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Vigil
Not yet published
Expected 27 Jan 26A wise, playful, electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO, in the twilight hours of his life, as he is ferried from this world into the next.
Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.
She has performed this sacred duty three hundred and forty-three times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the The powerful K.J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?
Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of an epic, complicated life. Crowds of people and animals—worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead—arrive, clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room, a black calf grazes on the loveseat, a man from a distant drought-ravaged village materializes, two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s post-death future.
With the acuity and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.
Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.
She has performed this sacred duty three hundred and forty-three times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the The powerful K.J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?
Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of an epic, complicated life. Crowds of people and animals—worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead—arrive, clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room, a black calf grazes on the loveseat, a man from a distant drought-ravaged village materializes, two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s post-death future.
With the acuity and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication January 27, 2026
22870 people want to read
About the author
George Saunders
102 books10.3k followersGeorge Saunders was born December 2, 1958 and raised on the south side of Chicago. In 1981 he received a B.S. in Geophysical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He worked at Radian International, an environmental engineering firm in Rochester, NY as a technical writer and geophysical engineer from 1989 to 1996. He has also worked in Sumatra on an oil exploration geophysics crew, as a doorman in Beverly Hills, a roofer in Chicago, a convenience store clerk, a guitarist in a Texas country-and-western band, and a knuckle-puller in a West Texas slaughterhouse.
After reading in People magazine about the Master's program at Syracuse University, he applied. Mr. Saunders received an MA with an emphasis in creative writing in 1988. His thesis advisor was Doug Unger.
He has been an Assistant Professor, Syracuse University Creative Writing Program since 1997. He has also been a Visiting Writer at Vermont Studio Center, University of Georgia MayMester Program, University of Denver, University of Texas at Austin, St. Petersburg Literary Seminar (St. Petersburg, Russia, Summer 2000), Brown University, Dickinson College, Hobart & William Smith Colleges.
He conducted a Guest Workshop at the Eastman School of Music, Fall 1995, and was an Adjunct Professor at Saint John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, 1990-1995; and Adjunct Professor at Siena College, Loudonville, New York in Fall 1989.
He is married and has two children.
His favorite charity is a project to educate Tibetan refugee children in Nepal. Information on this can be found at http://www.tibetan-buddhist.org/index...
After reading in People magazine about the Master's program at Syracuse University, he applied. Mr. Saunders received an MA with an emphasis in creative writing in 1988. His thesis advisor was Doug Unger.
He has been an Assistant Professor, Syracuse University Creative Writing Program since 1997. He has also been a Visiting Writer at Vermont Studio Center, University of Georgia MayMester Program, University of Denver, University of Texas at Austin, St. Petersburg Literary Seminar (St. Petersburg, Russia, Summer 2000), Brown University, Dickinson College, Hobart & William Smith Colleges.
He conducted a Guest Workshop at the Eastman School of Music, Fall 1995, and was an Adjunct Professor at Saint John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, 1990-1995; and Adjunct Professor at Siena College, Loudonville, New York in Fall 1989.
He is married and has two children.
His favorite charity is a project to educate Tibetan refugee children in Nepal. Information on this can be found at http://www.tibetan-buddhist.org/index...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Well, we don't have to discuss whether Saunders can write - of course he can - but this cutesy and simplistic tale reaches Bertolt Brecht levels of pedagogical impetus paired with Bewilderment heights of righteous undercomplexity. The main narrative idea is almost identical with Lincoln in the Bardo: Once more, we encounter souls caught in the liminal state between death and the afterlife, but in "Vigil", the center is not a deceased US President, but Ebenezer Scrooge, ähem, K. J. Boone, an oil magnate refusing to repent for his sins against the environment. In his dying hours, he becomes the charge of Jill "Doll" Blaine, a ghost in the bardo who is elevated to accompany souls in the process of passing.
So yes, this is A Christmas Carol minus the Christmas part, with Boone being haunted by the people he has wronged and by his family, alive and dead. Some of his experiences are visions in his mind, some events relate to the living at his deathbed and others to ghosts like Jill visiting him. As readers, we are trapped in Jill's perspective, who can merge with the living and the death to read their minds and feel their emotions. While Boone refuses to acknowledge and take responsibility for his lies and the harm he has done, Jill has trouble letting go of her former, living self, and, in a sub-plotline, has been struggling with her losses for almost fifty years while comforting dying souls. A third recurring scene is that of a wedding taking place nearby Boone's deathbed.
