Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Kitasei (The Stardust Grail) demonstrates her range in this moving portrayal of sibling dynamics set in a disturbing near future. A devastating blight has decimated humanity's food supplies. In its wake, Skipper supports herself and her ailing grandmother by selling the plastic, metal, and glass waste she scavenges from a large offshore garbage patch. She becomes increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of her oldest sister, Nora, who got a job working for the massive agricultural company Renewal as a product tester and has been visiting less and less frequently. After hearing nothing from her for several months, Skipper gets a letter from one of Nora's colleagues informing her that Nora has not been seen for a while, and asking if she returned home. Skipper persuades her other sister, Carmen, a nurse, to sail with her across the largely flooded world in search of Nora. The stakes increase when the sisters learn that Nora was embroiled in corporate intrigue involving Renewal's high-security vault containing seeds "built to endure the end of civilization." Meanwhile, the close proximity of the voyage brings long dormant tensions between Skipper and Carmen to a head. Kitasei pays as much attention to her protagonist's nuanced inner life as to the page-turning apocalyptic plotline, creating a tale that feels both intimate and expansive. It's an impressive feat. (Sept.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Like much of the world, Skipper's family is barely surviving in a future where all life is prone to mutation and disease. Mega-corporations must constantly issue new genetically modified seeds to ensure crops are edible each year. There's a cancerous fungus running through the human population, and it may be related to dangerous, but vital chemicals that everyone uses and that the corporations sell. In many recent novels, humanity has created its own apocalypse, and Kitasei's (The Stardust Grail) stands with the best of them. What makes her novel rise above are the family dynamics. The oldest sister, Nora, takes her reputation for brilliance and runs off to the city. Carmen, vivacious and practical, uses her charm to form community anywhere, and Skipper, the youngest, wanders her own impractical path. When Nora vanishes, it's Skipper who insists they sail away from home in the rickety boat the sisters repaired long ago. Each clue they discover leads them further from home and changes Skipper and Carmen's relationship with each other and who they believe Nora to be. VERDICT An unputdownable novel of family bonds and ordinary people fighting corporate greed, sure to appeal to fans of Carrie Vaughn's Bannerless and Cory Doctorow's Walkaway.--Matthew Galloway
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Two sisters set sail in a world beset by rising oceans and blight. Carmen and Skipper Shimizu's older sister, Nora, has gone missing. Since she moved to the city, she kept in touch and visited occasionally, but now they can't get ahold of her and someone from her lab has contacted them asking to dispose of her things. Skipper, who has never left their small hometown, decides to take a radical step: She will sail to the city and find Nora. Carmen invites herself along and the two begin a journey that will take them through a world wracked by flooding and pollinator collapse. As they travel, they will see the state of the Earth, in both decay and rebirth, and witness the highs and lows that humanity can reach. On their trail is a multinational corporation, with its hands in worldwide agriculture, in more ways than the sisters know. A quiet but riveting story about life on a changing planet, this novel offers a realistic picture of the future we may experience, while never straying from the characters' inner journeys and love for sailing at the heart of the novel. Kitasei focuses on the relationships among the three sisters and the conflict inherent in being true to themselves, while also laying out a plot that moves steadily forward through explorations and traps and a good deal of conspiracy. As the sisters learn how science can remake or take apart the world, they also meet complicated individuals striving to do the right thing, even when they sometimes fail. Wonderfully constructed and told, the sisters' world is one full of both darkness and hope, as humans continue to find their way in a crumbling, changed environment. Luminous, credible, and engrossing from beginning to end. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
