To quickly summarize, this book is about a group of adults who are vacationing together with their children during the slow death of the planet due to climate change. The adults drink, get high, and have sex. The children play in the lake, climb trees, and camp, anything to avoid their parents. They feel frustrated and abandoned by their parent’s inaction, both in the present moment and in the years preceding the environmental point of no return. Eventually this frustration leads the children to break out on their own in this new, unsafe world.
This book is timely without being preachy. It is rife with religious symbolism. The title had me worried that the text would be less of a narrative and more of a diatribe but Millet weilds her metaphors with Steinbeckian level universality. There were so many different levels to the plot. I truly wished many times while reading this that I had a group to discuss it with. It would make a great book club book in my opinion.
However, one doesn’t need to delve deep in order to enjoy this book. The base-level itself is compulsively readable. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters. Initially, I was scared I would never remember who was who. However, Millet has a way of reminding you who a character is without repeating herself. I ended up loving each one of the characters she created. I would read a whole series about them.
I would highly, highly recommend this book. It’s a mix of a coming of age novel and an apocalyptic lament that doesn’t feel cheesy or forced.
Dinosaurs and Blueberries 