I was slightly aggravated by the depiction of Boone, the 87-year-old white man who has lived it up to the detriment of the weak and those coming after him: He is just not an interesting villain, as even his attempts to justify his misdeeds are lame and angry - not that Saunders is wrong here, I've met plenty of people in that vein (although not that rich and powerful), but that's exactly why this reader was wondering what's new here. To me, Jill was more captivating: I know that Saunders is a Buddhist, but in Christianity, archangel Michael (and certainly not a woman!) accompanies the souls of the dead to the otherworld, and according to the Book of Enoch, some angels are dispatched to earth to watch over human beings (hello, Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin). Jill repeats again and again though that people are "inevitable occurrences", ruled by their destinies, which is not a very Christian or Buddhist standpoint, on the contrary, and that opens doors for philosophical musings.
There are implied questions of nature against nurture here, but they are not fully developed: While Boone needs to step up to his past, Jill needs to let it go. What responsibility do they carry? Plus there are minor characters that would allow to draw readers in: Boone's daughter has profited from her father's grift, but she is also right when she says that we all do when we drive cars etc. Is the difference between Boone and us only one of degree, not a fundamental one? There is so much more in here, but the writing shows a tendency to include less interesting side quests instead of going deeper.
This didn't win me over, although I still love Saunders.
So yes, this is A Christmas Carol minus the Christmas part, with Boone being haunted by the people he has wronged and by his family, alive and dead. Some of his experiences are visions in his mind, some events relate to the living at his deathbed and others to ghosts like Jill visiting him. As readers, we are trapped in Jill's perspective, who can merge with the living and the death to read their minds and feel their emotions. While Boone refuses to acknowledge and take responsibility for his lies and the harm he has done, Jill has trouble letting go of her former, living self, and, in a sub-plotline, has been struggling with her losses for almost fifty years while comforting dying souls. A third recurring scene is that of a wedding taking place nearby Boone's deathbed.
I was slightly aggravated by the depiction of Boone, the 87-year-old white man who has lived it up to the detriment of the weak and those coming after him: He is just not an interesting villain, as even his attempts to justify his misdeeds are lame and angry - not that Saunders is wrong here, I've met plenty of people in that vein (although not that rich and powerful), but that's exactly why this reader was wondering what's new here. To me, Jill was more captivating: I know that Saunders is a Buddhist, but in Christianity, archangel Michael (and certainly not a woman!) accompanies the souls of the dead to the otherworld, and according to the Book of Enoch, some angels are dispatched to earth to watch over human beings (hello, Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin). Jill repeats again and again though that people are "inevitable occurrences", ruled by their destinies, which is not a very Christian or Buddhist standpoint, on the contrary, and that opens doors for philosophical musings.
There are implied questions of nature against nurture here, but they are not fully developed: While Boone needs to step up to his past, Jill needs to let it go. What responsibility do they carry? Plus there are minor characters that would allow to draw readers in: Boone's daughter has profited from her father's grift, but she is also right when she says that we all do when we drive cars etc. Is the difference between Boone and us only one of degree, not a fundamental one? There is so much more in here, but the writing shows a tendency to include less interesting side quests instead of going deeper.
This didn't win me over, although I still love Saunders.
September 19, 2025
The first 100 pages were a 3 but the last 70 were a 5. Never was the writing lacking anything, but the story really developed into what Saunders really shines at, an artistic pull at morality, as well as our heartstrings
October 18, 2025
ARC for review. To be published January 27, 2026.
3 stars
In this lesser work from Saunders K. J. Boone, an oil company C.E.O. is dying. Actually breathing his last breaths. Jill “Doll” Blaine, dead since the Bicentennial, who helps people transition, is at his home to help him cross over.
Obviously, based on his occupation, Boone doesn’t have the world’s greatest history and some of Jill’s ilk want him to pay for the bad things he did during his life….and there were a lot of them, not the least of which was his knowing denial of climate change. The book explores the notion of evil and inevitability.
