Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Unwin Award for Nonfiction Edition With Some Real Talk About Nonfiction Displays (a Becky Rant Post)

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

Brand new award alert! And it is not only for nonfiction, but also for a body of work rather than a specific title. All of this means it is an awesome new resource.

Okay, let me back up a bit. The Publisher's Association in the UK has been working on launching the Unwin Prize. Who is the Publisher's Association? From their about page (which makes be adore them right off the bat):

We are the member organisation for UK publishing, representing companies of all sizes and specialisms.  

Our members produce digital and print books, research journals and educational resources across genres and subjects.   

We exist to champion publishing to the wider world and to provide our members with everything they need to thrive.

Our members are at the heart of our mission. We bring them together; provide them with the information they need; seek solutions to problems; and campaign to achieve them.  

We have helped change laws, improved business conditions and inspired people to become publishers. 

We are passionate about the capacity for books and reading to make life better for people.

So back in September of 2024 they had this announcement abut the inaugural Unwin Prize: 

The Unwin Award is a new, annual literary award administered by The Publishers Association, recognising non-fiction authors in the earlier stages of their careers as authors whose work is considered to have made a significant contribution to the world.  

The Unwin Award is intended to champion and showcase the value of the UK publishing industry to the world. The Unwin Award has been made possible following a donation from the Unwin Charitable Trust. 

Worth £10,000, The Unwin Award will be awarded to the author for their overall body of work, rather than being associated with a specific title. 

That page has the links to the rules, eligibility, and how to submit. One of the most interesting things about eligibility as listed on that page is this: 

"Nominated authors must have published no more than three non-fiction books."

So this award is for people early in their career and it is a judged award (judges names here). It is for authors to keep an eye on and so the shortlist is even more helpful. These are nonfiction authors who have made a track record for themselves. There will be books we can order and suggest with confidence because the author (not just a single books) was vetted by a panel of expert judges-- including a bookseller  (which is key as this is not just a snooty critics prize). And with a shortlist of six authors, we have access to more than just six books.

We always need more resources for nonfiction suggestions and I for one am totally here for this. And yes, we have no backlist, but if this prize continues....we will!

[Side note, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction and its longlist --and backlist-- is a good comparable prize here]

Here is the page with the shortlist announcement with some of the text below:

The Unwin Award has announced the six writers shortlisted for the inaugural year of this new, literary award recognising non-fiction writers in the earlier stages of their careers as authors, whose work is considered to have made a significant contribution to the world. Worth £10,000, the Unwin Award recognises authors for their overall body of work, with the winner set to be revealed at a ceremony held at The Royal Institution on 1 April 2025. The six writers in contention are:

• Catherine Belton is the author of Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West anda former Moscow Correspondent for the Financial Times – campaigning against the type of SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) laws she had been a victim of following the publication of her debut book. The Unwin Award Judging Panel 2025 praised Belton’s deeply scholarly and investigative approach, and her continued bravery to champion free speech in the face of Russian intimidation.

• Caroline Criado-Perez is a writer, broadcaster and award-winning feminist campaigner, whose book Invisible Women won the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, the Books Are My Bag Readers’ Choice Award and the Royal Society Science Book Prize. The Unwin Award Judging Panel 2025 praised the scope of research, use of statistics, and the persuasive, resonant power of Criado-Perez’s writing, as well as the countless impacts of her work in influencing policy, research, news commentary and conversation.

• Helen Czerski is a physicist, oceanographer, broadcaster and author of three books, including Blue Machine, based at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London. The Unwin Award Judging Panel 2025 praised the way in which Czerski uses compelling data in her books to highlight ocean science literacy and the vital role the seas play in sustaining life, alongside the variety of ways in which readers have engaged with her work: from architects, parliamentarians, students, novelists and academics.

