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aliciasrealm 's review for:
The Great Transition
by Nick Fuller Googins
Fifteen year old Emi Vargas was born after the climate crisis ended, the daughter of two activists who fought against wildfires and rising sea levels during the Great Transition. Living in Nuuk, Greenland, a near utopian city of seawalls, raingardens, and geothermal plants, it's easy to believe that the climate crisis is over. But on the sixteenth anniversary of Day Zero (the day the world reached net-zero emissions), the public assassination of high profile climate criminals coincides with the disappearance of Emi's mother, Kristina. As Emi and her father search for Kristina, they begin to unearth a conspiracy that could endanger the both of them.
This harrowing vision of the future, imagining the effects of climate change and the world's belated response to it, is both a timely story and a call to action. This world is believable, the characters relatable, and the story thought provoking. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it.
The prose is stylized, with descriptions often consisting of brief sentences and fragments; this along with the lack of quotation marks gives it a poetic, if sometimes choppy, feel. The story moves slowly and jumps between the past and present so the disappearance of Kristina and the subsequent search for her are often on the back burner. I didn't mind the meandering myself, but if you want a fast paced book this isn't it.
The point of view alternates between Emi and her father, Larch, providing a look at their world from different generations. Emi struggles with her mother's expectations of her and the idea that she is lucky to have been born after Day Zero. While Kristina doesn't have her own POV chapters, we get to know her through interviews for Emi's school project about the Great Transition.
Larch's narrative includes recollections of his childhood and the time before Day Zero. The present is written in present tense while the past is written in past tense so it's simple to differentiate between them. His chapters detail how climate change affected regular people, a heartbreaking look at how much was lost, and champions solidarity of the people and the work of volunteers. (And as someone who lives in a fire prone area, his chapters felt especially close to home to me.)
Trigger Warning: Emi has an eating disorder (food aversion)
Thank you to the publishers for the advance copy.
This harrowing vision of the future, imagining the effects of climate change and the world's belated response to it, is both a timely story and a call to action. This world is believable, the characters relatable, and the story thought provoking. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it.
The prose is stylized, with descriptions often consisting of brief sentences and fragments; this along with the lack of quotation marks gives it a poetic, if sometimes choppy, feel. The story moves slowly and jumps between the past and present so the disappearance of Kristina and the subsequent search for her are often on the back burner. I didn't mind the meandering myself, but if you want a fast paced book this isn't it.
The point of view alternates between Emi and her father, Larch, providing a look at their world from different generations. Emi struggles with her mother's expectations of her and the idea that she is lucky to have been born after Day Zero. While Kristina doesn't have her own POV chapters, we get to know her through interviews for Emi's school project about the Great Transition.
Larch's narrative includes recollections of his childhood and the time before Day Zero. The present is written in present tense while the past is written in past tense so it's simple to differentiate between them. His chapters detail how climate change affected regular people, a heartbreaking look at how much was lost, and champions solidarity of the people and the work of volunteers. (And as someone who lives in a fire prone area, his chapters felt especially close to home to me.)
Trigger Warning: Emi has an eating disorder (food aversion)
Thank you to the publishers for the advance copy.