Fault lines

In her latest, Carpenter (The Edge of Anything, 2020), takes Viv, fierce-hearted about environmentalism, and pairs her with Dex, struggling with poverty and with a mother who has recently been hired by a fracking company. While Viv tries to emphasize that society can't afford not to fight companies that foster climate change, Dex brings shades of gray to her argument: not everyone can afford to eat without the jobs these companies offer. Meanwhile, both teens contend with social issues around gender norms even in the face of their conforming and critical peers. Drawing from personal experience living in West Virginia, Carpenter cleverly braids the emotional, intellectual, and practical issues around pipelines and fracking. Without getting too into the weeds, this lays out the basic arguments for each side, accessibly and effectively defining the conflict. At the same time, the novel traces Dex and Viv's tender romance as the pair find comfort in each other despite their very different personalities and circumstances. Hand to fans of activism fiction, like Marisa Reichardt's A Shot at Normal (2021).

A relationship blooms between two misfit teens in rural West Virginia in this contemporary novel. High school junior Viv has a sort of supernatural connection to the energy emitted by the world. After her deceased Aunt Elle's favorite tree collapses in what seems to be a sinkhole, she becomes wary of Briar Gas, the company offering her father money for permission to use their property for a right of way. Twisted Pines newcomer Dex and his mom have struggled to make ends meet for as long as he can remember, and her job working on the oil pipeline that's being built offers them a badly needed shot at economic security. In alternating third-person narratives from the points of view of Viv and Dex, the story shows the unlikely pair being drawn together even as they often disagree with one another's stances on the environmental and economic implications of the pipeline. If the many issues explored here, such as environmental racism and systemic poverty, are at times a bit obvious in their delivery rather than seamlessly interwoven into the story, they are nevertheless important ideas explained by well-developed, nuanced characters with whom readers will easily empathize. The forested setting comes to life in lush, vivid descriptions. Viv and Dex both read white; there is diversity among the secondary characters. An engaging novel that will keep readers thinking. (Fiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.