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Eleutheria
A story of idealism, activism, and systemic corruption, centered on a naïve young woman’s quest for agency in a world ravaged by climate change.
Willa Marks has spent her whole life choosing hope. She chooses hope over her parents’ paranoid conspiracy theories, over her dead-end job, over the rising ocean levels. And when she meets Sylvia Gill, renowned Harvard professor, she feels she’s found the justification of that hope. Sylvia is the woman-in-black: the only person smart and sharp enough to compel the world to action. But when Sylvia betrays her, Willa fears she has lost hope forever.
And then she finds a book in Sylvia’s library: a guide to fighting climate change called Living the Solution. Inspired by its message and with nothing to lose, Willa flies to the island of Eleutheria in the Bahamas to join the author and his group of ecowarriors at Camp Hope. Upon arrival, things are not what she expected. The group’s leader, author Roy Adams, is missing, and the compound’s public launch is delayed. With time running out, Willa will stop at nothing to realize Camp Hope’s mission—but at what cost?
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
Willa Marks has spent her whole life choosing hope. She chooses hope over her parents’ paranoid conspiracy theories, over her dead-end job, over the rising ocean levels. And when she meets Sylvia Gill, renowned Harvard professor, she feels she’s found the justification of that hope. Sylvia is the woman-in-black: the only person smart and sharp enough to compel the world to action. But when Sylvia betrays her, Willa fears she has lost hope forever.
And then she finds a book in Sylvia’s library: a guide to fighting climate change called Living the Solution. Inspired by its message and with nothing to lose, Willa flies to the island of Eleutheria in the Bahamas to join the author and his group of ecowarriors at Camp Hope. Upon arrival, things are not what she expected. The group’s leader, author Roy Adams, is missing, and the compound’s public launch is delayed. With time running out, Willa will stop at nothing to realize Camp Hope’s mission—but at what cost?
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 2022
79 people are currently reading
7334 people want to read
About the author
Allegra Hyde
5 books214 followersAllegra Hyde is the author of the story collection THE LAST CATASTROPHE, which was named an Editors’ Choice by The New York Times. Her debut novel ELEUTHERIA was named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker and shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize. Her first story collection, OF THIS NEW WORLD, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award.
A recipient of four Pushcart Prizes, Hyde's writing has also been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. Her stories, essays, and humor pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, American Short Fiction, BOMB, and many other venues.
For more about Allegra, visit www.allegrahyde.com
Or check out her blog, The Simile Museum
A recipient of four Pushcart Prizes, Hyde's writing has also been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. Her stories, essays, and humor pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, American Short Fiction, BOMB, and many other venues.
For more about Allegra, visit www.allegrahyde.com
Or check out her blog, The Simile Museum
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 250 reviews
November 4, 2021
Well, I wrote it...
December 2, 2022
man i keep trying with modern litfic but it feels like lucy with the football most of the time. this had an interesting premise (raised in the woods weirdo travels to climate change breakaway society). the world it creates feels very real and scarily prescient. and i liked what it captured about the caribbean having been on the non resort side of it myself.
but everything else is literally just YA for an adult audience. its like the kind of writing that bothers me most where it’s trying to be very elevated and poetic but it’s just a mess - mixed metaphors galore. i knew we were in bad shape when the titular island “bathed in the water like a fishhook” (fishhooks don’t bathe!!). an orange is a “mic-drop mouth-kiss” - are you kidding me??? you need to pay attention to the rhythms of the words if you’re going to write like this, not just write alliterative and slightly weird descriptions that strike a bum note with the reader every time. we need to shut down mfa programs until we figure out what the hell is going on. and of course along with the descriptions the characters in this book are completely stock archetypes you’ve seen a million times before. they speak only in cliches. the sexy older love interest keeps calling the protagonist “darling” like gloria swanson or something. nothing makes any sense. there’s no thought to why this climate commune would actually be appealing to people when it’s literally the plot of the james bond movie moonraker. if this had the unremarkable but functional prose and super deep research of like, a kim stanley robinson novel, i would have dug it as an interesting little sci-fi character piece. but it’s trying so hard to be literary and the trying is so off-putting. YA! YA! (jesus condemning his disciples) None of you are free from sin!
