A review by notwithoutmybook
Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis by Malena Ernman

4.0

This book is made up of two parts, the first focuses largely on Greta and her younger sister, Beata's neurodivergent conditions and the second part is about the climate crisis. I found Greta and Beata's stories interesting and relatable, I'm an adult recently diagnosed with autism and I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to get a diagnosis, let alone any kind of help. The family clearly have been through so much in trying to get the sisters diagnosed and it's obvious from the writing that Malena and Svante care very much about their children. I hope that people can gain some understanding of neurodivergency from this book, especially in the way the conditions present so differently in the two girls. I know there's speculation as to whether Greta Thunberg's parents are exploiting her and pushing her into climate activism, but I don't believe that they are and I think this book portrays that well. Autistic people hyper focus, we obsess and one of the wonderful things about us is that our interests cannot be forced. The things we are passionate about are completely our own doing. The second part of the book that focuses on the climate crisis wasn't as easy for me to take in and I think I'm going to need to refer back to the book often because there's such a lot of information to acknowledge. I do definitely feel like I've learned from it though and would recommend the book to anybody who really does care about the climate crisis in a real and not performative way.