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I love the thought of dystopian stories but they rarely meet my expectations. This was a short audio; at only 4 hours it‘s hard to do much world building and character development. For most of the story tough girl Reid is hog hunting?? I mean that was fine but too drawn out and she didn‘t even start her journey that we hear so much about. Interesting illness though: “cad” is a fungi infecting most of the humans left and influences their behavior.

It was not instantaneous, the end of the world... And, of course, the world did not end at the same time for everyone... It was slow enough that for a long time, it did not seem truly dire... Till suddenly, the feedback cycles tipped over, became too front-heavy to regulate themselves... And then, the lights went out. Flickered feebly back on as governments and billionaires threw money at the problems... And at last, the lights went out for good.

On a near-future Earth, society and infrastructure have largely collapsed. Ree gets an exciting opportunity and we see how those around her respond to it. I liked this slim book, but I wanted it to be a bit meatier. I found this future Earth interesting and wanted to see more of it. (There‘s now a book 2, but still.)

I have been keeping a record of books featuring magpies on their cover art, not counting nonfiction about magpies or birds in general. Here they are. Can you think of others?

(2021) Set in a near-future Alberta devastated by climate change and plagued by an epidemic of an untreatable fungal parasite. The narrator is a young woman offered a chance to rise above the dead-end scrabble for existence, but she must also think about those she may leave behind, and so takes a dangerous risk to balance the scales. It's bleak but packs a character-driven punch. I want a sequel.

This was my #BookSpin read for March.

Yay for another month of #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin . My March reads are a novella which I know nothing about except that it's by the author of "And What Can We Offer You Tonight" -- which is all the reason I need -- and a book about disabilities and the church. I expect both to be quick, rewarding reads.

Also: two gorgeous covers, right?

Thanks again, @TheAromaofBooks !

I really liked this dystopian novella about a girl living in a world wracked by climate change and a strange fungal condition affecting a large part of the population and impacting their behavior. After being accepted into a prestigious university, she must decide whether to take a chance and leave her community behind or stay and live the life she's always known.

TW for mentions of suicide and suicide attempt

Thank you #booked2022 for introducing me to the term #hopepunk ! Hope Punk was coined in 2017. The characters fight for positive versions of future worlds.This book is listed as being a part of that sci- fi genre. Set in post climate disaster Alberta, a young woman infected with a mysterious parasite must decide whether to remain with her mother in the community that has nurtured her, or to take a chance on a different future with many unknowns.

Current audiobook. Only two prompts remaining for #booked2022 #hopepunk

A different kind of book. Open-ending Novella, so might not be for everyone.
#Novella #hopepunk #awardwinning

I had ~*feelings*~ reading this! This slight novella isn't earth shattering but it does pack an emotional punch.

Mohamed is reckoning with the future of climate change and those aspects are well thought out and terrifying, but what really hits you is the universal story of growing beyond your sense of safety into the fullness of what life can be. How does one leave family and community, with all of its challenges, and journey into the unknown?

A 2022 Aurora Best Novella nominee, this story explores the difficult choices a teenage girl must make in an apocalyptic world ravaged by a climate disaster and a mind-altering parasite. #auroraawards

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

5🌟A wonderfully clever post-apocalyptic novella that hits on community, survival, and radical hope.
I loved this tiny yet hard hitting book! It had everything I want in a dystopian novella. Fantastic prose, its speculative but literary at the same time. Offers an optimistic outlook on post apocalyptic life, and had an interesting premis! #bookreview #canlit #bookblogger #booktweet #booktok

Reid has the opportunity to leave her "city" for university in a far off, protected dome. But what does she owe to her family? Friends? Community? And what does she owe to herself? Can she learn to live with the Cad, a fungal infection inherited from her mother? This is not a fast-paced, action-packed post-apocalyptic novella. Rather it is slow and considered, raising questions that have no real answers but will leave you thinking.

"You don't name it; you don't give it a name, either."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Oof. A few years ago this would have screwed with my anxiety so bad. Don't read if mysterious mind controlling fungal infections get to you!

I'm enjoying it, though -- it's so beautifully written, and I'm curious how it's going to resolve.

#AestheticallyMatched @Clwojick

#Pantone2022 #PoppySeed @Clwojick

I absolutely loved this! In the first chapter I had no idea what was going on, and I tried to sort out the particulars of the post apocalyptic future we were in while I enjoyed the poetic language. But the story quickly took shape and everything became clearer. The world in this short novel is harsh, but humanity‘s best traits have survived. This left me full of delicious questions about what happens next. #Booked2022 #WeatherTermInTheTitle

You don‘t name it; you don‘t give it a name, either.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

5/5

Reid's life is on the cusp of major changes as she has to decide what direction her future will go in a future where climate change has made life as we know it impossible. The language is beautiful, and I love that the entire novella is set in the spot before the hero decides to embark on her journey and that in this novella, her decision whether or not to embark is the journey.

1. The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed and When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting

2. The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

3. I just cleared them all out with A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria last week, so I need start getting more on the list again.

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

1. The Eloquence of the Sardine by Bill François and The Annual Migration of Cloud by Premee Mohamed

2. Excel for general tracking, goodreads/litsy for my TBR and reviews, and StoryGraph for reading challenges

3. Maybe this Christmas by Susannah Nix (putting together a festive December TBR)

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

This little novella is simply AMAZING! I loved it so much. There was more character development, story, & heart in less than 200 pages than in many full length novels. A masterpiece. This dystopian cli-fi presents a view of the world ravaged by fall out from climate change. Food shortages, disease, & scarce resources heavily influences civilization. Reid is a young woman living in this world who must choose between her dream & her community.⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

Victory!!! A mere 27 days late but it has arrived! Take that shipping delays!

The way we live now breaks the whole world. This intimate novella is set in a small community in the future, in a landscape ravaged by climate change. Nothing is fair. People are still people, getting on with their lives, even while some are living with an inheritable symbiotic fungus. I deeply appreciate the matter-of-fact portrayal of both good things & bad. I guess that‘s what‘s meant by the hopepunk genre? #CanadianAuthor #shadowgiller2021

The main characters in this dystopian SF novella live in apartments created in the structure that was the University of Alberta‘s Biological Sciences building. In the early 1980s I worked there for 2 years (2 maternity leave replacement contracts) in the library of the now defunct Boreal Institute for Northern Studies. Fellow Library Littens: the cataloguing system was the Universal Decimal Classification!
(Internet photo)

Civilization? A terrible idea, a terrible word. Civilization is a word from Back Then—a noun meaning something that had destroyed itself because that is what civilizations were meant to do, and a verb meaning “to ruin by extraction.”

(Photo by Edward Burtynsky https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/photographs/mines)

Fat white clouds over the valley, blustering and important, on their way to some committee or other. Places to be.

Magpies always seem to want to know what you‘re doing; and once they know, they want to supervise. “Go away,” I tell them. “You‘re terrible spies.”

A chickadee sings. Little survivor, they don‘t migrate; none of the migratory birds come back now. This one hunkered down over the winter. Hardcore. (What does that mean? The core of what? We get half our slang from water-swollen novels spanning decades. An endless puzzle, figuring them out.)