Trashlands Published by Harlequin Enterprises ULC on October 26, 2021 Source: Blog Tour
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Dystopian
Pages: 384
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram
Format: Ebook Arc
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
"This thought-provoking apocalypse noir fires on all cylinders." -Publishers Weekly starred review
From the author of Road Out of Winter, winner of the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award, comes a resonant, visionary novel about the power of art and the sacrifices we are willing to make for the ones we love
A few generations from now, the coastlines of the continent have been redrawn by floods and tides. Global powers have agreed to not produce any new plastics, and what is left has become valuable: garbage is currency.
In the region-wide junkyard that Appalachia has become, Coral is a "plucker," pulling plastic from the rivers and woods. She's stuck in Trashlands, a dump named for the strip club at its edge, where the local women dance for an endless loop of strangers and the club's violent owner rules as unofficial mayor.
Amid the polluted landscape, Coral works desperately to save up enough to rescue her child from the recycling factories, where he is forced to work. In her stolen free hours, she does something that seems impossible in this place: Coral makes art.
When a reporter from a struggling city on the coast arrives in Trashlands, Coral is presented with an opportunity to change her life. But is it possible to choose a future for herself?
Told in shifting perspectives, Trashlands is a beautifully drawn and wildly imaginative tale of a parent's journey, a story of community and humanity in a changed world.
"A harrowing tale that is a natural extension of our current climate crisis.... Highly recommended." -Booklist, starred review
Review
Imagine a world where the most valuable thing is plastic. The plastic used a currency and a building block for your homes. Imagine a world where things have become so terrible that your children are stolen from you to work in factories until they are too old to be of use. Trashlands is a world that Alison Stine is sharing with us that could very well become our world. Our main character unexpectedly becomes pregnant, and one night, her camp is raided, and her son stolen from her. Now her whole life revolves around getting enough money to get him back. This is a well-thought-out novel, but I wish the ending I wanted to had been more resolved and more petite to figure out yourself because of these characters. I felt for them and the hardships and challenging decisions that they make. The world-building was creative enough. I could imagine this world of trash and plastic and the dangers of living like that—overall, an excellent thought-provoking story.
About Alison Stine
Alison Stine is an award-winning poet and author. Recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and an Ohio Arts Council grant, she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow and received the Studs Terkel Award for Media and Journalism. She works as a freelance reporter with The New York Times, writes for The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, 100 Days in Appalachia, ELLE, The Kenyon Review, and others, and has been a storyteller on The Moth. After living in Appalachian Ohio for many years, she now lives and writes in Colorado with her partner, her son, and a small orange cat.
