March 1, 2023
After a bacterial apocalypse kills off much of the world's population, Kit and Crevan have managed to make a life for themselves by hiding away on an island, in a bunker under an abandoned castle. One night while out for a walk, they come upon a half-drowned woman washed up on the shore. Crevan attempts to save her life, but Kit is sure she is going to destroy their safe haven. This intruder will lead them both to take actions that could destroy everything they've built, as well as reopen old wounds that Kit has buried for years. Told entirely in Kit's frenetic voice and rambling stream-of-consciousness, the storytelling verges on experimental fiction at times, depicting a woman who is deeply flawed and damaged. Her internal dialogue is full of complex thoughts and turns of phrases, but in her interactions with Crevan, she uses baby talk and looks to him as a father figure. VERDICT Calder (The Offset) tells a unique tale that will appeal to many cli-fi fans, though some may be put off by the leisurely pacing and introspective storytelling.--Portia Kapraun
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2023
The narrator of British author Calder's eerie dystopian novel is a young woman living on an isolated island within sight of a mainland ravaged by infection. The novel's greatest draw is the woman's enthralling voice, archaically formal and casually poetic. Whether her story makes sense or should be trusted is another matter. She avoids explaining why she's ended up on the island, secure in a well-stocked bunker under a disintegrating ancient castle. Her sole companion is handsome, mysterious Crevan, who joined her some time ago and calls her Kit though it's not her name. Although she sometimes, creepily, calls him daddy, he is clearly not her father. Nor are they lovers, although the sexual tension can grow intense. She prefers not to dwell on risk and considers Crevan paranoid. He repeatedly promises he will never hurt and always protect her, but she doesn't trust stories about his previous life and how he was forced to kill in self-defense. Still, she's fascinated by his explanations of the strange tattooed patches pricked onto his arm while he was a captive of what they both call backbiters, former doctors now "a-hunting" human blood. Why they're doing so remains initially unclear, although Kit occasionally breaks away from personal obsessing to deliver treatises on how humankind has reached "the end of days" because science has lost the battle against devouring bacteria that attack not only people, but, more disastrously, plastic. Meanwhile, Kit's happy on the island and drawing closer to Crevan. Then a half-dead woman shows up to disrupt, possibly infect Kit and Crevan's uneasy paradise, and Kit discovers she's willing to do almost anything to survive. Although Calder missteps with an unfortunate last plot twist into psychological melodrama, the bulk of her novel plays cleverly with contagion and bacteria as metaphors for the spread of both good and evil. Tantalizing prose carries what is essentially a cautionary tale about unintended consequences; Calder is worth watching.
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