but everything else is literally just YA for an adult audience. its like the kind of writing that bothers me most where it’s trying to be very elevated and poetic but it’s just a mess - mixed metaphors galore. i knew we were in bad shape when the titular island “bathed in the water like a fishhook” (fishhooks don’t bathe!!). an orange is a “mic-drop mouth-kiss” - are you kidding me??? you need to pay attention to the rhythms of the words if you’re going to write like this, not just write alliterative and slightly weird descriptions that strike a bum note with the reader every time. we need to shut down mfa programs until we figure out what the hell is going on. and of course along with the descriptions the characters in this book are completely stock archetypes you’ve seen a million times before. they speak only in cliches. the sexy older love interest keeps calling the protagonist “darling” like gloria swanson or something. nothing makes any sense. there’s no thought to why this climate commune would actually be appealing to people when it’s literally the plot of the james bond movie moonraker. if this had the unremarkable but functional prose and super deep research of like, a kim stanley robinson novel, i would have dug it as an interesting little sci-fi character piece. but it’s trying so hard to be literary and the trying is so off-putting. YA! YA! (jesus condemning his disciples) None of you are free from sin!
May 28, 2025
Strange and compelling and fascinating and so weird.
Maybe 3.5! Lesfem book club pick for our ecology theme!
Maybe 3.5! Lesfem book club pick for our ecology theme!
April 28, 2022
“To conserve and correct,
To preserve and protect,
I dedicate myself to the Earth,
For each day I give my worth.”
Well well well, what do we have here? Elutheria, with its appealing lyrical Greek pulled me in at first sight. I had no idea what was expecting me when I requested to read this but it was one hell of a surprisingly catastropic journey. Willa Marks is a traumatic young woman, who was brought up by survivalist parents. Her early life is spent in building bunkers and shelters and unique learning survivalist skills preparing her for all kinds of natural disasters and conspiracy theories. Later when she finds herself in a big city, meets Sylvia and accidentally find a book called “Living the Solution”, she believes that she’s found her life purpose and flies to Elutheria - a small Bahama island - to fulfil her lifelong dream of saving the planet. There, a cultish group led by a mysterious man is building an ecological utopia preparing for a “launch” to create a political avalanche which will eventually save the earth:
“Camp Hope will offer a problem-solved society. Not just carbon-neutral but carbon negative. Not just coexistent with nature, but actively rehabilitatory. Camp Hope will show an environmental future that doest not appear punitive, but rather appealingly problem-solved.”
As Marks integrates herself in this new-found community, she discovers the reality behind the utopia and starts questioning everything.
I have to say this book had so much potential from the beginning and it kept my interest during the first half of it. I felt like there were some serious gaps that needed to be filled and the ending felt a bit rushed, it ended with more questions than answers. I wish there were more details about Camp Hope, Adams and even Deron. Overall an enjoyable read but a little underwhelming.
To preserve and protect,
I dedicate myself to the Earth,
For each day I give my worth.”
Well well well, what do we have here? Elutheria, with its appealing lyrical Greek pulled me in at first sight. I had no idea what was expecting me when I requested to read this but it was one hell of a surprisingly catastropic journey. Willa Marks is a traumatic young woman, who was brought up by survivalist parents. Her early life is spent in building bunkers and shelters and unique learning survivalist skills preparing her for all kinds of natural disasters and conspiracy theories. Later when she finds herself in a big city, meets Sylvia and accidentally find a book called “Living the Solution”, she believes that she’s found her life purpose and flies to Elutheria - a small Bahama island - to fulfil her lifelong dream of saving the planet. There, a cultish group led by a mysterious man is building an ecological utopia preparing for a “launch” to create a political avalanche which will eventually save the earth:
“Camp Hope will offer a problem-solved society. Not just carbon-neutral but carbon negative. Not just coexistent with nature, but actively rehabilitatory. Camp Hope will show an environmental future that doest not appear punitive, but rather appealingly problem-solved.”
As Marks integrates herself in this new-found community, she discovers the reality behind the utopia and starts questioning everything.
I have to say this book had so much potential from the beginning and it kept my interest during the first half of it. I felt like there were some serious gaps that needed to be filled and the ending felt a bit rushed, it ended with more questions than answers. I wish there were more details about Camp Hope, Adams and even Deron. Overall an enjoyable read but a little underwhelming.
