Spring (and pollen) is in the air! The equinox may happen in March, but the sprouting and blooming of April energizes everything with new life and all the colors of the rainbow. Earth Day celebrates this cycle of renewal and growth. It reminds us that taking care of the earth is our responsibility and what we do as stewards of this planet matters.
Climate fiction, sometimes called environmental or green fiction, gives us a glimpse into a near future where human destruction and carelessness has led to extreme climate and an increase or intensification of natural disasters.
In the venn diagram of genres, some titles overlap with apocalyptic fiction, but the characteristic that makes these two distinct is that whatever precipitated the decline of the planet resulted largely from human neglect or mistreatment. Plot focuses on the mere survival efforts of the humans who remain or a turning back of the ecological clock. As we look to our real future, some themes in this genre hit a little too close to home, but not all of these stories, like our own, are completely devoid of hope. Here are a list of novels that span a spectrum of disastrous outcomes and range from plot-focused to character-driven.
Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman (Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Bleak, Plot Driven, Multiple Perspectives)
The drought-or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it-has been going on for a while now. Everyone's lives have become an endless list of don'ts : don't water the lawn, don't fill up your pool, don't take long showers. Until the taps run dry. Suddenly, Alyssa's quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbours and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don't return and her life-and the life of her brother-is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she's going to survive.
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy (Literary Fiction, Emotionally Intense, Character Driven)
Franny Stone has always been a wanderer. By following the ocean's tides and the birds that soar above, she can forget the losses that have haunted her life. But when the wild she so loves begins to disappear, Franny can no longer wander without a destination. She arrives in remote Greenland with one purpose: to find the world's last flock of Arctic terns and follow them on their final migration. She convinces Ennis Malone, captain of the Saghani, to take her onboard, winning over his salty, eccentric crew with promises that the birds she is tracking will lead them to fish.
As the Saghani fights its way south, Franny's new shipmates begin to realize that the beguiling scientist in their midst is not who she seems. Battered by night terrors, accumulating a pile of letters to her husband, and dead set on following the terns at any cost, Franny is full of dark secrets. When the story of her past begins to unspool, Ennis and his crew must ask themselves what Franny is really running toward-and running from.
American War by Omar El Akkad (Political Fiction, Serious, Shocking, Multiple Perspectives)
A second American Civil War and devastating plague in the late 21st century forces a family into a camp for displaced people, where a young woman is befriended by a mysterious functionary who would transform her into a living weapon.
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton (Literary Fiction, Coming of Age, Complex Characters, Cinematic, Suspenseful)
Born during a powerful hurricane, Wanda, an unusual woman in a rapidly changing world, loses family, gains community and ultimately seeks adventure, love and purpose in a place abandoned by civilization and remade by nature. Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time—The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it.
All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall (Literary Fiction, Haunting, First Person Narratives, Moving)
Nonie, a girl deeply connected to water, narrates this story. After the glaciers melt, she, her sister, parents, and researcher friends create a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History in nearly deserted New York City, following the rule to take from exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow food in Central Park while preserving human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the flood walls, they must escape north on the Hudson, carrying a book of lost collections. As they race toward safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in various, sometimes frightening ways, but they remain determined to build a new world that honors what they’ve saved.
For more titles, check out this list from Tulsa City-County Library.
