Books: The Measure

One of fiction's oldest tropes is arcane foreknowledge of the time of a person's death - from Julius Caesar and the Ides of March, all the way to Justin Timberlake in In Time. Nikki Erlick's novel, The Measure, takes this idea to its logical extreme: in the book, everyone on Earth magically receives an indestructible piece of string that indicates when they are going to die with perfect accuracy, down to the month and year.

I read The Measure for my book club (the cover quote literally says it's "perfect for book clubs") and I liked it okay. The novel is relatively short yet has an ensemble cast of eight characters, so they all feel like sketches rather than fully realized people. 

On the plus side, the story moves briskly and Erlick does a decent job of imagining the societal effects if everyone knew "the measure" of their lives.  Some people with "short strings" become hedonistic travelers, others become depressed, and a tiny minority become violent, which is all woven through the plot.  It's a relatively thought-provoking, breezy read that is...perfect for book clubs.