March 30, 2022
I wanted to like it more than I did, as it commonly happens with cli-fi. It is probably because I want a book of this kind to be relevant, talked about, used for inspiration - a literary manifesto. Eleutheria is not it.
It is an attempted cautionary tale about the dissonance between the perceived authority and "true believers". It is a story about blind trust in people, but also persistence and instilling belief by setting an example.
There are many beautiful passages in this novel. I highlighted quite a few of them. The sense of the planet dying was palpable throughout the book.
However, somewhere around the 60% mark, I wanted to DNF it. I pushed through only to see what will happen, but I wasn't nearly as invested as I expected to be. The end was interesting enough for me to be glad I finished it, but it was still a disappointment. The characters are not well developed or very interesting, save for Willa, and even she doesn't grow very much either.
I felt the message about activism was somewhat muddled and world-building was quite weak, especially politically.
This would probably make a solid film with some rewrites and good actors.
It is an attempted cautionary tale about the dissonance between the perceived authority and "true believers". It is a story about blind trust in people, but also persistence and instilling belief by setting an example.
There are many beautiful passages in this novel. I highlighted quite a few of them. The sense of the planet dying was palpable throughout the book.
However, somewhere around the 60% mark, I wanted to DNF it. I pushed through only to see what will happen, but I wasn't nearly as invested as I expected to be. The end was interesting enough for me to be glad I finished it, but it was still a disappointment. The characters are not well developed or very interesting, save for Willa, and even she doesn't grow very much either.
I felt the message about activism was somewhat muddled and world-building was quite weak, especially politically.
This would probably make a solid film with some rewrites and good actors.
April 12, 2023
I loved this debut novel! It was the December, 2022 selection for the Nervous Breakdown Book Club.
Willa Marks is a heroine I'd like to know. I felt I did get to know her as I read.
Raised by conspiracy theorists in prepper poverty, now an orphan, obsessed with fighting climate change, she joins a group of eco-warriers on the island of Eleutheria in the Bahamas. She has left behind Sylvia Gill, the love of her life.
Willa is a determined scrapper, just my favorite type of woman. Her skewed childhood and her search for positivity make her easy prey for the cult mentality. Camp Hope, created by a rich con man, is her cult of choice, but she does not realize for quite a while what a charlatan Roy Adams truly is.
Cults leave their survivors with deep psychic wounds, as I know from personal experience, making this seem like a novel written specifically for me.
I want more novels from Allegra Hyde.
Willa Marks is a heroine I'd like to know. I felt I did get to know her as I read.
Raised by conspiracy theorists in prepper poverty, now an orphan, obsessed with fighting climate change, she joins a group of eco-warriers on the island of Eleutheria in the Bahamas. She has left behind Sylvia Gill, the love of her life.
Willa is a determined scrapper, just my favorite type of woman. Her skewed childhood and her search for positivity make her easy prey for the cult mentality. Camp Hope, created by a rich con man, is her cult of choice, but she does not realize for quite a while what a charlatan Roy Adams truly is.
Cults leave their survivors with deep psychic wounds, as I know from personal experience, making this seem like a novel written specifically for me.
I want more novels from Allegra Hyde.
March 7, 2022
I truly wanted to love this but ultimately felt disappointed. Eleutheria is a novel of ideas—honorable, timely, important ideas—and I look forward to more books entering the market that deal with the ongoing climate crisis. But the characters felt so one dimensional to me, so it was hard to get invested in the plot. The characters were so flat that we need the plot device of Sylvia’s letter at the end to explain the two main characters’ personalities and motivations. And Willa felt passive—she has desires, sure, but things just sort of happen to her throughout the book. All in all, an ambitious novel with interesting parts (and nice writing), but probably not one I’d return to.
Thanks to Vintage and NetGalley for the ARC.
Thanks to Vintage and NetGalley for the ARC.
May 4, 2022
This book has some of the best sentences I’ve ever read.
March 8, 2022
This is a story about the faith we put in people. Willa Marks grew up the child of doomsday preppers in rural Maine. As a young adult, she is forced to leave Maine to live with her cousins in Boston. Her cousins are focused on becoming influencers, but Willia, stuck in a dead-end job, is increasingly drawn into a loose collective of people trying to enact social and political change in the face of increasingly authorative steps taken by the government that are ostensibly a response to the growing impacts of climate change. When Willa encounters Sylvia Gill, a prominent Harvard professor who studies social movements, she believes she has found someone who can help save her -- and the world.
