kat_bird 's review for:

The Lightest Object in the Universe by Kimi Eisele
4.0
Enjoyed this very slightly optimistic take on post-apocalyptic america. Beatrix's neighborhood with their gardens, skills inventory and bike repair network seems plausible to me. The high barter value of good tortillas also totally believe. As far as the love story, despite learning that Beatrix and Carson had only spent 30 hours together pre-pocalypse, Eisele totally sells me on Carson's cross-country trek for love. Jonathan Blue and his cult plus the dash of magical realism thrown in with Rosie seemed like an effort to add a "big bad" that was half-hearted and not really needed. One of the main characters heads right into the middle of cult HQ when it would make more sense for him to have avoided it, and then when things start getting ominous, he just walks off. Even the main character found the cult to be too boring to investigate! I liked the small domestic challenges of the setting, and Eisele did a much better job writing those. After all, isn't the lack of air conditioning and coffee enough of a big bad? I'm also not sure I really quite understand what happened at the end of the cult bit.
SpoilerHad they been digging graves at the bottom of a cliff? Were they digging a cliff? What were they digging?! I don't find it hard to believe that people would flock to this guy, but I do find it hard to believe that getting everyone to eat a drugged chocolate square and walk off a cliff would be quite that easy
Personally, I would have peaced out as soon as I saw all the women wearing long skirts. When has making women turn in their jeans for long skirts not been a sign of something bad on the horizon? All in all, I definitely picked up a few things to add to my store of apocalypse surviving knowledge.