So, yeah, the feel good book of the year. The topic seems made for Saunders but is far too large to adequately cover in a book so short. It was fine, though.
3 stars
In this lesser work from Saunders K. J. Boone, an oil company C.E.O. is dying. Actually breathing his last breaths. Jill “Doll” Blaine, dead since the Bicentennial, who helps people transition, is at his home to help him cross over.
Obviously, based on his occupation, Boone doesn’t have the world’s greatest history and some of Jill’s ilk want him to pay for the bad things he did during his life….and there were a lot of them, not the least of which was his knowing denial of climate change. The book explores the notion of evil and inevitability.
So, yeah, the feel good book of the year. The topic seems made for Saunders but is far too large to adequately cover in a book so short. It was fine, though.
Want to read
September 3, 2025This sounds great and shoots right up to my to read priority list in 2026! Curious to see how this second novel of Saunders is going to be!
November 30, 2025
I liked Vigil, but didn't love it. Perhaps that's because I wanted another Lincoln in the Bardo and Vigil isn't Lincoln in the Bardo. Saunders is a capable and imaginative writer bringing readers new ideas and styles. He's not a recycler of prose.
Vigil asks a question that needs asking at the moment: how will we?/can we?/should we? make peace with our actions that have harmed others? And in the case of Vigil, that harm is significant: readers sit alongside a fossil fuel titan who is on his deathbed—who has endless justifications, endless excuses, endless moral alibis, if you will.
There's a lot to chew on and, as in Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders gives us a complex, thought-provoking set of afterworlds—afterworlds which we see though multiple sets of eyes and not just our industrial titan's. For me, this really was a book of thought, and I'm still sitting with it several days after finishing it considering its weft and its warp.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.
Vigil asks a question that needs asking at the moment: how will we?/can we?/should we? make peace with our actions that have harmed others? And in the case of Vigil, that harm is significant: readers sit alongside a fossil fuel titan who is on his deathbed—who has endless justifications, endless excuses, endless moral alibis, if you will.
There's a lot to chew on and, as in Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders gives us a complex, thought-provoking set of afterworlds—afterworlds which we see though multiple sets of eyes and not just our industrial titan's. For me, this really was a book of thought, and I'm still sitting with it several days after finishing it considering its weft and its warp.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.
Want to read
July 24, 2025Saunders is dragging us back into the afterlife and I’m fully prepared to have my brain scrambled and my soul lovingly drop-kicked into the abyss. Let’s go George, haunt me, confuse me, spiritually yeet me into the void.
December 20, 2025
I struggled with this book bc I liked the writing and style and humor and mystical elements but didn’t always know what was going on. I felt a little too dumb for the book. I know Saunders was doing stuff but I couldn’t always grasp it. It feels like a book I’d need to reread to really feel like I got it. But I was entertained and intrigued and can see folks liking it a lot.
October 16, 2025
Lincoln in the Bardo-verse, but make it about climate change. After a somewhat slow start, this shredded me. I do love Saunders's prose and his style, so I was technically impressed with it but not too emotionally engaged for the first 100 pages or so. Then, though, it reached into the beating heart of what it means to be human and alive and then to die, and cradled it with infinite love and compassion, and I turned into a puddle of soup. I'm AFFECTED, okay, I'm not too cool to say it. And, god, what inventive descriptions.
Jill "Doll" Blaine, you are my new favorite character, I love you so freaking much.
Infinite thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.
Jill "Doll" Blaine, you are my new favorite character, I love you so freaking much.
Infinite thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.
December 3, 2025
I love George Saunders so this review is completely biased. You've been warned.
This book has it all - - wit, incredible insights into the human condition, pathos, satire, and a big (capital B big) theme. At first, the plot itself didn't really grab me, but slowly, but surely the book gathers momentum and by the end, my authorial crush survived intact.
The plot is actually quite simple. A wealthy powerful man lays on his deathbed. He has no regrets in life. Jill is sort of a guide in the afterlife who helps and comforts the dying as they pass. Unfortunately, in this particular case, there are some complications.
The storyline itself is really nothing to write home about. But it doesn't matter. By the end, it touched my heart and may have even changed me a little bit. What more can one ask from literature.
