INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A TODAY SHOW READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK ONE OF THE GLOBE AND MAIL 'S BEST BOOKS OF 2024 "Thrilling. . . . This remarkable debut delivers its big ideas with suspense, endlessly surprising twists, and abundant heart." --Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers In a near-future northern settlement, a handful of climate change survivors find their fates intertwined in this mesmerizing and transportive novel in the vein of Station Eleven and The Power. America, 2049: Summer ...
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INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A TODAY SHOW READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK ONE OF THE GLOBE AND MAIL 'S BEST BOOKS OF 2024 "Thrilling. . . . This remarkable debut delivers its big ideas with suspense, endlessly surprising twists, and abundant heart." --Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers In a near-future northern settlement, a handful of climate change survivors find their fates intertwined in this mesmerizing and transportive novel in the vein of Station Eleven and The Power. America, 2049: Summer temperatures are intolerably high, the fossil fuel industry has shut down, and humans are implanted with a 'Flick' at birth, which allows them to remain perpetually online. The top echelons of society live in Floating Cities off the coast, while people on the mainland struggle to survive. For Rose, working as a hostess in the city's elite club feels like her best hope for a better future. When a high-profile client offers Rose a job as an escort at a fledgling company in northern Canada called Camp Zero--a source of fresh, clean air and cool temperatures--in return for a home for her displaced mother and herself, she accepts it. But in the north, all is not as it seems. Through skillfully entwined perspectives, including a young professor longing to escape his wealthy family and a group of highly trained women engaged in climate surveillance at a Cold War era research station, the fate of the Camp and its inhabitants comes into stunning relief. Atmospheric, original, and utterly gripping, Camp Zero interrogates the seductive and chilling notion of a utopia; asks who and what will survive as global tensions rise; and imagines how love may sustain us.
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Add this copy of Camp Zero to cart. $17.99, fair condition, Sold by Russell Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Victoria, BC, CANADA, published 2023 by Knopf Canada.
Add this copy of Camp Zero to cart. $27.99, new condition, Sold by Russell Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Victoria, BC, CANADA, published 2023 by Knopf Canada.
I was really excited to get an ARC for Camp Zero, and it was at the top of my anticipated TBR pile for ages. I've been enjoying the 'Frostpunk' game series at the moment and the idea of a post-apocalyptic camp in eternal winter really appealed.
The story is told through three perspectives - there's Rose; an escort who has started to work in a newly built camp in the North, Grant; a teacher who has also joined the camp to escape his family's reputation and the ladies of The White Alice Camp. There isn't a notion of time or place with these perspectives though, and we are unsure if the timelines are running together or not. We quickly learn that Rose and Grant are in the same time and place as they meet each other but it is a good 90% of the way through the book before we learn how the White Alice storyline fits into any of the narrative.
This was my main issue with Camp Zero, I was expecting either a pacy apocalyptic thriller - a race against the elements to survive, or perhaps a character driven psychological thriller full of secrets and tension and betrayal. Sadly, Camp Zero seems to have none of these elements. There isn't really much of a plot, what is there is mostly either flashback or build up which leads nowhere. Annoyingly, the book then also ends on a cliff-hanger to what would seem like a much more interesting and action-packed story.
Grants flashbacks are interesting and heart-breaking in places, but I didn't really feel much for any of the characters as a whole. The blooms are never really explored in much detail beyond broad brush-stokes and the same can be said of the construction workers. At the end the book then shines a spotlight on characters which you have initially dismissed as background characters because they didn't have much relevance to the plot.
Overall, Camp Zero was just a lot of build-up with zero payoff, with vague characters and very little plot. Thank you to NetGalley & John Murray Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
