Reviews

Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell

bridgette_reads's review

emotional hopeful

4.5

bookslikegranola's review against another edition

2.0

A near future sci-fi that I really didn’t enjoy. A fair warning, I am generally picky with both my short stories and my near-future sci-fi and many other people seemed to have really liked this. 

 

Arboreality is a chronological series of short stories set in the pacific northwest as climate change causes drastic changes and severely impoverishes the inhabitants of the region. However, the world building felt paper thin, only fleshed out in small snippets when the author wanted to glut the reader on misery. For example, the library of University of Victoria is so under funded that professors start stealing books so they don’t perish, but there is money for cutting edge genome engineering and mars missions. Or how the government can sometimes send rations to Vancouver island, and satellites don’t exist anymore, but everything’s great in Cincinnati (because nebulous billionaires), and also, here’s a random cut away to a girl on a beach watching a pod of dolphins die. I really didn’t enjoy this on a short story level, I didn’t find it entertaining, and I found it really lacking as a thought piece/exploration of climate change. It held strains of “government oversight will recede and finally communities of people that really care about each other can return to the land”, which is a story, but not one about reducing carbon in the atmosphere! I don’t really get what this has to say other than a popular feeling that climate change will come and punish us and only through small human connections can we rebuild. That is not how its going to go (or if that is, it will be after such a monumental loss of human life that cannot be ignored in a narrative like this)! I guess the strongest theme is about how certain people, especially the poor, will be left behind during large scale strife, but I would have liked am much stronger exploration if that is meant to be the sum total of the work. Obviously, I have a strong reaction to this because I really hate a vibes based reaction to climate change over the many interesting and challenging topics that exist, but your mileage may vary. Sorry if you really liked this. 

 

I don’t recommend this book and I don’t think it has much to add to a discussion about climate change.

kleonard's review against another edition

4.0

Arboreality will probably become a must-read book in the genre of cli-fi. A series of stories interlinked by place and people and plants, it's an imagining of a world vastly altered by rising seas, rising temperatures, and changing species. It probably deserves that role, as a must-read, but it's also very sentimental, at times maudlin. It's not always easy to identify with the characters, some of who are intensely self-pitying and others who don't feel particularly real. The central story, about a man crafting a violin, focuses on the kinds of behaviors the future might bring: he poaches wood from protected forests, fells a rare sitka spruce, and buys black-market wood from Africa in order to make his ultimate instrument. He justifies all of it: making art requires sacrifice. But ultimately, the stories suggest that it wasn't worth it, that while some small communities might survive and even thrive in some ways, the end is nigh, for individuals and for everything but the plants and animals that will outlive humankind.

cheericrow23's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

emmagee's review against another edition

Too depressing 

albernikolauras's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 This is really just a peaceful book with interlinked stories that progress you through the first almost 100 years through a climate apocalypse. I enjoyed the way the regrowth of plants and rebuilding of ecosystems were wrapped into the book as well. This is an optimistic book that centers the ability to rebuild and survive through climate change (but not with out cost).

The writing took a moment for me to get used to and it was a quiet, almost cozy book. I highly recommend for anyone reaching nihilism. 

sonotkidding's review

reflective medium-paced

4.0

multipletrees's review

hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

kendal14's review against another edition

4.0

I hate how accurate this is. The world as we know it is ending. 

username999's review

hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

I know I'm going to be in the minority here, especially since I've heard nothing but good things about this book, but my goodness this was such a massive disappointment.

If you're not going to be a plot driven book, then the characters need to pull through. But wow the characters were so lackluster and boring. There were some good moments, but the worst short story in this collection by far was, "An Important Failure" like I was reading it and it just felt like I was reading words, with no substance, like wtf was going on??? I don't understand what's happening???

And I can admit that I liked the themes of this book, but just because a book was good themes doesn't mean it's a good book. I suppose in this case, it saved it from being something I downright hated or disliked, but I am so surprised with all of the good ratings this book has received. Because again, while the idea of this is so good, the execution was not.