• Afua Hirsch is a writer, filmmaker, journalist, presenter, columnist and author of books including Brit(ish) – exploring Britishness, identity and belonging – for which she was awarded the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize for Non-Fiction. The Unwin Award Judging Panel 2025 praised the ways in which Hirsch’s writing interrogates our national identity post-Brexit, sharing her personal story in a way that has transformed how we talk about history, race and belonging.

• Guy Shrubsole is the author of three award-winning titles including The Lost Rainforests of Britain, and an environmental campaigner on climate and nature crises, working for a wide range of organisations from Friends of the Earth and the Right to Roam campaign to the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The Unwin Award Judging Panel 2025 praised Shrubsole’s lyrical, inspiring and educational prose, and the ways in which his work has shaped public understanding of land ownership, conservation, and our relationship with the natural world.

• Chris Van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, has a PhD in molecular virology from University College London where he is an Associate Professor, and is one of the BBC’s leading broadcasters and author of the acclaimed Ultra-Processed People. The Unwin Award Judging Panel 2025 praised Van Tulleken’s passion and knowledge of his subject, and the undeniable impact he has achieved in placing UPF into the news agenda and increasing public awareness and general conversation around what we eat. 

What a range of types of books they all write. Click through for more information about the prize.

Now check your catalogs to see if you can add books by these authors.

But remember the title of this series of posts-- they are about USING awards lists to help you help readers. To that end, I am here to tell you to use this post and the ACM site (mentioned above) to make a nonfiction display for all readers. Don't center it around a topic. Rather, call it "Great Nonfiction Reads." 

We get obsessed with our subject and titles for our displays and want to make everything fit into a tight category. But here's the thing, this is detrimental to reaching the largest number of readers. Readers don't care about your category. They want a good book they wouldn't find on their own. We put all these unnecessary barriers on our work because why? We like cute or punny titles. We think we have to make everything fit into an easy to define box.

It is dumb and infuriating to me how we continue to put our desire to organize things into categories above helping readers.

Look, we need to ALWAYS think more like a reader and less like a library worker. Readers will be more drawn to a display that has the largest reach. Why? Because if you have, for example, a nonfiction display of memoirs of politicians, you will get some interest from people who identify as readers of this topic. But if instead you have a display of "Great Nonfiction Reads for Every Reader." anyone who is looking for a nonfiction read will be drawn to look. And you can pull so many great books from all over the dewey landscape, including memories by politicians.

Your job is easier because the universe of books you can pull from is larger(again ACM website has hundreds of options) and you will reach more readers.

That's a win-win.

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: RUSA Books and Media Awards and Bonus, YALSA Alex Awards

 This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool. 

On Sunday,  RUSA presented their Books and Media Awards, including the most prestigious prize The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction. Below are the individual links for the lists a winners with the ACM titles singled out. For each award I will also explain what it is for, but note, these are all the best and most readable titles for a general adult audience. 

I cannot stress enough how important these awards are to us as we help our patrons. These books were picked as excellent by our peers-- people who do the job of connecting books with readers through the public library. I have served on the ACM committee and have many friends who have served on all of the others below. These choices are from a consensus of people who understand readers and what they are looking for in their leisure reads. This is not a popularity contest. These books represent proven winners. And as such, you can trust all of these books to appeal to your patrons. You should own them and add them proudly to displays and lists for years to come. 

Please go to the excellent RUSA Book and Media website which has a link for each award with the current winners displayed and very easy backlist access. That backlist access is here, but please note, you need to use the links below for Sunday's winners until they update the main page.

First up, The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction. The Carnegie Awards, established in 2012, serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by ALA and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers.Please go to the ACM website for the finalists, long list, and backlist, but the 2025 winners are: 

Fiction:
Percival Everett
James
(Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC)

In an astounding riposte, Everett rewrites Huckleberry Finn as the liberation narrative of the enslaved man Huck befriends. Determined to rescue his wife and daughter, James takes the story in a completely different direction than the original, exemplifying the relentless courage and moral clarity of an honorable man with nothing to lose.

