the mystery box that arrives on everyone’s doorstep above the age of twenty-one. Inside contains a piece of string, everyone having differing lengths depending on how much life they have left to live. Each character is different. They are a partner, a daughter, a son, a brother, a sister, a colleague, a mother, a father, the list goes on. They are defined by many things, but will they come to be defined by the length of their string alongside the feats they have achieved.
As more information is released about the contents of the box, it becomes apparent that people are struggling with the magnitude of what it means. It means the end of life for some, destroyed marriages, and relationships. Is it all the better to not know how long we have left? I really do think ignorance is bliss.
I enjoyed the road this story took me on. So many forks in the road, take the wrong one and I would be left floundering for recognition. Is it supernatural or some higher power at work? I thought it was brilliant how Nikki Erlick examined the deep-seated religious beliefs in human nature and sprung doubt and FEAR in the most religious of beings.
The Measure makes you think about How and Why. Will this narrative allow everyone to come back to a point when we didn’t know what was to come? How could it be reconciled? Many of the voices didn’t know each other, they had much in common… nothing but pieces of string, and yet I knew it all had meaning.
My assumption of what The Measure was really all about was wrong. This is not a story to be taken at face value. The author directs you one way but distracts you with a large Boom, and another road appears from nowhere. The story takes a dark turn, a dark pool that drags you below the surface.
This is a story that is unforgettable.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nikki Erlick’s writing has appeared on the websites of New York Magazine, Harper’s
Bazaar, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan and The Huffington Post. She graduated Harvard University summa
cum laude and is a former editor of The Harvard Crimson. She earned a master’s degree in Global
Thought from Columbia University. The Measure is her debut novel. @nikkierlick @BoroughPress
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