Despite all the faith Willa places in her and what she believes is a growing connection, Sylvia ends up betraying Willa and what she thought they both held dear. So when Willa finds a book in Sylvia’s library that seems to offer a guide to mobilizing the world to finally combat climate change, she believes she must find the author and join his efforts. Willa departs Boston for the island of Eleutheria to join the book's author, Roy Adams, and his group of disciples at Camp Hope, which they have presented as a demonstration project that will finally prove how to effectively battle climate change. Willia is enthralled by Camp Hope -- even as Adams continues to delay its public launch and his actions and those of his other followers begin to raise questions about whether there is more than meets the eye to Camp Hope.
This was a great read. It was an original and well-executed examination of the issues around climate change, touching on the relationships between individual, societal, and global actions and the ways it could gradually and then all at once reshape how we live. The author does a terrific job of portraying the human dimensions of responding to such a large crisis -- from how it impacts politics to the ways that individuals strive to maintain normalcy as the world seems to be undergoing fundamental change to how quickly people adapt to new ways of living that, just a short while before, would have seemed unimaginable. Through Willa and her journey to find someone she can believe in, the author also deftly explores the hopes and disappointments that can come with meeting those one admires or even considers a hero.
Strongly recommended!
Despite all the faith Willa places in her and what she believes is a growing connection, Sylvia ends up betraying Willa and what she thought they both held dear. So when Willa finds a book in Sylvia’s library that seems to offer a guide to mobilizing the world to finally combat climate change, she believes she must find the author and join his efforts. Willa departs Boston for the island of Eleutheria to join the book's author, Roy Adams, and his group of disciples at Camp Hope, which they have presented as a demonstration project that will finally prove how to effectively battle climate change. Willia is enthralled by Camp Hope -- even as Adams continues to delay its public launch and his actions and those of his other followers begin to raise questions about whether there is more than meets the eye to Camp Hope.
This was a great read. It was an original and well-executed examination of the issues around climate change, touching on the relationships between individual, societal, and global actions and the ways it could gradually and then all at once reshape how we live. The author does a terrific job of portraying the human dimensions of responding to such a large crisis -- from how it impacts politics to the ways that individuals strive to maintain normalcy as the world seems to be undergoing fundamental change to how quickly people adapt to new ways of living that, just a short while before, would have seemed unimaginable. Through Willa and her journey to find someone she can believe in, the author also deftly explores the hopes and disappointments that can come with meeting those one admires or even considers a hero.
Strongly recommended!
September 4, 2022
Unique and weird enough for my taste, didn't really know where it was taking me. I was more engaged with the first half than the second. Hopefulness and activism in the age of environmental destruction. Climate is a bitch, yo.
March 29, 2025
Right book, right time, at least for me.
There a lot going on here, and I can see how (or why) this might polarize readers, but ... as cli-fi (or climate fiction or speculative climate change fiction or not quite dystopia yet) goes, it's great stuff.
Obviously, there's more and more content along these lines being created and becoming available, and, as much as I'm fascinated by the differing takes and styles compared to, I dunno, Cold War era nuclear apocalyptic fears, etc., I'm intrigued - in much the same way I am with the non-fiction literature - as to how authors approach (or align or position themselves) along the doom versus hope spectrum. In other words, are happy endings a credible option?
In the spirit of full disclosure, I least enjoyed the romance-tinged aspects of the book, but I fully concede they were necessary to the whole (and compellingly reinforced the almost visceral longing theme), a critically important (if not relatively predictable) aspect of the plot, and sufficiently persuasive or believable. It just wasn't my favorite part.
No spoilers here, but, as someone who read more than one's fair share - both non-fiction and fiction - related to climate change ... and has done some writing, teaching, and speaking in the field ... for me it was all worth it for (and no spoilers here, but) Chapter 10 (pages 291-293 in the paperback edition I have). Thank you, Allegra Hyde. Very well done!
