In the Club 04/21/21

This novel is such a trip, a very not-subtle piece of commentary on climate change with some light Lord of the Flies vibes. A group of kids and teens are spending the summer at a lakeside mansion where their parents are having lots of booze, drugs, and sex while they mostly ignore their offspring. When a massive storm descends on the estate, the kids run right out into the apocalyptic chaos outside, one of them with a children’s bible in tow. As they seek refuge in an abandoned farm house, the events in the pages of the bible begin to bleed into real life.

This book takes place in the 2020s (join me in a laugh sob) where climate change has made basic resources scarce. Most find themselves at the mercy of a few corporations holding all the jobs and money (okay maybe it’s just a sob). Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives in Los Angeles inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the goings on of the outside world—for a while. As the anarchy grows and her world falls apart, Lauren struggles to make her voice heard while trying to protect her loved ones the imminent doom her small, insular community stubbornly insists on ignoring (more sobbing). Making matters more complicated: she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to other people’s emotions. You’ll want to pick up the second book in this biology, Parable of the Talents, too.

Botanist and professor Robin Wall Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potowatomi Nation, and this book of environmental science and indigenous wisdom is practically a classic in nature writing (not to mention a Book Riot fave). It’s a call to action for each of us to play a more active role in the protection and restoration of the natural world and in climate change initiatives, reminding us of the harmonious relationship indigenous communities shared with nature before some other humans (hint: colonization!) came in and messed sh*t up in epic and tragic fashion.