The Measure by Nikki Erlick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this for book club (thanks Megan) and really liked it. I loved the characters and the way Erlick was able to intricately intermingle them all and bring it full circle in the end. I even cried some.

One day in 2019 the entire world wakes up to find that every human over the age of 22 has a box at their door with a cryptic message on the outside and a single string inside. The string inside represents the length of your life and can be figured to within a season. What ensues is a world wide debate about how the info should be handles. Some governments force the people to open their boxes and disclose string length, other countries discriminate against those with “short strings”. From this point forward, everyone who turns 21 on the planet receives a string.

As much as I liked the story, it received 3 stars because I feel that there should been more insight into where they came from. I have a hard time believing the human race would be so passive about something of this magnitude. I am sure Urlich was using the strings to represent something like the pandemic or racism in general or both, but even that was not clear.

I recommend this book for anyone just looking for a light read and who will not be upset and over think it. The lack of answers at the end will drive others crazy as it did me.

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