After loving Station Eleven, I wanted to roll the dice on another post-apocalyptic kind of book. This was a great book. It was a little more haunting to read because, unlike S11, the world known by the characters gradually fades away into a memory. Electricity gets too expensive. Gas gets too expensive. Mobile phones become “The Device,” as antiquated as a shoe form. People with money congregate into armed and protected enclaves called “Communities” and, like exclusive law firms, let in only the elite, those […]
This did not live up to its promise.
I’ve been reading a lot of dystopian fiction these days. I think the sense of impending doom surrounding academia, plus my graduation with no immediate job prospects in sight has me retreating to dire fiction to be comforted. Or maybe that’s what I’m telling myself? Either way, I’ve got a lot of reading in my stack, and Edan Lepucki’s California has been on a lot of 2014 lists. I thought I would give it a shot. Cal and Frida are a married couple who have […]
Millennials are so screwed if this is our future.
I was surprised to find California by Edan Lepucki on several “Best” lists this year. While I did find it to be an easy, quick read I didn’t find the story itself to be as entertaining or engrossing as many of the reviews lead me to believe it would be. I didn’t regret reading California, but I certainly wouldn’t credit Lepucki with having written “a gripping and provocative debut novel” either. Frida and Cal live in the woods. Alone. In a shack. Apparently the […]