Nonfiction:
Kevin Fedarko
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
(Scribner)

Centering his own lifelong relationship with the Grand Canyon, from reading about it as a child through his time as a clumsy canoe guide, Fedarko shares his canyon-spanning hike, replete with steps, missteps, and arguments along the way. He particularly inspires in detailing the ancestral history of the land and some of the Indigenous individuals who continue to fight against overdevelopment and ever-booming tourism.

All the other awards are for multiple titles.

• 2025 Notable Books: An annual best-of list composed of  titles written for adult readers and published in the US including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. 26 titles this year.
• 2025 Sophie Brody Medal Winner and Honor Books: Given to encourage, recognize and commend outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. Works for adults published in the United States in the preceding year are eligible for the award.
• 2025 Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration: This year’s committee evaluated 257 titles with a total listening time of more than 2,724 hours. The final deliberation produced a list of 12 winners. This award highlights extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by a general adult audience and the librarians who advise them. Each of the 12 winners has three "listen-alike" as well.[Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay made the list!]
• The 2025 Reading List: An annual best-of list comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers. Winning titles are also presented with readalikes. A shortlist of honor titles, up to 4 per genre was also announced. This year the committee chair said that while the books came from every genre, there was a common theme uniting this comfortable and cozy titles-- found family. I do love how one committee does all of the genres because of outcomes like this-- a theme across all for he reading. The genres are: Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Relationship Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction. [The Horror winner was Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle.]

Again, please peruse all of the winners from last night here. And explore the rich and easily searchable backlist of titles here. That excellent and easily searchable database of current and past winners will be updated later this week. It is a site you should have bookmarked at all times because there are many choices for a broad adult audience.

Finally, on Monday morning as part of the Youth Media Awards, the Alex Awards, identifying the 20 best adult books for teens were announced. Here is the link to the list of all of the Youth award winners including the Alex award titles.

Yes this award is given to adult books with the idea that they are good for a teen audience, but I have used this award for years to identify high interest titles that I can use as sure best for adults. The Alex Award is also always more genre fiction friendly than general adult awards meaning I have a wider range of titles than typical "literary" awards. 

The Alex Award winners, past and present [use that backlist] are one of my go-to resources for "sure bet" titles for my adult patrons anytime. These are titles I know will be compelling and interesting. Click here  to access the backlist. Put all of the winners on display. You don't have to identify them as "for teens," just  make it a library worker award winners themed display. Put up these titles, past titles, and other titles by the winning authors as simply, "Sure Bets." The resulting display will be diverse in every way by default.

Back to the 2025 award specifically. It is not on the homepage yet, but again,here is the full list. One of my favorite books of the year made the list-- I Was a Teenaged Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones. You can click here to read my STAR review of this amazing title about a male-female teenaged friendship and of course, a tale that upends the Slasher Genre as we thought we knew it.

That's the end of this long but helpful post. Congrats to all the books and authors who got awards from the library world over the last few days and a big thank you to the library workers who volunteered their time to serve on these committees. As someone who has been on the ACM, I know how hard this work is, but I also know how rewarding it can be as well.

Tomorrow, we will take a short break from awards lists with a guest post about "unshelving" your collections. 

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Kirkus Prize Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

What is the Kirkus Prize. From their website FAQ:

The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the decades of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earn the Kirkus star with publication dates between Nov. 1, 2023 to Oct. 31, 2024 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2024 Kirkus Prize. Six finalists in each of three categories will be announced in August. Three winners will be announced at the Kirkus Prize ceremony on Oct. 16, 2023.

Here is their full announcement of the finalists which inlaces information about the judges. I have an edited version for brevity and emphasis below.

The finalists for the 2024 Kirkus Prize have been revealed, with 18 books contending for one of the richest annual literary awards in the world. 

The fiction shortlist is composed of Jennine Capó Crucet’s Say Hello to My Little Friend, Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red, Percival Everett’s James, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, Richard Powers’ Playground, and Rufi Thorpe’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles. 