Of to-read piles and such: A friend recommended this to me - and I bought it - years ago, and, over the years, I've watched it move up and down (and side to side) through my to-read shelves and piles (and convoluted organizational schemes). Then I saw it appear - back to back - in a couple of recommended cli-fi reading lists after I consumed (and really enjoyed) Charlotte McConaghy's latest (Wild Dark Shore) and was debating (with my self) the relative merits of continuing to shelve cli-fi, and, more broadly, dystopia, under the (admittedly lazy and) hopelessly broad category: sci-fi and fantasy. Fortunately, other than on Goodreads, there is no place where such an issue actually matters. But, as they say, I digress... LoL
I'm pleased I bought it when I did, but I'm even happier that I finally read it.
There a lot going on here, and I can see how (or why) this might polarize readers, but ... as cli-fi (or climate fiction or speculative climate change fiction or not quite dystopia yet) goes, it's great stuff.
Obviously, there's more and more content along these lines being created and becoming available, and, as much as I'm fascinated by the differing takes and styles compared to, I dunno, Cold War era nuclear apocalyptic fears, etc., I'm intrigued - in much the same way I am with the non-fiction literature - as to how authors approach (or align or position themselves) along the doom versus hope spectrum. In other words, are happy endings a credible option?
In the spirit of full disclosure, I least enjoyed the romance-tinged aspects of the book, but I fully concede they were necessary to the whole (and compellingly reinforced the almost visceral longing theme), a critically important (if not relatively predictable) aspect of the plot, and sufficiently persuasive or believable. It just wasn't my favorite part.
No spoilers here, but, as someone who read more than one's fair share - both non-fiction and fiction - related to climate change ... and has done some writing, teaching, and speaking in the field ... for me it was all worth it for (and no spoilers here, but) Chapter 10 (pages 291-293 in the paperback edition I have). Thank you, Allegra Hyde. Very well done!
Of to-read piles and such: A friend recommended this to me - and I bought it - years ago, and, over the years, I've watched it move up and down (and side to side) through my to-read shelves and piles (and convoluted organizational schemes). Then I saw it appear - back to back - in a couple of recommended cli-fi reading lists after I consumed (and really enjoyed) Charlotte McConaghy's latest (Wild Dark Shore) and was debating (with my self) the relative merits of continuing to shelve cli-fi, and, more broadly, dystopia, under the (admittedly lazy and) hopelessly broad category: sci-fi and fantasy. Fortunately, other than on Goodreads, there is no place where such an issue actually matters. But, as they say, I digress... LoL
I'm pleased I bought it when I did, but I'm even happier that I finally read it.
March 29, 2022
Sooo many cool ideas here, with a structure that kept me really engaged. I just happened to be finishing up the audiobook Cultish around the same time as reading Eleutheria, and it had me constantly thinking about both books and how easily it is for us to devote ourselves to hopeful things when we feel otherwise lost. Overall lots of great writing that shines a light on relevant and fascinating themes.
April 3, 2022
wes anderson fans should be going CRAZY for this book.
April 20, 2022
I wish I could give this more stars. It’s gorgeous! I love the way Hyde weaves all the threads of hope and despair and the Bahamas and Harvard and climate change and political and social upheaval into a tangle of past and present and love and life. This might be my new favorite book. Like Willa obsessing over the book Living the Solution (and I love the book within a book style!) I might obsess over this book-pick it apart and study it because I yearn to write a book as beautiful and lyrically stylistic and smart as this one.
February 24, 2022
This is a beautiful book, full of love, despair, and hope. It is about the past that created us and the past
that created thepolitical/economic/climate change issues we live with currently. It is about the future, what could destroy us and what could save us.
that created thepolitical/economic/climate change issues we live with currently. It is about the future, what could destroy us and what could save us.
March 23, 2024
ekokurgu/iklimkurgu olduğu için listemde olan bir kitaptı. henüz bu janrada beni mutlu eden bir kitap okumadığım için beklentim öyle çok yüksek değildi, iyi ki de değilmiş. çevre hareketini tarikatlaşmaya bağlamayan bir şeyler okumak istiyorum mesela. ya da alt metinde sadece popüler propagandaları değil, daha gerçek daha insani yanlarını okumak istiyorum bu mevzuların. hakkını yemeyeyim, diğer örneklerine göre biraz daha katmanlı bir kurgu var ama her katman tek boyutlu olunca yine çok da bir şey değişmiyor.
