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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Dust is a coming-of-age story centered on Thea, a young girl growing up in a family increasingly fearful of outside influence. After Thea and her sister are pulled from school and expected to homeschool themselves, her family relocates from Ohio to a remote desert valley in Colorado. The move leaves them without resources or a support system, and with her father's farm failing to produce, Thea and her mother must find work in town to make ends meet.
Amid these challenges, Thea finds unexpected support in the local community, where she begins to flourish and discover what she truly wants out of life even if it diverges from her family's expectations.
While the pacing is a bit slow at the start, the tension builds steadily, especially towards the end. I found myself rooting for Thea and the townspeople, hoping that her father, a frustrating figure, would loosen his grip and let his daughters live more freely, with a voice in shaping their own futures.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the ARC!
Amid these challenges, Thea finds unexpected support in the local community, where she begins to flourish and discover what she truly wants out of life even if it diverges from her family's expectations.
While the pacing is a bit slow at the start, the tension builds steadily, especially towards the end. I found myself rooting for Thea and the townspeople, hoping that her father, a frustrating figure, would loosen his grip and let his daughters live more freely, with a voice in shaping their own futures.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the ARC!
emotional
informative
sad
medium-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
Publishes December 3, 2024
Dust is a YA book with a variety of themes that would work well for a book club discussion or topic driven papers. Thea is born partially Deaf to a family who refuses to believe it, her dad has premonitions causing the family to, stockpile resources, relocate and go off grid outside a community dealing with the reprocussions of corporate farming and the destruction of commodities.
Out of desperation, Thea is allowed to get a job and she slowly builds community, friendships, and a light romance along with the gift of starting to learn ASL without her parents approval.
Being hard of hearing myself I was drawn to this book and to Thea as she navigates her world. I saw similarities to 'How To Survive Everything' (Ewan Morrison). And enjoyed learning the historical context to Black Sunday and dust storms of the past come with connections in modern day farming techniques in a climate changing world.
Dust is a YA book with a variety of themes that would work well for a book club discussion or topic driven papers. Thea is born partially Deaf to a family who refuses to believe it, her dad has premonitions causing the family to, stockpile resources, relocate and go off grid outside a community dealing with the reprocussions of corporate farming and the destruction of commodities.
Out of desperation, Thea is allowed to get a job and she slowly builds community, friendships, and a light romance along with the gift of starting to learn ASL without her parents approval.
Being hard of hearing myself I was drawn to this book and to Thea as she navigates her world. I saw similarities to 'How To Survive Everything' (Ewan Morrison). And enjoyed learning the historical context to Black Sunday and dust storms of the past come with connections in modern day farming techniques in a climate changing world.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was really great and honestly surprised me in many ways. Before I get into that, though, I wanted to start off by just saying that, in some ways/at times, this book reminded me of the film The Day After Tomorrow (I mean this in a good way, I personally enjoy the film). In fact, there's a quote that I kept thinking about from the film that would fit perfectly within this book: "These past few days have left us all with a profound sense of humility in the face of nature's destructive power. For years, we operated under the belief that we could continue consuming our planet's natural resources, without consequence. We were wrong." So, anyway, if you enjoyed that film, you'd probably enjoy this book. But back to how it surprised me (I will keep it as vague as possible though, as I don't want to spoil a book that just came out less than two weeks ago):
It surprised me in how much I enjoyed it, as I'm not usually a big reader of this genre. The family dynamics in this book somewhat surprised me. The exact role that ASL played in this book surprised me (in the sense that I was expecting it to play a larger role, but I wasn't disappointed or anything). How the book addressed climate change and the abuse of earth's natural resources (hence the quote and comparison I used earlier) very head-on. Hell, the fact that it addresses these things at all surprised me, as it wasn't necessarily mentioned in the book description (I'm not complaining though, I'm glad the author did this). Finally, the use of the historical context of the 1930s Dust Bowl surprised me.
This last thing (the Dust Bowl) probably played a role in how much I enjoyed this book, as the Dust Bowl has always been a fascinating period of history to me. Along these lines, reading this book reminded me of reading Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse all the way back in 6th grade (I think it was 6th grade at least). I remember enjoying it, so I do mean this comparison in a positive way too.
Regarding the "child abuse" content warning I gave to this book: It is more like child neglect than abuse per se, but as there isn't a "child neglect" option, I gave this a "child abuse" warning, as I feel it still needs some sort of warning along those lines.
In general, this book was surprising and I'm glad that, after not winning it through a Goodreads giveaway, I made the decision to buy it. I debated giving this 4 stars just because, as mentioned, I'm not usually a fan of this future/almost-apocalyptic genre and I didn't want to mess with my recommendations too much. But I can't think of a single thing I had an issue with in this book, so I didn't think a 4 star rating would be fair. It's not fair to rate something lower just to avoid the potentially unhelpful recommendations. So I'm happily rating this 5 stars.
It surprised me in how much I enjoyed it, as I'm not usually a big reader of this genre. The family dynamics in this book somewhat surprised me. The exact role that ASL played in this book surprised me (in the sense that I was expecting it to play a larger role, but I wasn't disappointed or anything). How the book addressed climate change and the abuse of earth's natural resources (hence the quote and comparison I used earlier) very head-on. Hell, the fact that it addresses these things at all surprised me, as it wasn't necessarily mentioned in the book description (I'm not complaining though, I'm glad the author did this). Finally, the use of the historical context of the 1930s Dust Bowl surprised me.
This last thing (the Dust Bowl) probably played a role in how much I enjoyed this book, as the Dust Bowl has always been a fascinating period of history to me. Along these lines, reading this book reminded me of reading Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse all the way back in 6th grade (I think it was 6th grade at least). I remember enjoying it, so I do mean this comparison in a positive way too.
Regarding the "child abuse" content warning I gave to this book: It is more like child neglect than abuse per se, but as there isn't a "child neglect" option, I gave this a "child abuse" warning, as I feel it still needs some sort of warning along those lines.
In general, this book was surprising and I'm glad that, after not winning it through a Goodreads giveaway, I made the decision to buy it. I debated giving this 4 stars just because, as mentioned, I'm not usually a fan of this future/almost-apocalyptic genre and I didn't want to mess with my recommendations too much. But I can't think of a single thing I had an issue with in this book, so I didn't think a 4 star rating would be fair. It's not fair to rate something lower just to avoid the potentially unhelpful recommendations. So I'm happily rating this 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dust is a YA speculative fiction coming-of-age novel about a young girl contending with man-made climate change and her family's attempt to exist off the grid. This is a novel about loneliness, self-acceptance, and homesteading with excellent disability rep. Our narrator, Thea, is partially deaf, and the prose reflects this using blank lines within the dialogue to represent the lapses in hearing. This is not a futuristic society or dystopian novel; it imagines a society that did not learn from its mistakes after the 1930s Dust Bowl to revolutionize agricultural practices. Thea experiences bullying, extremely parental control, and the perils of unschooling, somehow managing to rise above it all to become a self-advocating, valuable member of the community. The romance here is a very minimal subplot that only supports our narrator's development but serves very little on its own. Overall a great quick read that deserves to be on school library bookshelves.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC!