California

It was OK, just OK. If there had been a character I liked I may have enjoyed it more. I've had a string of really good reads lately and this was a bit of a letdown. The world seemed a little patchy - like a Potemkin Village. We saw a bit of the world but the depth wasn't there, and being forced to travel it with people ranging from mildly irritating to downright odious wasn't enjoyable.

It seemed like a steady barrage of expository information was dumped on the reader in order to catch them up to the real-time events taking place in the novel. Luckily, that information was always compelling and the story felt more like the beginning introduction to a potentially larger story than a stand-alone novel. I would gladly read more about this world and these characters.

The story meanders around and finally stops - I can't say that the story has a start or an end. We're brought into the story after society has fallen apart. We're never told what caused the dystopia, or if it affects the entire world or just the United States of America. When the book ends, nothing has really changed in society. The story isn't a ‘coming of age' tale, nor does it teach a lesson or preach a moral. Good does not triumph over evil. The reader has followed a set of characters through a small portion of their lives, but I don't see any point to the story beyond exploring some vaguely interesting characters as they learn more about each other in a dystopian world. Still, it kept my interest, so I didn't give it a poor rating.

There were so many tropes here that I liked.

Lepucki's vision of the post-collapse world is very similar to mine, although I had doubts about sustainability of the economy in which the Communities were supposed to prosper, given the lack of mass market and such. Where does all the money come from and how come it still has value? But hey, that's just me being picky.

I enjoyed reading this a lot.

A not-so-distant dystopian future about a couple living alone in the wild, trying to create some sort of normalcy, after everyday life blew apart in terrorist attacks, war etc leading to destruction of infrastructure, making cities uninhabitable and unsafe. The woman gets pregnant and fears of being able to raise a child in the wild makes them go look for others.

The setup has potential, first focusing on the peace but also negative effect of 2 people living isolated, only having each other. There are small beautiful character moments. Then the couple, reaching a settlement that is clouded in mystery and strict rules to ensure survival, bit for bit drifts apart through the stress of secrecy.

The novel has a lot of psychologically interesting aspects, what would happen with humanity after an apocalypse, the lord-of-the-flies vibe, going feral, what rules do you abide by to pay for safety, falling back into a strict men/women division, etc. it's all there in bits and pieces, but ...

... but the execution is lacking. I felt a lot like I wanted to read a better version of this book.

We're mid collapse. The world is slowly ending, not with a bang but a whimper. There's no viral pandemic or cataclysmic incident that sets things in motion. Instead, global warming, natural disasters and economic collapse have the wealthy retreating to gated “Communities” while others, like the protagonists Calvin and Frida, eke out an existence on the edges. The dystopian backdrop strips away everything so Lepucki can examine the interpersonal relationship between newly married Cal and Frida - the secrets they keep and the stories they tell now they know that Frida is pregnant.