September 4, 2022
This book is a weird, indescribable fever dream. Reminds me of Vladimir, Parable of the Sower, The Poisonwood Bible, The Mosquito Coast, and The Hunger Games, but it takes inspiration from something entirely unique.
It is an incredible feat that Allegra Hyde wrote about the end of the world with such penetration optimism, but I unexpectedly adore it. Appreciation for this book snuck up on me slowly, and then tackled me. I had moments I hated it and moments of awe, but I never wanted to put it down.
It’s a love letter to the unstoppable tide of naive optimism, and the power it can have if we refuse to kill it. I also can’t stress how important it is to write books like this, books that bare the reality without also singing doomsday songs and stuffing despair down the throats of our children.
“I choose to believe in the future. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you — because that’s all I ever wanted someone to tell me. I want you to know I believe in a future for you.” (Eleutheria, pg. 321).
I value this book because, illogical as it is, I am not afraid of climate change. The planet will do what it does, and humans will adapt. We see a future that’s vastly different as the end of the world, but it’s just the next step. We are causing these changes, but we can fix them. It’s a matter of how, and it’s a matter of growing pains. The world may never recover from what we’ve done to it, and there were so many years during which we truly didn’t know our progress was killing mother nature. We know now. And we have to strive to innovate ways to do better, to heal the wounds, without returning to caves, ignorance, and primitive life. “Eleutheria” is a searing testament to that reality - and blessedly, it’s a beatific inspiration, rather than a run of the mill Chicken Little siren song.
“We are going to suffer one way or another. Better to suffer on the way to making something new.” (Eleutheria, pg. 321).
It is an incredible feat that Allegra Hyde wrote about the end of the world with such penetration optimism, but I unexpectedly adore it. Appreciation for this book snuck up on me slowly, and then tackled me. I had moments I hated it and moments of awe, but I never wanted to put it down.
It’s a love letter to the unstoppable tide of naive optimism, and the power it can have if we refuse to kill it. I also can’t stress how important it is to write books like this, books that bare the reality without also singing doomsday songs and stuffing despair down the throats of our children.
“I choose to believe in the future. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you — because that’s all I ever wanted someone to tell me. I want you to know I believe in a future for you.” (Eleutheria, pg. 321).
I value this book because, illogical as it is, I am not afraid of climate change. The planet will do what it does, and humans will adapt. We see a future that’s vastly different as the end of the world, but it’s just the next step. We are causing these changes, but we can fix them. It’s a matter of how, and it’s a matter of growing pains. The world may never recover from what we’ve done to it, and there were so many years during which we truly didn’t know our progress was killing mother nature. We know now. And we have to strive to innovate ways to do better, to heal the wounds, without returning to caves, ignorance, and primitive life. “Eleutheria” is a searing testament to that reality - and blessedly, it’s a beatific inspiration, rather than a run of the mill Chicken Little siren song.
“We are going to suffer one way or another. Better to suffer on the way to making something new.” (Eleutheria, pg. 321).
July 31, 2022
4.5/5
i love it when i think a book is an average read, but then the last 100 pages happen and it emotionally wrecks me so now it's on my favourites list
i love it when i think a book is an average read, but then the last 100 pages happen and it emotionally wrecks me so now it's on my favourites list
May 29, 2025
Why the fuck did they build their world saving camp on an island amidst flooding and climate apocalypse
May 30, 2024
Really interesting concept but the delivery fell a bit flat for me; the antihero was unlikeable (not purposely) and the plot didn’t keep me overly engaged. However, if you like Birnam Wood or Wes Anderson films, I would recommend adding this to your tbr
April 6, 2024
Much like "Camp Hope" at the center of the novel, Eleutheria has all the makings of a compelling narrative but falls a bit flat and hollow in its execution. I really enjoyed the cli-fi elements that course through the story and there are some thoughtful, engaging explorations of the need for hope (and even idealism) in the face of climate catastrophe as well as the predatory compulsions of capitalistic greenwashing. Unfortunately, I think that narrative requires a defter hand than Hyde used here, because its messaging feels stripped of insight and impact given the bluntness of its presentation. The characterization is where things really went awry for me. Nearly every person is portrayed with such cartoony outlandishness, from the vapid, social-media obsessed cousins to Camp Hope's cliquey and shallow leaders and action-hero director. Even Willa feels so defined by her quality of naivete in a way that renders her juvenile in a way that parallels the book at large. I also found the central romance a bit contrived, especially by the revelatory conclusion. Characterization aside, the writing itself was pretty strong at a sentence-by-sentence level and I appreciated Hyde's penchant for indulging in more poetic language even when it dipped purple. There was a strong enough sense of propulsion to keep me engaged till the end, but I think some more subtlety, nuance, and complexity would've gone a long way here.
