Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by bookpairings
Clade by James Bradley
3.0
Clade is quite a unique book; Bradley takes a completely plausible approach to climate change without blowing it up to some intense, apocalyptic story. The story starts around present day and moves through a series of stories where we see the impacts of climate change through the eyes of three generations of the Leith family.
I thought that this was a very interesting approach, but I must admit that I was not compelled to devour this story because of the way it hops into the future with each story. You never know how far it’s going to hop or who the story is about until you dive in. At times it left me confused about the relationships of the characters which made it hard to connect with them or care too much about them. Part of me liked that it was a bit of a puzzle and there was a lot of mystery about the happenings between stories and the other part of me kind of hated it. I felt like there was constantly something missing that I needed for this to feel like a cohesive narrative.
Despite some of my frustrations, I still thought this was a pretty good piece of climate change fiction. I loved that despite the complete deterioration of our planet, there remains a glimmer of hope all the way through. As I mentioned before I appreciate that it wasn’t an over dramatic, apocalyptic take on the subject. It’s quiet subtlety is what makes it all the more unsettling.
I thought that this was a very interesting approach, but I must admit that I was not compelled to devour this story because of the way it hops into the future with each story. You never know how far it’s going to hop or who the story is about until you dive in. At times it left me confused about the relationships of the characters which made it hard to connect with them or care too much about them. Part of me liked that it was a bit of a puzzle and there was a lot of mystery about the happenings between stories and the other part of me kind of hated it. I felt like there was constantly something missing that I needed for this to feel like a cohesive narrative.
Despite some of my frustrations, I still thought this was a pretty good piece of climate change fiction. I loved that despite the complete deterioration of our planet, there remains a glimmer of hope all the way through. As I mentioned before I appreciate that it wasn’t an over dramatic, apocalyptic take on the subject. It’s quiet subtlety is what makes it all the more unsettling.