Read. Write. Listen. Create.

We are back with book club after a break during the holidays. It’s been awhile.

I’ll start off by saying this one wasn’t a favorite. I don’t seek out dystopian fantasy novels and this book definitely reminded me why.

This book is a speculative fiction novel set in a dystopian California that mostly took place between 2026 and 2027. And the novel was written in 1993 so it was interesting that the author chose to set the novel in 2026 and 2027.

The Earth is in intense climate change and social inequality so it eerily feels like non-fiction. I think that what made the book so depressing was how similar it felt to real life, yet this book is supposed to be fiction.

The story follows Lauren Olamina, a young woman who has become separated from her family and can feel the pain of others. She creates Earthseed, a religion focused on change and establishing a human future. After her community is destroyed, Lauren leads survivors north to safety.

I gave the book 3.25 stars out of five. My initial thoughts were that it was really depressing and so graphic at times, yet my book club shared how desensitized we started to get as the book went on. I thought the writing was okay. It felt like it was supposed to be a diary, but books that are supposed to be a diary always have so much more detail than actual diaries. It ended up just feeling like a story in first person.

I feel like it would seem more shocking if we weren’t already living in the world we’re in today. If it was meant to feel shocking, it wasn’t which is sad.

Once I found out that the book was a direct response to the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, I started to appreciate it more. I could see it as a way to cope with tragedy through art. I really enjoyed the narrator Lynne Thigpen who did an amazing job.

I use books to escape from real life so I would’ve never chosen this book, but that’s why book club stays interesting. Some books come along that really make you think.