This book has it all - - wit, incredible insights into the human condition, pathos, satire, and a big (capital B big) theme. At first, the plot itself didn't really grab me, but slowly, but surely the book gathers momentum and by the end, my authorial crush survived intact.
The plot is actually quite simple. A wealthy powerful man lays on his deathbed. He has no regrets in life. Jill is sort of a guide in the afterlife who helps and comforts the dying as they pass. Unfortunately, in this particular case, there are some complications.
The storyline itself is really nothing to write home about. But it doesn't matter. By the end, it touched my heart and may have even changed me a little bit. What more can one ask from literature.
September 29, 2025
I want to read Saunders’ words about the afterlife continuously until it’s my turn to be in it, and I want his words with me then too.
Want to read
July 25, 2025NEW GEORGE SAUNDERS!!! LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
December 20, 2025
A fantastical and frenetic otherworldly romp, Vigil unfolds at rocket speed while remaining rich in meaning.
A spirit plummets from the heavens tasked to console those in their final moments. She inhabits the minds of her “charges”, offering the dying an opportunity to reconcile their less than stellar worldly efforts in their final moments. Vigil is the wild story of Jill “Doll” Blaine and her attempt to assuage an oil tycoon, but she faces off with a dying giant who refuses to accept the moral errors of his ways.
Corporate greed, climate change and the power of predetermination have never been so entertainingly packed into two hundred pages. Saunders storytelling glows with humor as a physically slight, but psychologically monstrous destroyer of the planet, is visited by beautifully imagined characters from his past. It’s a raucously thought-provoking good time.
Highly recommended to fans of the author and to those who usually veer away from literary fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a review copy.
A spirit plummets from the heavens tasked to console those in their final moments. She inhabits the minds of her “charges”, offering the dying an opportunity to reconcile their less than stellar worldly efforts in their final moments. Vigil is the wild story of Jill “Doll” Blaine and her attempt to assuage an oil tycoon, but she faces off with a dying giant who refuses to accept the moral errors of his ways.
Corporate greed, climate change and the power of predetermination have never been so entertainingly packed into two hundred pages. Saunders storytelling glows with humor as a physically slight, but psychologically monstrous destroyer of the planet, is visited by beautifully imagined characters from his past. It’s a raucously thought-provoking good time.
Highly recommended to fans of the author and to those who usually veer away from literary fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a review copy.
December 6, 2025
Impossible not to set this against the exceptional Lincoln in the Bardo, focused as both are on the threshold between life and death. Unfortunately, the comparison is not favourable to Vigil. A host of the restive dead visit the dying to offer comfort at the end. Jill Blaine’s life was cut short when she was murdered by a car bomb in a case of mistaken identity. Her latest “charge” is K.J. Boone, a Texas oil tycoon who not only contributed directly to climate breakdown but also deliberately spread anti-environmentalist propaganda through speeches and a documentary. As he lies dying of cancer in his mansion, he’s visited by, among others, the spirits of the repentant Frenchman who invented the engine and an Indian man whose family perished in a natural disaster. I expected a Christmas Carol-type reckoning with climate past and future; in resisting such a formula, Saunders avoids moralizing – oblivion comes for the just and the unjust. However, he instead subjects readers to a slog of repetitive, half-baked comedic monologues. I remain unsure what he hoped to achieve with the combination of an irredeemable character and an inexorable situation. All this does is reinforce randomness and hopelessness, whereas the few other Saunders works I’ve read have at least reassured with the sparkle of human ingenuity. YMMV.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
My first book by George Saunders and I was pleasantly surprised with how enjoyable it was. Especially the second half. Wow….I was blown away. It started slow but for good reason. The character development throughout the first half just made the rest of the book that much better. I even teared up. It reminded me of a Christmas Carol in a sense with the meaning behind it. There are parts of the book that had me wondering what the heck was going on, but yet it was really thought provoking. I also enjoyed the humor that we got throughout. A really imaginative and interesting read.
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
November 21, 2025
4.5
Bumpy start, but I was probably welling up with tears for more than half of the last 70 pages and I can't in good conscience give that a 4! And if there's one thing I took away from this book, it's that I'll look back on waffling over rounding my score up or down as a valuable and enriching use of my finite time on this finite Earth!
