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booksbeyondthebinary's review
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Sexual content
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Racism and Pregnancy
soobooksalot's review
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I appreciate dystopian novels for the reflection they initiate.
Viewing ourselves as a society anything dramatically different than we currently are seems unthinkable, though we have seen forms of it in recent years.
Yet this is a scenario posed in Camp Zero by author Michelle Min Sterling. Thank you to Tandem Collective and Penguin Random Canada for my AD-PR Product for review!
The year is 2049, and global warming has left much of North America uninhabitable due to extreme climate change. People have Flick devices implanted under the skin to allow constant media access.
The story is told in alternating chapters from those who have been sent to the far North to combat the world's changes through various means.
I'm a bit on the fence with Camp Zero. I was quickly drawn into the world created, which I find so essential in dystopian fiction. The reader needs to accept the world and scenarios the characters are in.
I think it was more my reaction to the characters. I could relate to many, but was ambivalent to some as well. Thus it felt like an uneven read for me, as alternating chapters changed how I felt with each section.
The prose was beautiful at times, spare at others. The ending was left somewhat open, and felt like possibly paving the way for a sequel.
While perhaps not perfect, Camp Zero is definitely worth the read - recommended!
Released on April 4!
Viewing ourselves as a society anything dramatically different than we currently are seems unthinkable, though we have seen forms of it in recent years.
Yet this is a scenario posed in Camp Zero by author Michelle Min Sterling. Thank you to Tandem Collective and Penguin Random Canada for my AD-PR Product for review!
The year is 2049, and global warming has left much of North America uninhabitable due to extreme climate change. People have Flick devices implanted under the skin to allow constant media access.
The story is told in alternating chapters from those who have been sent to the far North to combat the world's changes through various means.
I'm a bit on the fence with Camp Zero. I was quickly drawn into the world created, which I find so essential in dystopian fiction. The reader needs to accept the world and scenarios the characters are in.
I think it was more my reaction to the characters. I could relate to many, but was ambivalent to some as well. Thus it felt like an uneven read for me, as alternating chapters changed how I felt with each section.
The prose was beautiful at times, spare at others. The ending was left somewhat open, and felt like possibly paving the way for a sequel.
While perhaps not perfect, Camp Zero is definitely worth the read - recommended!
Released on April 4!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual content
maregred's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Murder, Death of parent, Racism, Alcohol, and Death
Moderate: Suicide and Sexual assault
Minor: Pregnancy
kylieqrada's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This had me for about the first half and then it lost me. The themes are so on-point but I just couldn't get on board with the execution. Womp wompppppp.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Misogyny, Alcohol, and Death
Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Racism
mysterymom40's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Murder
Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Gaslighting
allapaz's review against another edition
4.0
i was worried about this one going in because of the mid-level reviews but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. if you don't like when your dystopias feel a little too 'real', this could be a problem, but I thought the world was compelling and the intersecting storylines and timelines were great. it definitely reads as the first in a series, though, so my rating definitely depends on there being more to this story because ooof I need to know how it goes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, Colonisation, Sexual content, Murder, Classism, and Sexual assault
shromada's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Pregnancy
mtnest's review
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Cursing, Murder, Sexual content, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual assault, Vomit, Classism, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Confinement, and Alcohol
Dystopianstarrysteph's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This eerie little tale felt dreadfully real and captivated me from cover to cover.
It’s very-near speculative fiction. The slightly elevated technology that encourages total detachment from the world. Violent impacts of climate change and ecological disaster. A continuation of those with a sense of power ripping away land and shaping it in their image.
And interwoven through all that - classism, possible collective utopia after criss, survival, curious gender binaries.
We follow three different POVs in the far north of Canada. Rose is an escort who has a secret reason for her placement at Camp Zero: she’s spying on its head architect in exchange for a secured future for herself & her mother. Grant is running away from his powerful family and the mistakes of his past, hoping to solidify his life in the north as an English professor. And the female collective of White Alice learns to survive and thrive in a climate research station.
We flip-flop through past and present during each POV, and layers of the mysteries surrounding Camp Zero and White Alice are slowly unfurled.
In my opinion, calling this a dystopian thriller is a mischaracterization. It is a slow, character-driven piece. Each POV is lost in swirling memories, and the action of the present is much shorter. The world of Camp Zero is very much our own.
The weakest point to me was a lack of intersectionality. While classism and sexism come into play quite a bit, race is curiously missing from the picture. Indigenous voices were referenced but not really explored; Rose is half-Korean but it was never significant outside of some discussions of her family’s immigration. I think there was an opportunity to dive deeper into gender & expanding boundaries and perceived binaries during the White Alice chapters, and that was missed a bit.
I thought the writing was incredibly strong, and there are elements here that will sit with me for a bit. I think it would be a great book club pick as well - and a group of readers would probably have vastly different takeaways and opinions on the final segment.
CW: murder, death, misogyny, sexual assault, animal cruelty & animal death, gore, toxic relationship, grief, classism, colonization, racism, pregnancy, sexual content
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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Classism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Colonisation, Racism, Pregnancy, Death, Animal death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexual assault, and Animal cruelty
caseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thanks to Atria Books for the free advance copy of this book.
- CAMP ZERO is a near future dystopia, terrifying in that it's not all that different from the path we are currently on.
- I flew through this novel, fully immersed in its world and invested in the characters, all of whom have come north for different reasons, all of whom have done good things and bad things and are simply trying to survive.
- CAMP ZERO mainly explores how gender effects each character's path in this melting world, but it also gets into class, race, education and more. I already want to read more by Sterling.
- CAMP ZERO is a near future dystopia, terrifying in that it's not all that different from the path we are currently on.
- I flew through this novel, fully immersed in its world and invested in the characters, all of whom have come north for different reasons, all of whom have done good things and bad things and are simply trying to survive.
- CAMP ZERO mainly explores how gender effects each character's path in this melting world, but it also gets into class, race, education and more. I already want to read more by Sterling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Colonisation, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, Cursing, Violence, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault and Racism