[An] intimate self-portrait ... A powerful meditation on destruction, loss and healing ... A beautiful novel about Southern California. The prose is swift and luminous, the dialogue is note-perfect, and the flashback descriptions of modern Los Angeles are beautifully written ... Very few postapocalyptic novels have the literary qualities of this one ... Yoon is willing to ask what 'the End of the World' really means — and provide the reader with a thoughtful, heartfelt answer.
Yoon manages to imbue...small activities with dramatic tension that works in two very different ways. First, there is the horror in recognizing looming existential threats: death ... Second, and rather unexpectedly, the sequences are sprinkled with gallows humor ... City of Orange is a fast-paced read, and Yoon’s ability to lighten the mood keeps it from becoming as dread-inducing as some end-of-the-world novels can be. While it does have a big twist some readers will see coming, the novel works in part because obfuscation of that twist isn’t the book’s main concern. That honor belongs to the eternal question, relevant to both the apocalypse and everyday life, of how we’re supposed to go on when living seems impossible in the face of all that has been lost.
City of Orange works as a character study, seesawing back and forth between fractured memory and a mysterious reality ... Yoon cultivates a slow burn, an approach that creates intimacy to the internal conflict of a man trying to untangle his past and survive at the same time ... By giving just enough vivid detail but keeping key elements ambiguous, a reader can easily morph into the main character and become a part of this world.
The book's twist on the familiar post-apocalyptic setup is that the main character can't remember anything ... The flashbacks, intended to make Adam's pre-apocalyptic existence relatable to readers, start to feel like less than the sum of their parts as the book goes on. By the second half of the novel, we're not learning much new information about Adam's family, only that Adam is still mourning ... Amidst the survivalist misery, City of Orange poses an interesting question about manmade climate catastrophes ... The narrative, however, doesn't answer this question ... he metaphysics of humanity's negligence of its responsibility for the planet's survival aren't addressed thematically or through the book's characters ... City of Orange could have used more inspired, surreal exchanges like that one to transcend the post-apocalyptic genre tropes that this novel mostly rehashes, rather than reinvents.
This book is annoying from the get-go—not a good thing to inflict on readers ... This reviewer dutifully kept turning pages so that prospective readers won’t have to or waste their money (get it from the library if you want to know how bad it is).
Slower paced than Version Zero, less light-hearted in its approach to story, this is a book that encourages readers to think deeply about how they might handle the situation of losing their moorings in a world suddenly alien. It’s an ambitious novel that takes some big risks, but they pay off dramatically in the end.
Yoon refuses to follow the typical script, taking readers on an often funny and always compelling journey through the mystery man's past, an alternative present and the uncertain future ... City of Orange also raises questions about time and money and the stuff humans accumulate, while sharpening the focus on what really matters: family, love and enduring friendships. Despite its dark premise, City of Orange insists on hope and continuity in the face of tragedy.
Atmospheric ... The story moves slowly, but Yoon finds the tension in the smallest of acts—like heating up a can of soup—and builds suspense by teasing out information about the world, forcing readers to question everything.
Yoon’s version of the apocalypse takes a much narrower focus than many in the genre, focusing on community, family, and loss through the narrator’s personal experience. The start may be a little slow going, but as the narrator begins to pick up the pieces of his memory, his own story becomes much more compelling and heartfelt than the end of the world could ever be ... Out of a ruined America, an earnest and affecting character study.
