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miistical's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
"...But most importantly tell them we don't want to leave / We've never wanted to leave"
I have never felt more personally victimized by a novel. I had picked this up because of its cover and then proceeded to never put it down. The very first sentence had me gasping and that feeling continued the entire way through.
There is something almost cathartic about Warmth. The author is close in age, so his language as he describes his feelings and experiences are like listening to a friend. This novel is so personal. While there are (frankly terrifying) statistics and true journalism, it reads more like a memoir; Daniel Sherrell is sharing his view of the climate crisis with all of his complex feelings. By referring to the reader as his future child to his personal anecdotes to calling the crisis The Problem all feel like he's trying to reach out to us, to get us to sit with him and really understand what he's saying.
While some of these parts might be off-putting to some, I found them relatable. "Global warming" and "climate change" have become political buzz words—what do they mean any more? Certainly not what they were suppose to when first coined. The same with Sherrell's recounting of all the weird things he has done to reduce this ever-present stress of The Problem (considering he's a climate change activist/organizer, I get it). And framing the novel as a long letter to a child he may or may not have? Well, I get the sentiment. Who would want to bring a child into this? But when you do want a child, how can you not give them the opportunity to be loved? Is that selfish?
Sherrell doesn't really answer any of these questions, but who can? But he talks about them, which is far more than most people can bring themselves to do. He's really in the thick of it when it comes to the climate disaster we have found ourselves in, in all of its optimism and hopelessness, and I'm so grateful he wrote about it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
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