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kingsteph's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Attempted rape, nothing graphicmysterymom40'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
elysareadsitall's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
I really thought I would love this book and was highly anticipating it. First, I'll say what I liked. The author did a good job creating suspense on a writing level.
That's it. The suspense made me excited for the reveals, but I don't have the words to explain how disappointed I was in the reveals. The characters are bland. The men are unbelievably stupid to the point that the plot becomes implausible. The White Alice chapters are weird and seemed like a different book. When it all comes together, it made no sense.People were left on purpose for decades to prove Americans should be able to own that land? WHAT?! HOW?!
Then there are the issues in the book. The theme is "Men bad. Ladies good." It focuses on how men do what they want, when they want, and therefore, they should die. There's no nuance of privilege in there. It's just a black and white divide between men and women. This book is supposedly climate change fiction, but the setting is just Earth with a changed climate; there's no explanation of how it got that way, how it could be changed, lessons to learn about climate change, or any kind of actual commentary about it. The characters (all white except the main character who is white/Korean) randomly say that it's bad that land was taken from the First Nations people, but there's no representation of First Nations people or lessons/consequences/commentary about the stolen land. It's not enough to state issues; they need to be explored in a nuanced way to make it interesting for fiction.
I don't relish ripping a creative work apart publicly, but this is bad.
That's it. The suspense made me excited for the reveals, but I don't have the words to explain how disappointed I was in the reveals. The characters are bland. The men are unbelievably stupid to the point that the plot becomes implausible. The White Alice chapters are weird and seemed like a different book. When it all comes together, it made no sense.
Then there are the issues in the book. The theme is "Men bad. Ladies good." It focuses on how men do what they want, when they want, and therefore, they should die. There's no nuance of privilege in there. It's just a black and white divide between men and women. This book is supposedly climate change fiction, but the setting is just Earth with a changed climate; there's no explanation of how it got that way, how it could be changed, lessons to learn about climate change, or any kind of actual commentary about it. The characters (all white except the main character who is white/Korean) randomly say that it's bad that land was taken from the First Nations people, but there's no representation of First Nations people or lessons/consequences/commentary about the stolen land. It's not enough to state issues; they need to be explored in a nuanced way to make it interesting for fiction.
I don't relish ripping a creative work apart publicly, but this is bad.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexism, and Sexual violence
moonytoast's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!
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.Grant’s decision to leave camp, the revelation of White Alice, the destruction of the campsite, and Nari’s escape from Meyer all felt a bit rushed. I don’t mind the open ending—given the enormity of their situation and the negligible chance that killing Damien would solve their world’s problems, it’s honestly a solid decision to leave the story there instead of trying to perfectly tie everything up with a bow. I just wish that the third act had more breathing room and was a bit more fleshed out to avoid the weird sense of pacing at the end.
Overall, a great addition to the dystopian genre and I look forward to seeing more from Michelle Min Sterling!
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Murder, Death, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Alcohol
thevioletfoxbookshop's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-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? Yes
4.0
Michelle Min Sterling's debut novel, Camp Zero, imagines the world in the year 2050. Climate change has made much of the world uninhabitable, natural disasters are more prevalent and more dangerous, the wealthy are wealthier, the poor are still poor, and white men are still trying to colonize land belonging to indigenous people with the foolish notion that they can make it better by "civilizing" it. Sounds pretty bleak, right? It is, but there are glimmers of hope and beauty too. While some people in the future are still choosing money and power, others are choosing love and community.
The story is told from three alternating perspectives: Rose, a second-generation Korean-American woman who is both a sex worker and a spy. Grant, a young white man with generational wealth and status trying to run away from both. And White Alice, a collective of female scientists at a radar station who are forming a new community. Each of them are struggling to survive, to leave the past behind, and to forge a better future for themselves.
Camp Zero is the kind of dystopian novel that is both terrifying because of how plausible it is and incredibly important because it explores how we might change that future world. It also asks deep questions, like who will survive and what will it take? And will doing what it takes to survive just make us monsters in the end? Amidst the questions, one thing is clear - we must open our eyes. This story is a road sign to our blind spots, whether it be hope blinding us to reality, privilege blinding us to our own malice, or grief and fear blinding us to love.
Camp Zero is a collection of deeply personal stories set in a world on the verge of collapse. If you're hungry for the next piece of dystopian literature, Camp Zero will feed that craving. This book will swallow you whole and spit you back out again with a new perspective.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Colonisation and Grief
Minor: Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Death of parent
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