The finalists for the nonfiction prize are Steve Coll’s The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq; Adam Higginbogtham’s Challenger: A True Story of Heroism And Disaster on the Edge of Space; Tessa Hulls’ Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir; Olivia Laing’s The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise; Shefali Luthra’s Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America; and Carvell Wallace’s Another Word for Love: A Memoir.    

The young readers’ literature category is divided into three subcategories featuring two books each. In picture books, the finalists are We Who Produce Pearls, written by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, and There Was a Party for Langston, written by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey. 

Making the middle-grade list are Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan and Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston, while the young adult finalists are Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow and Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at an in-person ceremony at the Tribeca Rooftop in New York on Oct. 16, 2024, which will be livestreamed on Kirkus’ YouTube channel at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. 

Click here for the Kirkus Prize homepage. 

This award pulls double duty as a resource both as an award list AND a year end best list. And it is one the the earliest best lists as well.

Also, like the best of both of these categories of resources, the Kirkus Prize is best used as a resource when you consider  the backlist  of nominees and winners in your suggestions and displays. 

On the main page for all of Kirkus you have super easy access to every nominee and winner going back to 2014. On the banner across the top of every page, there is a tab for "Kirkus Prize" which opens a drop down menu to give you those choices by year. All with little effort. That is extremely helpful for us.

 Here is the link to the 2022 page, for example. You can easily pick those nominees from 2 years ago and use them today as a proven, winning suggestion.

Also, as you can see above, this award considers fiction, nonfiction, YA, MG, and picture books. All ages. As I have written about on this blog many times, Intergeneration Displays are a key marketing tool to SHOW your patrons that there is something for them as they walk in...all of them. I also write about how some libraries do not allow them to put books for all ages on one display and to them, I point you to these links which reference Cuyahoga Library (a major system) and their PLA presentation about how and why they create these displays. If it works for them, you can do it too. 

Finally, as it says above, any book that Kirkus gave a star is considered. [You can go to their FAQ page for more detail into the considerations for this prize.] That being stated, how useful this award is to you and your patrons only goes so far as you find Kirkus useful. 

Love or hate Kirkus reviews, the fact that they give the judges every STARRED review book as their starting point for their work makes a lot of sense. It is way less arbitrary than other major awards (and I say this as someone who has served on the ACM in the past)

But each year I have found it to be a reliable resource to help readers who are looking for a very general list of  "the best" of the year, general sure bets, or just " a good read."

LitFest: Illuminating Great Writing & Amherst College’s Literary Life

Beginning tonight, I will be attending, in person, the Amherst College LitFest 2024. From the website:

Amherst College will host the 9th annual LitFest, a literary festival celebrating fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and spoken-word performance, along with the College’s extraordinary literary life. Guest speakers include award-winning authors Natasha Trethewey, Paul Harding, Ed Yong, Blair Kamin ’79 P’15, Lisa Biggs ’93, and other distinguished editors and authors. 

I am not posting this to brag, but rather because many of the LitFest events will be webcast live, for free. So if you want, you can watch too. Also, if you live within a comfortable driving distance from Amherst, MA, I want to encourage you to come and attend for free. 

I am excited to see Ed Yong again, after meeting him at the Andrew Carnegie Medals Ceremony (click here to follow my journey on the ACM committee where we chose Yong for the Nonfiction Medal), to hear National Book Award Winner Justin Torres speak, and to attend all day Saturday with my colleague Emily Hughes.

And eagle-eyed schedule scanners may notice a familiar last name in the description of the Saturday at 3pm program which is available in person and as a webcast. I am obviously especially excited for that one.

You can click here for the entire schedule and here for the specific webcast schedule and to watch those programs directly from that page.

Click on the image for the schedule
and to signup for webcasts

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: RUSA Books and Media Award Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

Saturday morning the top awards for Adult Books and Media were awarded at LibLearnX in Baltimore, including the most prestigious prize The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction. Below are the individual links for the lists a winners with the ACM titles singled out. For each award I will also explain what it is for, but note, these are all the best and most readable titles for a general adult audience. 