Bumpy start, but I was probably welling up with tears for more than half of the last 70 pages and I can't in good conscience give that a 4! And if there's one thing I took away from this book, it's that I'll look back on waffling over rounding my score up or down as a valuable and enriching use of my finite time on this finite Earth!
December 7, 2025
seek elevation
October 29, 2025
* thanks to Random House for the NetGalley review copy (pub date: January 27, 2026)
Review TK - deeply weird, often hilarious
Review TK - deeply weird, often hilarious
August 8, 2025
A Christmas Carol for the Anthropocene. Adept at writing about the transcendental, Saunders uses an oil company CEO on his deathbed as his foil, a character not wrestling with morality, insofar as outright denying such a thing exists. This falls right in the sweet spot between his short stories and Lincoln in the Bardo. His take on the ethereal is at once universal and essentially his. It is my great pleasure to regurgitate the phrase 'we are watching a master at work.'
November 19, 2025
After reading and being blown away by Lincoln in the Bardo and A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, it’s fair to say I had very high expectations for this book. George Saunders returns again to ghost stories with Vigil and explores so many themes through our main characters, Jill “Doll” Blaine and KJ Boone. Jill is essentially a ghost whose main purpose in this sort of afterlife is to offer comfort to those about to die, a task she’s performed 343 times so far. But, KJ Boone proves to be much more difficult than anyone before, as he’s unrepentant for anything in his life and believes he’s done no wrong, despite a long career and highly impactful life that clearly has ramifications for the larger world.
It took me a while to get into the groove of this book because there are some weird characters that come into play here. This weirdness is fitting to George Saunders as an author and manages to be just as charming and likable as we’ve come to expect from him. This book has a heavy focus on climate change and its impacts on humans as individuals, on greed and capitalist societies, on regret and looking back on a life lived…. Although this book is short, there is a lot going on, lots of moving pieces, reflections and memories, and characters. With all of this, I needed a while to sit with this novel and actually have read it twice. I started this book over again as soon as I finished it for the first time because I wanted to go back and connect the dots and have more time to sit with what Saunders was trying to say.
Initially, I was a bit let down by the ending and struggled to move beyond my initial shock at how the story ended for KJ Boone. But, I think Saunders is imparting an important perspective here, as he reminds us about how we need to remain empathetic and caring to our fellow humans, not just write them off and subsist along the deep divides that are being created in this deeply divided global climate. There’s a lot to think about with Jill’s storyline too, as she reflects on her life and the nature of her death, what she had hoped for in life, and how things can change with no notice… I don’t think this is a perfect book and I’m still trying to work through what Saunders was doing with all of these story elements and lessons. But, I was so happy to be along for the ride and could see myself returning to this text again.
I’d recommend this book to lit fic readers and those who have enjoyed this author’s previous works. It’s such a short book and it’s well worth the time invested. Big thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review!!
It took me a while to get into the groove of this book because there are some weird characters that come into play here. This weirdness is fitting to George Saunders as an author and manages to be just as charming and likable as we’ve come to expect from him. This book has a heavy focus on climate change and its impacts on humans as individuals, on greed and capitalist societies, on regret and looking back on a life lived…. Although this book is short, there is a lot going on, lots of moving pieces, reflections and memories, and characters. With all of this, I needed a while to sit with this novel and actually have read it twice. I started this book over again as soon as I finished it for the first time because I wanted to go back and connect the dots and have more time to sit with what Saunders was trying to say.
Initially, I was a bit let down by the ending and struggled to move beyond my initial shock at how the story ended for KJ Boone. But, I think Saunders is imparting an important perspective here, as he reminds us about how we need to remain empathetic and caring to our fellow humans, not just write them off and subsist along the deep divides that are being created in this deeply divided global climate. There’s a lot to think about with Jill’s storyline too, as she reflects on her life and the nature of her death, what she had hoped for in life, and how things can change with no notice… I don’t think this is a perfect book and I’m still trying to work through what Saunders was doing with all of these story elements and lessons. But, I was so happy to be along for the ride and could see myself returning to this text again.
I’d recommend this book to lit fic readers and those who have enjoyed this author’s previous works. It’s such a short book and it’s well worth the time invested. Big thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review!!
December 21, 2025
Both epic and intimate. Hopeful and bleak. Beautifully, deeply human.
