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This was great! It‘s a short book and I finished it in a day. Disillusioned teens, shitty parents, climate disaster, rednecks with guns… loved it! (44)
⭐️: 4/5

This starts out with a Lord of the Flies feel, a pack of children abandoning and avoiding their incompetent parents, forming a rogue band together with rules and games. As the dystopian story continues, it felt like a retelling of the biblical story of Noah, the world being wiped out in a storm. Over time, more biblical allusions happen, adding more to the story. I felt like I was missing something, but I did enjoy the writing & it made me think.

I do not understand how Millet comes up with this stuff. This was a very different book than Dinosaurs. There was actually some better character development although it seems to be her style to keep the characters a bit at arms length. The story is BIZARRE but strangely enough, really well done. I would give a 3.5/5 but since the only option is yay, meh or nay; I give it a yay.

This was actually a Litsy recommendation ages ago, then came up as suggested fiction in my course manual.

This will lead to some great discussions in my book club, but the read personally felt a bit dull. This climate apocalypse book feels very mystical and surreal, and the narrative voice was distinct, but all the biblical references and countless thematic elements made this feel a bit too clever. It‘s layered in a way that made me go “oh god there‘s more?” Millet clearly has a lot of talent in her craft, it‘s just not my personal taste. 3/5⭐️

A weird book 🤔

Read for reading challenges.

3.75/5

This book is so weird and deeply disturbing. I rated it so-so because it‘s very well written, but the story is just not for me.

It wasn‘t bad. The teens are totally over their parents and the portrayal of the parents makes it obvious why. The end was odd…no spoilers but for all the adults to do the same thing at the end seemed weird. But the book was about the teens, so it did show them taking charge throughout the story. Dystopian, post-apocalyptic, climate change, teen driven allegory. Writing was good, but it did drag and was predictable.

The parents have ruined the AirBNB, and the younger generation is ashamed of the irresponsible partiers who refuse to address the mess. The outside world crumbles too. Our best chance to repair a broken place: the arrival of new life. As we grow, we bear responsibility for our home. We are more likely to put out fires when we see the innocent who truly had nothing to do with them. We are moved to act because their presence feels like a miracle.

Book mail from my literati 📖🤗 book club interesting synopsis 📖🤗

#20in4 #Readathon 1st book complete @Andrew65

This was a dark, thought-provoking dystopian novel. The children are jaded, the adults fail to adapt, and the world is wrecked by climate change. So basically, it was pretty realistic. I won't say it was an enjoyable read, but I appreciated it for the keen insight and depressing humor.

This was a re-read for my IRL bookclub which meets tomorrow. I‘m looking forward to discussing this one. And a part of me wonders if this would work for #HopePunk #Booked2022 / I‘m gonna toss out the idea tomorrow 🤓

“Life jackets!” screeched Jen‘s mother from the lawn. She held a wine bottle by the neck, a glass in the other hand, and wore a white bikini with red polka dots. The bottom exposed her ass crack and the top was pretty funny: her nipples showed through the white of the bra cups like dark eyes.

Not complaining about about warmer than usual temperatures for Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. I‘m hosting tomorrow so enjoying the calm before the storm. This book is giving me some Leave the World Behind by Ruuman Aman vibes

A climate crisis parable, in which the parents' generation whoop it up like the last days of the Roman Empire and abdicate all responsibility for, you know, having to find a way to actually live with it, to their precociously mature kids. Yeah, it's as subtle as a tank blasting out Wagner at max volume, and the characters are from a privileged demographic, but I enjoyed it (and had fun playing 'spot the Biblical references').

I loved this story for so many reasons!
The Lord of the Flies feeling.
The spin on the Holy Trinity.
The generational divide.
The subtle (and not so subtle) religious references and allegories.
The matter of fact climate change references and depiction.
The sibling relationship. The ending. Oh, the ending.

Holy heck. I practically read this all in one sitting. Such a fascinating look at generational difference and climate change. Highly recommend. Also loved the weirdo surrealist parts.

Biblical allegory and allusions fit perfectly into this story of exodus — one brought on by nature‘s wrath and society‘s complacency in the face of our climate reality rather than by a pharaoh. Centered on a group of kids/teens who understand they‘ve inherited a time bomb in the form of a planet and must look out for themselves as disaster looms, there‘s plenty of rage and resignation, but also tiny beautiful specs of what might be called hope.

Very "Lord of the Flies"-esque but the children actually get along & it's the parents who are dimwitted. An allegory for the current state of our world, climate-wise. The older generations have screwed things up & it's too late for them to do anything to fix it. The biblical references are included in a very non-religious, liberal way. While the overall message is pretty dire, the approach is humourous due to the teen narrator's dry, witty humor.

7.8.21 “Once we lived in a summer country.”

Starting the tagged book this afternoon. Not going to lie, the cover and word Dystopian were the only two selling points that I needed. Reading down by the water #wearingspf
#summer2021
@Lauram

Loved this Lord of the Flies-esque story about a band of kids surviving on their own during the collapse of civilization. The ending was maybe a little heavy-handed for my tastes, but overall witty and thoughtful.

While you‘ll get more out of this with strong biblical knowledge, it‘s not required. It‘s a quick read, with some uneven writing in places, but if you like clifi and allegory you should read this.

