Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Camp Zero

This book was not bad, I just don't think it was anything outstanding. Anything above a 3 is still worth a read if you're interested, in my opinion. If the author's intent was for me to be mostly bored and hate every man in this book it was achieved. Then the story I did like following, the WHite Alice plot, was generally ignored until 2/3 of the way through. I think overall Rose's story was the best written though. I could've just read a book about her experiences, which she was definitely the main character. Ending was alright but a pain to get to. The themes of climate change and folies of men are good, and I love a dystopian always (this was more of a pre-dystopian in my opinion).

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prosenheim's review

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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sylvestra's review

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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prairieraven's review

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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mandi_lea's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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tigger89's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I finished this book nearly a month ago, and it's been stopping up my review queue ever since. I have very complicated feelings about it. Ultimately, I think I liked it, based on a personal reading that was very much between the lines and that I can't guarantee the author intended. You see, this book has many feminist themes, and it's not particularly subtle about them. They also lead, at least on a surface-level reading, to a fairly ugly, gender-essentialist conclusion about the nature of men versus women.

After much deliberation, I choose to interpret the book as undermining those apparent themes, for a number of reasons that are are too spoilery to discuss here. But I understand how many readers might, and have, come to a different conclusion. For that reason, I'd recommend this book to people who like their plot themes to be a little messy rather than straightforward, and caution those who are particularly sensitive to depictions of gender-essentialist feminism.

The things I liked the most about this book were getting to know the characters, the speculation on future technology with the Flick devices, and the empowering depiction of sex work, both in Camp Zero and in the Floating City. I also appreciated how the White Alice narrative was separate from the main narrative until near the end, leaving the reader uncertain of whether it was set in the future, the past, or concurrently with the rest of the plot.

The most important question: does the bear die, does the snake die, and do the dogs die?

There's a scene where a captured bear cub is used in a gambling game. The bear cub is implied to have been injured in the course of being captured, but, though its ultimate fate is unclear, no harm comes to it on screen. In another scene, we briefly encounter a pet snake. It's later implied to have already been dead when we arrived. In addition, there are several guard dogs working at Camp Zero. All survive.

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torturedreadersdept's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

I don’t always love dystopian stories but this one got me to love and fear it. Between the ominous update to our present-day social media addiction and the continuation of our climate disaster, as well as the well-placed references to the ways our societies have harmed the earth and stolen from indigenous communities, this novel taking place in 2049-2050 was a gut punch, as was realizing that one of the main bad (ish) guys was born in the 90s, making him younger than me…. Yikes! I really enjoyed this book way more than I expected to.

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micaelamariem's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I’m usually into dystopians but this one didn’t hit as well to me as they usually do. This is a great book for some people. There were interesting themes of environmentalism, feminism, colonialism, and survival. With multiple perspectives that weave into each other’s stories, it was interesting to see how it was all connected. But, it just wasn’t what I was expecting, and it was hard to focus on what the most important takeaway was. There was a lot of violence, and too many of it against animals for my liking. That being said, this book reminded me a bit of The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, just in the survival in the Arctic kind of sense. And the feminist themes.

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