The writing is so uniquely and identifiably George Saunders. It is odd and captivating. Grotesque and lovely. Disjointed yet flowing. Filled with a quiet yearning for the simplest moments in life. You can feel the ache in your own body.
This may be a book about power and evil and climate change, but what will linger with me is the longing for the past, the thirst for what has been, the humanity of it all.
Lincoln in the Bardo is one of my top three favorite books of all time, so to say my expectations were sky high is an understatement. Vigil was everything I hoped it would be in a small, bite sized package.
Thank you forever to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced reader copy. What an absolute dream to get to read and review this early.
The writing is so uniquely and identifiably George Saunders. It is odd and captivating. Grotesque and lovely. Disjointed yet flowing. Filled with a quiet yearning for the simplest moments in life. You can feel the ache in your own body.
This may be a book about power and evil and climate change, but what will linger with me is the longing for the past, the thirst for what has been, the humanity of it all.
Lincoln in the Bardo is one of my top three favorite books of all time, so to say my expectations were sky high is an understatement. Vigil was everything I hoped it would be in a small, bite sized package.
Thank you forever to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced reader copy. What an absolute dream to get to read and review this early.
December 9, 2025
very intriguing little book - a bit on the abstract side and i’m not sure i fully grasped everything saunders was going for here, but still a compelling journey nonetheless. this is very niche but i know the right audience will LOVE this
November 30, 2025
Book Report: Vigil by George Saunders
In Vigil…we follow Jill “Doll” Blaine an afterlife guide who’s already escorted 343 souls. On her latest assignment she plummets from the sky (yes…literally ☁️➡️🌍) straight into the estate of K.J. Boone…a powerful man dying without a shred of regret. But unlike her past charges, Boone isn’t seeking comfort… and his final night becomes a surreal parade of visitors human…spiritual…animal and otherwise…each demanding a reckoning👻
This was my first Saunders and… wow. Your girl’s mind feels USED🤯 His prose took me a minute to adjust to but by the end I was absolutely enamored with it. The story felt a bit like Mary Poppins arriving to tend to her “charge,” mixed with the moral echoes of A Christmas Carol. Weird…sharp…wildly imaginative📚✨It’s thought-provoking… grappling with corporate greed…environmental collapse and the slippery slope of “goodness” And it left me wishing we could follow Jill “Doll” Blaine on every strange…beautiful assignment to come💛
Thank you Random House for the ARC
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.A...
In Vigil…we follow Jill “Doll” Blaine an afterlife guide who’s already escorted 343 souls. On her latest assignment she plummets from the sky (yes…literally ☁️➡️🌍) straight into the estate of K.J. Boone…a powerful man dying without a shred of regret. But unlike her past charges, Boone isn’t seeking comfort… and his final night becomes a surreal parade of visitors human…spiritual…animal and otherwise…each demanding a reckoning👻
This was my first Saunders and… wow. Your girl’s mind feels USED🤯 His prose took me a minute to adjust to but by the end I was absolutely enamored with it. The story felt a bit like Mary Poppins arriving to tend to her “charge,” mixed with the moral echoes of A Christmas Carol. Weird…sharp…wildly imaginative📚✨It’s thought-provoking… grappling with corporate greed…environmental collapse and the slippery slope of “goodness” And it left me wishing we could follow Jill “Doll” Blaine on every strange…beautiful assignment to come💛
Thank you Random House for the ARC
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.A...
November 3, 2025
George Saunders' place on the literary scene was cemented with the absolutely superb Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Booker Prize. It is with great expectation that you approach the latest novel, which perhaps is a weight you shouldn't bring to any novel. I found myself struggling to engage for the first 30 pages, so I put it down and returned later. I'm glad I did. Vigil is another experimental novel, and like Lincoln in the Bardo is concerned with the afterlife.
Jill ‘Doll’ Blaine and various other spirits are trying to convince the oilman K J Boone to repent; his work has damaged the planet. K J Boone is a hard man, though, a man of money and self-idealisation that he cannot conceive that anything he has done is wrong - so Doll and the rest have a fight on their hands.
