Camp Zero: A Novel
"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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Community Reviews
What’s it about?
It is 2049 and 25-year-old Rose is a sex worker living in a floating city- safe from the heat and rising waters. She takes on a dangerous new assignment, from her boss Damien, on his pledge that she will be done with this life and he will secure she and her mother a new future. But going North is not what she expected.
What did it make me think about?
What a grim future she paints for the world.
Should I read it?
This dystopian novel had much to recommend. The plot keeps moving and Rose was a likable character. The premise that climate change had caused this apocalyptic future was a little disturbing- but also very timely. While the first half of the book pulls you in- I didn’t love the last third of the book as well. It seemed like the author may have run out of steam and just tried to find a way to wrap up the novel quickly.
Quote-
“The summer people equated the furnishings with a more innocent era when a hot summer was merely a hot summer and not symptomatic of the uncertain present.”
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