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risaleel's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Misogyny, Classism, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Blood
Minor: Death and Pregnancy
maregred's review
- 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
Graphic: Classism, Murder, Death of parent, Racism, Alcohol, and Death
Moderate: Suicide and Sexual assault
Minor: Pregnancy
kylieqrada's review
- 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
Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Misogyny, Alcohol, and Death
Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Racism
mysterymom40's review
- 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
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Murder
Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Gaslighting
belava's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Alcohol and Sexual content
Minor: Animal death and Death of parent
mtnest's review
- 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
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
Dystopiangondorgirl's review
- 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
Moderate: Classism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, Misogyny, Alcoholism, and Death
caseythereader's review against another edition
- 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
- 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.
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
moonytoast's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Camp Zero is a promising work of literary dystopian fiction that interrogates the intersection of gender, socioeconomic class, and climate change in the remote setting of the Canadian Arctic, where the motivations and reasons behind the camp’s creation are more disreputable than they first seem. The story is told from three points of view: Rose, a young woman working as an escort with the hope of securing a future for herself and her mother; Grant, a young man trying to escape his wealthy family background; and White Alice, a group of women tasked with a scientific expedition in the far north of Canada.
Set in the near-future of 2049, the worldbuilding of Camp Zero feels well-grounded both conceptually and visually in how Sterling paints a picture of Earth in the wake of global warming. It integrates a vision of how the worsening climate crisis would impact different groups, particularly from a class standpoint. The Floating City and Meyer’s idea of creating a settlement for Americans in the Canadian Arctic to escape the ravages of the climate crisis feel evocative of the proposals we’ve seen in recent years coming from the uber-rich about space exploration and colonizing the moon. We repeatedly hear and witness the wealthy elite absolve themselves of the consequences of the climate crisis, while characters like Rose and her mother live on the meager scraps left behind and lose everything in the wake of extreme weather events.
I found the worldbuilding and characters extremely compelling—they all feel fully realized and each have their own beliefs and motivations connected to their unique experience within the climate-ravaged world Sterling created. White Alice reminded me in a way of the expedition in Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation with the emphasis on a group of exclusively women and their isolation from the outside world. Their shift over the course of the novel into a narrative of resilience and survival—and their unwavering willingness to kill in order to maintain their home—was fascinating. I also enjoyed Rose as a kind of central protagonist. The more I learned about her backstory and her motivations, I was increasingly rooting for her… not in the sense of rooting for her to successfully complete the task Damien set out for her, but for her to find her own path to freedom.
I think the only real flaw I have with Camp Zero is its somewhat muddled third act. The way these three narratives finally weave together made me so excited, but then I realized I was already about 90% of the way through the book.
Overall, a great addition to the dystopian genre and I look forward to seeing more from Michelle Min Sterling!
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Murder, Death, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Alcohol
thevioletfoxbookshop's review
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Colonisation and Grief
Minor: Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Death of parent