Saunders, with the deft hand he showed with Lincoln in the Bardo, tells a cracking tale with wit, intelligence and insight. To say more of it's plot or twists would be to spoil the delights contained herein. Just go read it!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
Jill ‘Doll’ Blaine and various other spirits are trying to convince the oilman K J Boone to repent; his work has damaged the planet. K J Boone is a hard man, though, a man of money and self-idealisation that he cannot conceive that anything he has done is wrong - so Doll and the rest have a fight on their hands.
Saunders, with the deft hand he showed with Lincoln in the Bardo, tells a cracking tale with wit, intelligence and insight. To say more of it's plot or twists would be to spoil the delights contained herein. Just go read it!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
December 2, 2025
2.5
This was my first George Saunders, and it probably shouldn't have been. I have many friends and colleagues who love his work, and I'm curious to know what they will make of this.
An interesting premise, a great start, but then it dipped, and it kept on dipping. I'd read countless reviews all saying the last 50 or so pages are incredible, with many saying they were in tears, whilst I was completely dry-eyed and felt very little emotional connection to any of it...
Some excellent writing of course, but also many passages that I just couldn't see the point of, and so much repetition.
The only thing I can say with certainty is that Jill "Doll" Blaine was a great character and I wish there was more of her. Perhaps 170 pages just wasn't enough to carry this story through to the level I'd hoped it would reach...
But still, such a shame, particularly as George seems like such a nice and decent human.
This was my first George Saunders, and it probably shouldn't have been. I have many friends and colleagues who love his work, and I'm curious to know what they will make of this.
An interesting premise, a great start, but then it dipped, and it kept on dipping. I'd read countless reviews all saying the last 50 or so pages are incredible, with many saying they were in tears, whilst I was completely dry-eyed and felt very little emotional connection to any of it...
Some excellent writing of course, but also many passages that I just couldn't see the point of, and so much repetition.
The only thing I can say with certainty is that Jill "Doll" Blaine was a great character and I wish there was more of her. Perhaps 170 pages just wasn't enough to carry this story through to the level I'd hoped it would reach...
But still, such a shame, particularly as George seems like such a nice and decent human.
December 7, 2025
There's weird, and then there's Saunders weird.
I liked this, but I didn't love it. The concept was amazing, and I loved the characters. I felt mixed on the writing style - at times I was swept up in it, at other times I was lost due to it. I had a hard time understanding who was speaking and where we were at a few times. I loved Jill 'Doll' Blaine and wanted more from her and her story. The themes are deep, and hard to digest in such a short novel. There was just a lot going on, in a very chaotic way, that I may need to re-read to fully 'get' everything.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.
I liked this, but I didn't love it. The concept was amazing, and I loved the characters. I felt mixed on the writing style - at times I was swept up in it, at other times I was lost due to it. I had a hard time understanding who was speaking and where we were at a few times. I loved Jill 'Doll' Blaine and wanted more from her and her story. The themes are deep, and hard to digest in such a short novel. There was just a lot going on, in a very chaotic way, that I may need to re-read to fully 'get' everything.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.
November 24, 2025
Vigil is a dark, allegorical fairy tale; a bleak and comical satire. The novel is a sibling of sorts to Lincoln in the Bardo, but here it's shorter and perhaps more focused (I actually found it a more satisfying read than Bardo, an opinion I suspect will not be shared by many, if comparisons between the two are even mentioned). Vigil focuses primarily around two characters: an avaricious, deeply detrimental, and delusional, Trump/Musk-like oilman on death's door, and a benevolent spiritual guide, who has struggles of her own regarding letting go of her earthly self and embracing the afterlife. The story deals in life and death and the liminal space between the two, the crossing from one to the other; it deals with understanding and admitting to who we are and how we've lived our lives, the life we're living, the life in which we never had a choice to begin with, which, as the spirt-ghost suggests, was an "inevitability", for better or worse (which had me thinking a good deal about free will and predestination).
Somehow, Saunders makes all this heady, rather sad stuff *fun to read*!
Better and worse are ideas that run, whisk, bolt, hurtle, thrust, fly, bolt (that's a little "inside-joke" regarding the novel's language and grammar, as were those quotation marks, as is the soon to come colon; a little inside-joke that will make sense if you read the book) and dash throughout this propulsive, funny, and dire novel: young love, sleigh rides in the Midwest, sex, children, dancing, youth, nature, music; famine, greed, arrogance, man-made pollution/global ruination, rationalization, religion, judgment of others/bigotry, aging, destruction, and denial.
