Over and above the well-paced plot, it’s the richness and warmth of Carey’s language and the characterization that makes the novels hum and sometimes even sing.
Relying on some very slant Appalachian folklore, this book is a thoroughly modern novel, keeping pace with contemporary work and leaving behind the old stories of Silver John and murder ballads.
What is most impressive about the world-building is Okungbowa’s keen understanding of how both power and subordination are layered, structured, and institutional, rather than personalised.
Rankin-Gee’s novel is no cosy catastrophe, and its focus on communities, on the fraying social fabric of a divided nation, is to be commended. However, as a regular reader of science fiction I feel like I’ve read literally dozens of novels like this.
This is the sad truth for so many LGBTQ+ kids, especially in small towns like those on the island Morgan lives on: lack of clear queer representation and role models can make even the safest spaces feel dangerous.
Elemental—with stories translated from the Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Japanese, Kurdish, German, French, and Polish—is a lovely and sometimes disturbing exploration of the intersection of humanity and nature.