April 8, 2022
Not in many years have I been so engrossed in a novel, living in its world and deeply connected to its characters. It’s so much more than a novel about climate change, a story of a young woman’s passionate beliefs, it is powerful and delicate and raw. It is all of us when we have faith in people and their ideas. It is also the inevitability of living in this very human world among very spiritual experiences. We are full of passion and desire and are so very often crushed into disappointment. Is there still hope? Or do we just keep telling ourselves there is? I would pay a handsome sum to read this book again for the first time and find out.
April 11, 2022
This book was a LOT. Parts of it felt too slap-you-in-the-face and parts of it felt too much like, wait did something important happen in that one sentence 2 pages back? The time setting was interesting, because it felt both like it was totally contemporary and also like it was 10-15 years into more nightmares before we get there.
I think that i am too literal for this book, and it is too literary for me. I was compelled by it and even though lots of the reviews say the ending was rushed, i actually liked it and feel like if the whole book had been paced like that i might have rated it higher!
2.5 stars rounded up because of the end. This was an ARC from NetGalley.
I think that i am too literal for this book, and it is too literary for me. I was compelled by it and even though lots of the reviews say the ending was rushed, i actually liked it and feel like if the whole book had been paced like that i might have rated it higher!
2.5 stars rounded up because of the end. This was an ARC from NetGalley.
November 4, 2021
I have read Eleutheria several times, and each time it is better than the time before. The characters are fresh and interesting, and the ending has a twist that you won't see coming. I enjoyed the settings: the woods of New Hampshire, the bustle of Boston, and the hot, dry beaches of Eleuthera come alive. Willa Marks is on a quest to help stop the freight train of climate change that is pulling into the station now. Highly recommended for all readers without exception.
December 27, 2024
Oke dus, als je me kent, ga ik gewoon zeggen dat je het moet lezen. Móet lezen.
Ga het niet goed genoeg kunnen uitleggen waarom, gewoon. Niet te veel uitleg geen grote woorden maar gewoon, écht lezen.
Voor wie toch wat meer stimulans, prikkel, incentive nodig heeft: het is zo lyrisch geschreven, poëtisch, zintuiglijk??? Het is gewoon zo goed fak, kei goeie story arc / plot twist(s) ook en bovenal, over belangrijke dingen!!!!!! Over BELANGRIJKE DINGEN!!
Must read
Ga het niet goed genoeg kunnen uitleggen waarom, gewoon. Niet te veel uitleg geen grote woorden maar gewoon, écht lezen.
Voor wie toch wat meer stimulans, prikkel, incentive nodig heeft: het is zo lyrisch geschreven, poëtisch, zintuiglijk??? Het is gewoon zo goed fak, kei goeie story arc / plot twist(s) ook en bovenal, over belangrijke dingen!!!!!! Over BELANGRIJKE DINGEN!!
Must read
April 4, 2022
Very well done climate change fiction - with strong threads of coming of age. This took me a while to read - I had to keep taking breaks. While it’s ultimately hopeful, the depictions of a near future ravaged by climate change and fascism cut pretty close to the bone at times.
April 7, 2022
I’ll simply say this book will surprise you. For all the honest grit you’ll traverse and will feel the aches of, the breath taking view at the end is worth it.
This is an important book, and one I hope many read and discuss.
This is an important book, and one I hope many read and discuss.
July 14, 2022
Meh…I didn't care about the protagonist or any of the supporting characters. By the time I was done with the book I barely cared about the planet anymore and I've been fighting the eco-fight since the '70s. Despite some very pretty prose, I can't recommend this one.
April 29, 2022
What a fantastic book. There is endless talent amongst millennials and gen z's. They deserve to be heard. They deserve to run the world. Read Eleutheria and you will know what I mean.
April 30, 2022
so many good idea but not put together in a way that I thought was productive or thought provoking
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