A moving dystopian novel with a queer and an indigenous protagonist at the fore.
Stepsiblings Millie and Rose have only each other and their infant half-brother Sammy; their parents are dead or long gone. A year ago, a solar flare scorched the Earth and destroyed the ozone layer, turning the world into a treacherous wasteland. Millie insists that their best chance of survival is finding her grandmother, a Seminole elder who “[knows] things about the land that nobody else does.” They set out on the 10-day trip from Appalachia to South Carolina with their dog Corncob, hoping to avoid notice from the Hive, a nasty group that has hoarded supplies and violently keeps others from them. Rose, however, listens on the radio for coded signals from the mysterious Sanctuary, a reputed safe haven.
In chapters alternating their perspectives, we see Millie and Rose navigating issues of trust, with each other and with another group of survivors they encounter, kids from a theater camp and their counselor. And their journey causes each of them to look deeply into themselves as well, to find strength, purpose, and in Rose’s case, a reexamination of gender identity. If you want to know more, click and drag over the line below:
Rose realizes they are nonbinary.
We meet other queer characters, too, including a transgender boy and a young man in a relationship with another man.
This is a postapocalyptic world, and there are some difficult moments, including an apparent shooting of a man (not seen directly), the injury of a bear cub, and the deaths (before the story begins) of Rose’s and Millie’s father and mother. But it is a middle grade novel, so in the end, things turn out a little better than they might have in a novel for older readers. Nevertheless, the story thoughtfully explores issues of grief, survival, family (born, formed, and chosen), and the type of world we want to build, making it a highly recommended title.
Millie is half Seminole and half White; Rose is White; other characters have a variety of racial/ethnic identities.
