American War

2.5 stars. The premise intrigued me as an interesting glimpse into a dystopian future, but the execution was poor. The story plodded along and the characters seemed robotic (with the exception of the narrator). The format of the book tried to emulate World War Z and Waking Gods, but the interludes offered little clarification.

TL;DR - overhyped.

This book was a very enjoyable read. It was a little bit on the nose and sensational. I almost completely got the point that was trying to be made just by the book jacket description though. There are good lessons about where we could end up in here but they are hammered home to the Nth degree.
I don't think 3/5 is a bad rating and would recommend this book but I felt it was just an extreme cautionary tale about how we could end up causing a Second Civil War if we continue down the path.

3.5 out of 5 stars – see this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

Omar El Akkad's debut novel is an inventive and timely story that uses the framework of what we understand about the United States today and extrapolates a possible horrifying future. A collection of states in the Deep South has attempted secession due to their refusal to cease using fossil fuels. Sarat Chestnut is young girl growing up in a refugee camp within these Free Southern States, while deadly conflict between the Blue (North) and Red (South) explodes all around her. American War explores the future consequences of many of today's hot-button political issues: drone warfare, torture, climate change, nativism, the American political divide, and several others.

The worldbuilding El Akkad employs is extremely effective. Many things about this dystopian future are clearly communicated to the reader (a redrawn map of the United States, primary source documents) and the rest is interwoven in a subtle way that requires a small mental step to fully appreciate — a character references a Category 6 storm that passes through (oh, there are now storms bigger than a Category 5?) or discussions of the fighting craze “Yuffsy” (an evolved version of the pseudo-sound-alike “UFC”).

Sarat's unrelenting personal narrative wasn't quite as compelling to me as the overall world that she inhabited, but this was still a really impressive debut; it just never quite got over the hump to go from “good” to “great.” I would welcome another book set in this world, but I'd happily read anything else El Akkad comes out with next.

Oh man this was bleak. It's the story of a child whose experiences during a second American Civil War (fought over an abolition of fossil fuels in the wake of climate change-driven sea rise) turn her into a revolutionary and it's a very realistic psychological portrait of the effects of war...which also means it is a huge downer.

Set towards the end of the 21st century, the US is a place in tumult, battled by regular nature disasters and a civil war of south vs north over the use of clean energy vs fossil fuels. We follow the story of Sarat, a girl that's recruited and trained for the cause of the south, fueled by her anger over the death of family members and a childhood in a refugee camp.

My interest in this waxed and waned, which I probably have to blame on the disruptive mix of personal storytelling from several perspectives and the drier historical reports in between.

2.5