Slightly Terrifying Dystopian Tale

Reviews are important to writers and readers, so I plan to share them here occasionally. This one was done by N.N. Light’s Book Heaven and appeared on Amazon and a number of other sites.

5 stars for Refuge from the World (The Beartooth Chronicles, Book 1)

My Review: 

A chilling scenario depicting the future consequences of global warming sets the stage for this YA dystopian tale.

In Beartooth, Ashley McPhee lives a quiet life with her mother, Sara, her best friend Caleb, and a small group of families in a self-sustaining small community. With water levels rising and shifting tectonic plates, the United States is shrinking, and the residents of Beartooth fear the chaos and violence in nearby settlements will find them.

Especially, after they learn the government plans to use an untested, geoengineering process to cool the planet, threatening their fragile ecosystem and potentially destroying their crops. To complicate matters even further for Ashley, her mother’s health is failing, forcing her to consider marriage and assume full responsibility of their apiary.

The world-building is detailed, depicting not only the shifting geography, but also the changes in wildlife behavior. From the beginning of the story, a sense of danger looms over the characters that carries through to the end, leading into the next book of the series coming this summer.

Ashley is a wonderful main character with a quiet strength pushing her forward despite all the obstacles in her path. Her counterpart, Caleb also plays a vital role in the story with bravery and leadership. With the older members of the community aging, Ashley and Caleb, along with a secondary cast of characters around their age, must carry the future of their community on their backs and forge ahead.

I highly recommend this slightly terrifying dystopian tale for fans of Hunger Games and the Divergent Series. My Rating: 5 stars.