Please go to the excellent RUSA Book and Media website which has a link for each award with the current winners displayed and very easy backlist access. That backlist access is here, but please note, you need to use the links below for Saturday's winners until they update the main page.

The Andrew Carnegie  Medal for Excellence in Fiction and  Nonfiction: The Carnegie Awards, established in 2012, serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by ALA and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers.

Please go to the website for the finalists, long list, and backlist, but the 2024 winners were: 

Fiction: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Perry and Nonfiction:We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America World by Roxanna Asgarian

The other awards are for multiple titles.

• 2024 Notable Books: An annual best-of list composed of  titles written for adult readers and published in the US including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. (Includes both ACM winners) 
• 2024 Sophie Brody Medal Winner and Honor Books: Given to encourage, recognize and commend outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. Works for adults published in the United States in the preceding year are eligible for the award.
• 2024 Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration. This year’s committee evaluated 293 titles with a total listening time of more than 2,838 hours.  The final deliberation produced a list of 13 winners. 
• The 2024 Reading List: An annual best-of list comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers. A shortlist of honor titles, up to 4 per genre was also announced. The genres are: Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Relationship Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction

Again, please peruse all of the winners from last night here. And explore the rich and easily searchable backlist of titles here. That excellent and easily searchable database of current and past winners will be updated later this week. It is a site you should have bookmarked at all times because there are many choices for a broad adult audience.

Now get out there and suggest some great reads to start your week.

What I'm Reading: Booklist January 2024 Reviews and MORE!

Two small press reviews, but first, the January 1 &15 issue is also Spotlight on Readers' Advisory. So before I get to the reviews, here are a few readalikes lists that I want to point you to. They are great for suggestions, displays, and online content. And all of the titles have been vetted by Booklisters so you can be confident that they will work well with a library audience:

• Read-alikes: Intergenerational and Multiple-Perspective Tales of Immigration and Other Upheavals
• Read-alikes: Jane Austen Redux
• High-Demand Read-alikes: Women in War

Plus, this is the issue where the 6 Andrew Carnegie Medal Finalists get to tell you what books they suggest you read. These lists are themed and would make a great small display or a linked list in your digital spaces. You can see the details about the ACM longlist and finalists here. And below are the nominated authors with their reading suggestions:

Nonfiction Authors:

• What Roxanna Asgarian Wants You to Read: Six Books on Family and Trauma
• What Jake Bittle Wants You to Read: Modern Society's Relationship to Land
• What Darrin Bell Wants You to Read: SF that Explores the Nature of Humanity

Fiction Authors:

• What Daniel Innes and Christina Wong Want You to Read: Short Stories that Challenge, Comfort, Entertain, Stimulate, and Unsettle the Soul
• What Amanda Peters Wants You to Read: Indigenous Women and the Written Word–History, Healing, and the Power of Stories
• What Jesmyn Ward Wants You to Read: Communing with the South

And remember the winners will be announced at LibLearnX on Saturday, January 20th at 9:45 a.m. Eastern time. More here about all of the Adult Award winners, Monday 1/22.

Now on to those reviews. Both books are from smaller presses but these titles will have wide appeal. And the second one is from an author who has already been given an ALA Media Award. 

As usual, I will be reprinting my draft review with bonus appeal info and readalikes.

In Excess of Dark
by Red Lagoe
Mar. 2024. 150p. DarkLit, paper, $16 (9781998851393); e-book (9781998851386). 
First published January 1, 2024 (Booklist).

Karina has experienced gruesome and intrusive visions her entire life, but even more so since her father’s death. In an attempt to pull herself out of her deep grief, Karina, her husband, and teenage son drive up into the Blue Ridge mountains to camp where she had some of her happiest times with her father. When tragedy strikes, Karina realizes that her horrific daydreams may be jumping from her imagination, into the real world, their shadows dragging her even deeper into despair and desperation. Told through Karina’s clearly compromised perspective this compelling novella will grab readers immediately and hold them in its disquieting thrall for the duration. An honest, raw, and intensely personal look at depression, this is a story that unfolds like a visceral nightmare while also standing as an example of how Horror helps people confront the fear and pain in their own lives. For fans of Crossroads by Laurel Hightower, The Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman, and anything by Eric LaRocca.

