Tilt by Emma Pattee

 

The novel I have been recommending to everyone recently is Emma Pattee's Tilt. As with Headshot, it was recommended on The New York Times book review podcast episode on Mrs. Dalloway. The individual who recommended it described the plot as if Mrs. Dalloway went out "to buy the flowers herself" but then a massive earthquake devastated London and she had to walk home through the ruins. 

Annie is extremely pregnant and in IKEA looking for a crib when an enormous earthquake strikes. In the destruction, she loses her purse with her car keys and cell phone. She sets off to walk into the city of Portland where she hopes to reunite with her husband at his job. 

The chapters alternate between the present moment and the past, as Annie copes with the stress by narrating the events to her unborn child, who she calls "Bean."  Annie was a promising playwright but what with necessities like rent and health insurance she has hedged herself into a life of Excel spreadsheets and planning office lunches. Her attitude towards her first (and only) play has soured, but her voice is sharp and funny, and by the end of the book I felt close to Annie and wanted her to write another play. 

Pattee is a climate journalist and wanted to write a novel that was fairly realistic about what will happen when the Cascadia earthquake hits the west coast. But Tilt is more than a disaster novel, it's a novel about the ambivalence between loving what you have and still wanting more. 

- Michael G. 

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi

“I teach you to be warriors in the garden, so that you may never be gardeners in a war.”

A quote that sums up beautifully much of the meaning behind the trilogy's events. The hardship and strife of the Orïshans paved the way for a new, even stronger, generation. 

This story continues from the last with a chilling twist that there is an enemy larger than the conflict between tîtáns and maji. We always knew the world was bigger than Orïsha, but the thought that that world would close in on them was something never fully considered. We see this nightmare in its entirety as Zélie and all the others were kidnapped and thrown onto a ship steered by men who only crave carnage, power, and domination. Working together to overcome the Skulls is the only way for survival. 

This books ramps up the scope and scale of all the conflict that we've seen within the trilogy thus far. Along with it, we see the heightened struggles of our main characters as they are pushed to their lowest points yet. We sit with them as they see what a truly united civilization could be like, and just how far their own has yet to go. All the while the constant threat of all civilization looms, with Zélie right in the center.

For me personally, it aroused thoughts of what could really unite a civilization. Thoughts to truly see that those around us are also those we need, we must be willing to be vulnerable and honest. Thoughts that that very same willingness won't come unless people are pushed to the brink. And that sometimes, what is needed is a common goal. I mean, would you work with those you despise to overcome the one who threatens you all? What other choice do you really have? 

- Leo