A review by agalan93
American War by Omar El Akkad

3.0

American War isn’t so much a speculative story of a future civil war but rather what the ravages of war inflict upon a people. Whether they inhabit present day Ethiopia and Syria or future America. That being said it’s a pretty bleak novel overall—set in the final decades of the 21st century you’d be forgiven if the hallowing out of the federal institutions, the scourge of climate change and a fast moving plague all sound familiar. Yet this is all background noise as we follow Sarat’s life in hell. I can’t say I had much sympathy for her and the choices she made but then again that is likely the point of this novel—war makes you act in ways you never would imagine you’re capable of.