Further Appeal: This is novella length and can be read in 1 to 2 sittings. Because it is all in Karina's POV, readers will get sucked into her nightmarish reality. Everything around you will disappear as you read this. Lagoe has complete narrative control here and it is impressive. 

Obviously, Karina is not entirely reliable, but it doesn't matter. Lagoe gets you into her head and pov and does not allow you to look away, even when you want to. Well done. I would read more by this author.

FYI, there is serious visceral imagery here and horrible things happen. 

Three Words That Describe This Book: grief, intense, disquieting

Readalikes: The three above give you a general sense of what to expect. If you like any of the above, this is a book worth a try. I would 100% add it to all library collections. This is a solid small press, has a great cover, and will have wide appeal.

The Rain Artist
Claire Rudy Foster
Feb. 2024. 268p. Moonstruck, paper, $19  (9798988815402); e-book (9798988815419). 
First published January 1, 2024 (Booklist).

Set in a not-so-distant future where the environment and late stage capitalism collided to create a barely habitable world, where fresh water is something only the ultra-rich can experience during “Rain Parties.” When an aging Celine, the world’s last umbrella maker, is hired to provide umbrellas for the retirement party of one of richest men on earth, she gets implicated in a murder sending her, her stoic colleague Paul, and a young and desperate woman, Yochanna, in on race for their lives, trying to outpace the police and outthink the quadrillionaires who have framed them. Told through 4 points of view, in 4 distinct sections and featuring strong world building, realistically flawed but sympathetic characters, an unnerving tone, and suspenseful pacing, readers will be swept away in the story’s current. A great option for readers looking for Cli-Fi like The Last Storm by Lebbon and The Water Knife by Bacigalupi but also for fans of near future dystopian thrillers with a strong Weird Fiction vibe such as The City and The City by Mieville.

Further Appeal: Before I get to the appeal of the book itself, I need to point out something very important about the author because I am pretty sure have heard of them before. From their website:

Claire Rudy Foster is a queer, nonbinary trans writer who lives in Portland, Oregon. Foster is the co-writer of the bestselling nonfiction book Unsettled (St. Martin’s Press, 2021) with recovery advocate Ryan Hampton. Unsettled is a shocking inside account of reckless capitalism and injustice in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case. Read the glowing review by Patrick Radden Keefe in The New Yorker. 

Also Foster’s collection, Shine of the Ever was on the 2021 ALA's Over the Rainbow Fiction Longlist. And the story the novel is based on was in Oprah’s magazine as well. 

I add all of this because while the book itself is very good, you might still be hesitant to buy from such a small press, but all of this info would tip me over the edge to but it. There is a built in audience already there for this book. 

This is a well paced Cli-Fi Thriller, in an environmental and late capitalism dystopia and excellent, compelling world building.

The 4 narrators was a good choice. It allows the world to be built not only more quickly but with depth. We see 3 different "heroes" and 1 villain very well. I also like that the main protagonist is a mature women. You don't see that a lot.

As trilogy openers go, it is well constructed. The ending is resolved (which is satisfying) but we know there is more to come, and as a reader, I am eager to read that next book. That is solid writing. 

Three Words That Describe This Book: unnerving, strong world building, cli-fi-thriller

Readalikes: The cli-fi horror readalikes are clear  here. The two above hint at the major themes and issues to expect. To this list I would also suggest Sealed by Naomi Booth, although that one is a little more interior and psychological.

And I could not get over how much of the vibe here was similar to The City and The City by Mieville. Not the plot, but how the story moves, the unsettling way the dystopia is handled, the twists, and it gets you thinking.