In the Susan Slack, Kristin asked for dystopian book recommendations. Rob immediately responded, "American War." He responded emphatically, "American War." I added it to my library hold list, not expecting it to drop into my borrowed list until next year. Well, it dropped, and I read it, and wow. This book is good.
The book tells the tale of Serat growing up through the end of the second American Civil War. The war triggered on the ban of gasoline and oil, with the South saying, "Nope." We see, as in most dystopian novels, how people can be awful to each other. What makes this book particularly difficult to read is that we can see our current culture, political environment, and temperament, what we have right now, become this world. We are in the declining years of the American Empire. Other empires will rise after its fail. This book gives the tale of a fictional and completely plausible version.
This book is worth reading, even if you don't really like dystopian fictions. Be in a place where death is bearable, though, it's a rough read.
"Bury me in the same grave because I can’t go on alone. Life’s not worth living alone."
Location 499
This was in the days before — before Julia Templestowe became the rebel South’s first martyr, its first killer, the patron saint of its war.
It is often forgotten: There’s always a before.
Location 579
If you lived in the South during that war, maybe you were never forced from your home at gunpoint, but you knew someone who was. Maybe you didn’t lose a loved one when the Birds came and rained down death with no rhyme or reason, but you knew someone who had.
There's something mystical about the new year that has most everyone believing in the magic of a new beginning, even when the new beginning is an arbitrary point in time that we have designated "one." In particular, we make resolutions to be better (stronger, faster, calmer, lighter, heavier, smarter, funnier, more consistent, less judgmental, more of something, less of something else). I'm reminded of this by a Book Riot 2018 reading resolution post where nearly all the readers said their resolutions were either "read more" or "read more diverse," for some designation of "diverse" (gender, nationality, sexuality (though WHY that one matters, I'm still not 100% sure on)).