Post apocalyptic war torn America with a large dose of climate change – American War.
American War – the blurb
2074
AMERICA’S FUTURE IS CIVIL WAR.
SARAT’S REALITY IS SURVIVAL.
THEY TOOK HER FATHER.
THEY TOOK HER HOME.
THEY TOLD HER LIES.
SHE DIDN’T START THIS WAR.
BUT SHE’LL END IT.
Failing fossil fuels and plagues – sound familiar?
It took me a while to get in to this book. My geography of America is triangular (LA, Florida, New York) which wasn’t helped when Akkad split the Country in half-ish and referred to everyone as Blues, Reds, Rebels and Refugees. I was initially reminded of World War Z in the way it skips about with various news reports and survivor tales. But unlike WWZ Akkad offered us Sarat Chestnut, an unlikely hero in anyone’s book. Her life story was brutal if fascinating. I found her desperately sad with echoes of Duchess Day Radley from We Begin at the End. Both books I’ve referred to in this paragraph are some of my favs so American War was in very good company.
It is post apocalyptic but there are no zombies or nuclear bombs. Instead it is fossil fuels and their subsequent banning that leads to a very bloody civil war. Rising tides and temperatures shift the boundaries further – people can no longer live in the submerged cities, food can no longer grow in the parched soil. It wasn’t over done and the world building was just enough to aid the story rather than block it. There is enough of today in it for it to be realistic, though none of us want it to be.
I’m still mulling this one over now that I’ve finished it. I didn’t love it but it definitely had me for all it was a struggle to read.