The Disaster Tourist

Quite a unique, short and seemingly light-weight novel that packs quite some heavy subjects. In a world that's probably just a tiny bit ahead of us, disaster tourism flourishes. Eager tourists flock to special destinations to glimpse (and occasionally also volunteer, if they are early enough) at sites where tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes have devastated human lives. These travel packages feed on their guests's fascination with tragedy and invoke in them a new gratitude for their own lives. The heroine in this novel works for the company planning the travel packages. Now she's stranded at one of the disaster sites, and suddenly gets to witness how that tourism has transformed the life of the local inhabitants.

Fast-paced and entertaining. Speculative, and close to satire, which was appreciated considering the gloomy picture of humanity at its heart.

3.5