50. Blackfish City

Blackfish City. Sam Miller. 2018.

This post-climate-change-apocalypse novel includes a story line with a highly contagious disease that causes dementia and the ability to hear other people's thoughts.  It is set in a future in which most people do not remember where they came from, governments have all completely collapsed, most (but definitely not all) rich people have died, it is possible to have a life bond with an animal, and capitalism and corporatism have taken over.  It might not have been the best book to read during the pandemic.

I wasn't completely draw into this story, even though there was a lot to like about the world, the characters, and the plot.  Maybe it was because at the beginning of the book, while still reading the set-up about this world and the people in it, I got to thinking about the difference between accepting a changing world and being stuck trying to get back to the world before things changed, which was a fleeting theme in the backstory.  It really got me thinking about how hard the current pandemic has been for me on a personal level and I realized that this is in large part because I was treating it as temporary, as something that was a blip in life, instead of accepting that the world has changed and realizing that the sooner I adapt to the new reality, the sooner my unhappiness about it might pass.  In that respect, this book has inspired me to embrace this new way of being and to actively put into place the  things I need to be content here. Thinking about the ways in which this future world responded to crisis and how I am responding to this crisis really got me shifting my attitude in positive ways.

Other things to love here include that the future includes Queerness as part of its fabric, woven in seamlessly, the way it should be here and now, the connection with animals, and the fairly sophisticated treatment of socialism and capitalism.  I enjoyed the book, but because it had me thinking so much about my own situation in the world at the moment, the plot itself didn't hold my attention.  Overall, I give it the rare not NOT recommended.  

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