I read one chapter this morning before work. This was a gift from my (grown) daughter. I‘m starting to wonder if she had a message for me. 😂

Y‘all this one was so messed up and disturbing. I shouldn‘t have read it at night. There‘s a lot of biblical references that went over my head, but the story was dark and compelling and the ending was just WRENCHING. You think things will be ok, but…

Loved this one! Although that might be the wrong word to describe it since I pretty much hated most of the characters. 😉 I loved the mix of religion and science and the overall story was fast-paced and very thought-provoking.

I have a YA book by this author on my TBR this month that I'm excited to read now.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Complelling and very readable. Loved the writing. So depressing. It paints such a bleak picture. Worth a read. I have a feeling that this book will stick with me for some time! 3.5 🌟

A group of children strike out on their own during a hurricane into a post apocalyptic like world after their parents remain completely clueless of the impending danger. A great story with dark undertones!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I was unsure of this book at first due to the contempt the children have for the parents but the writing was so rich and well done. Just looking at the contradictions and tensions between the kids and nature in the first few pages was enlightening. It was an interesting journey to understand the children and and then see how the narrator begins to pity the parents. It‘s an indictment of our generation‘s complacency in the face of global disaster.

I enjoyed this book from the #TournamentOfBooks shortlist. The message about our complacency regarding the climate crisis is hard-hitting. Unfortunately, it lost out to Memorial in the #ToB21 as well as our own #LitsyToB21 hosted by @BarbaraBB.

Littens who are following the ToB: which of these should I read in the short time I have left? Sharks, Telephone, Shuggie or Memorial?

There was a lot to like here. The humour, the intergenerational conflict, the imminent climate disaster. But the whole felt less than the sum of its interesting parts. In the end I was underwhelmed and a little disappointed. This was a library book choice for one of my free spaces #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

This should really be 4 and 1/2 stars. I loved the writing style and the various scenes that developed into a series of “adventures”. The 1/2 star is lost in the book‘s connection to biblical imagery only because it became tiresome at one point in reading where I felt almost compelled to make definitive sense of the books events and their biblical corollary. In the end I couldn‘t be bothered... does that make me one of the evaporating adults...

Presenting... OK Boomer on Climate Change: a novel

Between “pick“ and “so-so“ for me. I read this because it's a Pulitzer finalist playing out in a climate change-related dystopia. I knew it had biblical undertones, and that's okay. The writing was generally fine too. Yet, I had a hard time connecting with the protagonist or any of the characters, to be honest.

“What people wanted to be, but never could, traveled along beside them. Company.”

Finished this #bookspin book tonight, and I need some time to process. It was an enjoyable, though tough to stomach, climate change-esque novel. It was also a scathing review of the generations that have come before the narrator. Of which, I think I‘m a part of? I don‘t know. It‘s gonna take some time to wade through my thoughts. But I didn‘t hate it!

This author intrigues me. How do I describe it? Like, I have a feeling that she is amusing herself as she writes; she is having fun. Something suggests she would be a sarcastic wit at parties and at work, she would tolerate boring business meetings with a sly sardonic smile on her face. #ToB #ToB21 #WiaN #DogsofLitsy #EstherFest #EstherAssisting

After a couple weeks of trying to like this one, I just don't feel compelled to pick it up... moving on to something more enjoyable! This is my February #bookspin title. @TheAromaofBooks

I had a feeling this wouldn‘t be my kind of book, and while I didn‘t hate it, I left feeling meh about it. The first half was stronger than the latter, imo, and the end especially was too heavy handed with the religious clues, it got unnecessarily violent, and those kids and parents were all annoying.

#ToB21

Molecules never die, I thought. Hadn‘t they told us that in chemistry? Hadn‘t they said a molecule of Julius Caesar‘s dying breath was, statistically speaking, in every breath we took? Same with Lincoln. Or our grandparents. Molecules exchanging & mingling, on and on. Particles that had once been others and now moved through us. “Evie!” said Jack. “Look! I found a sand dollar!” That was the sad thing about my molecules: they wouldn‘t remember him.

A super quick post apocalyptic read that perfectly balances reality and allegory.

A fast-paced read with likeable characters and deeper meaning.

Haven‘t posted in a long time, but I wanted to post my top ten books that I read that were published in 2020. #topten

This was my last ebook of 2020. I wasn‘t sure I wanted to read a novel about teenagers surviving an apocalypse, but after reading so many glowing reviews I decided to give it a try. I enjoyed the first half of the book much more than I had expected. Once the children started on their journey to supposed safety, the story started to lose its way. I was interested in the biblical allusions, but the characters were not fully developed.

I think there are a lot of things one can take away from this #audiobook, especially if they are familiar with the Bible. In a unique way, this novel definitely hits the high notes of many biblical stories, and one can definitely argue there is a strong undercurrent of environmental stewardship issues.

But what struck me most was the author‘s assertion that God is nature, Jesus is science, and the HG is art, and that makes a lot of sense to me!⬇️

This is a first for me. Never before have I written two reviews for one book. Shortly ago I returned home from running errands. While out I was mulling over Millet's novel. While reading CB yesterday there are Biblical references that even the most irreligious reader would pick up on (ie the hurricane & flood, the rules or commandments at the new house etc) When I started reflecting on CB scene by scene it dawned on me that this wasn't a novel👇