George Saunders can think and write seriously about serious subject matter--but he's not afraid to toss in a good fart joke when things get a bit too serious.
Thanks to NetGalley/Random House
Somehow, Saunders makes all this heady, rather sad stuff *fun to read*!
Better and worse are ideas that run, whisk, bolt, hurtle, thrust, fly, bolt (that's a little "inside-joke" regarding the novel's language and grammar, as were those quotation marks, as is the soon to come colon; a little inside-joke that will make sense if you read the book) and dash throughout this propulsive, funny, and dire novel: young love, sleigh rides in the Midwest, sex, children, dancing, youth, nature, music; famine, greed, arrogance, man-made pollution/global ruination, rationalization, religion, judgment of others/bigotry, aging, destruction, and denial.
George Saunders can think and write seriously about serious subject matter--but he's not afraid to toss in a good fart joke when things get a bit too serious.
Thanks to NetGalley/Random House
September 27, 2025
A man on his death bed. (I seem to be on my third book that deals with dying.)
An angel? Being? An in betweener? shows up to guide him to the next place. First: he must admit what he has done wrong though. Difficulty ensues.
Many make their way to visit. Some strangers, some friends, and some family.
Our main visitor is processing their own past though.
The process of dying, what comes after, and what is left behind is met with humor, conversation, and introspection.
Just pure delight.
Thank you @atrandombooks for the early copy. Out January 27, 2026.
An angel? Being? An in betweener? shows up to guide him to the next place. First: he must admit what he has done wrong though. Difficulty ensues.
Many make their way to visit. Some strangers, some friends, and some family.
Our main visitor is processing their own past though.
The process of dying, what comes after, and what is left behind is met with humor, conversation, and introspection.
Just pure delight.
Thank you @atrandombooks for the early copy. Out January 27, 2026.
September 15, 2025
This book isn't as perfect for me as Lincoln in the Bardo, but it's like its younger sibling. Once more we enter the liminal space between life and death, and Saunders again infuses his vision of the pre-afterlife with a vibrant cast of characters, including two Mels who reproduce clones of themselves from their backsides. It's a lighter read than Bardo, as the reader isn't made to feel very much for the dying oil executive whose decline is the focus of the story. I did feel for Jill, our narrator, whose only sin was letting her husband take her car in to be serviced.
Some readers may be put off by the novel's preachiness, as much real estate is devoted to climate change's affect on our world. While I agreed with its message, it did seem a little heavy-handed at times, but it definitely felt true-to-life. If I've learned anything from the past 9 or so years, it's that a man like K.J. Boone never lets facts get in the way of profits.
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5
Some readers may be put off by the novel's preachiness, as much real estate is devoted to climate change's affect on our world. While I agreed with its message, it did seem a little heavy-handed at times, but it definitely felt true-to-life. If I've learned anything from the past 9 or so years, it's that a man like K.J. Boone never lets facts get in the way of profits.
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5
December 24, 2025
For those of us who fell in love with George Saunders’ writing via Lincoln in the Bardo: a new ghostly adventure. Jill “Doll” Blaine, deceased in the 1970s, at age 22, is an angelic comforter of souls who need to cross over.
Her charge this time is K. J. Boone, a stubborn oil tycoon on his deathbed, who refuses to go.
Many souls who were negatively affected by Boone’s actions in life come to help him along. And take their pound of flesh. But the tyrant resists. “(We are delicate. And exist at the whim of the moment).”
Equal parts indictment of self-serving decisions that produced our current climate crisis and forgiveness of our human nature, Vigil is a complex reckoning of inevitability balanced with redemption.
Her charge this time is K. J. Boone, a stubborn oil tycoon on his deathbed, who refuses to go.
Many souls who were negatively affected by Boone’s actions in life come to help him along. And take their pound of flesh. But the tyrant resists. “(We are delicate. And exist at the whim of the moment).”
Equal parts indictment of self-serving decisions that produced our current climate crisis and forgiveness of our human nature, Vigil is a complex reckoning of inevitability balanced with redemption.
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