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Catherynne M. Valente, the bestselling and award-winning creator of Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland returns with The Past is Red, the enchanting, dark, funny, angry story of a girl who made two terrible mistakes: she told the truth and she dared to love the world.The future is blue. Endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown. Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she's the only one who knows it. She's the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it's full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time. But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.
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This book really makes me want to cry. Not in an emotional, that really touched me in the feels way. But in an utter despair, anxious about the future, aware of the Fuckwits we are and will be, kind of way. I generally avoid apocalyptic/climate related fiction for this reason, and in our current climate (ha) the story told in these two short stories is just… a lot.
Valente is able to channel the despair of having no hope very well, and way this was shown through different characters was very effective. The way the humans of this post-climate apocalypse setting despise us, as in 2022 humanity, just feels so apt.
The original story is a quick read, but the real meat in the follow up, which is the namesake for the novella. I ‘enjoyed’ this second story much more, just as it had more time to breath and have a deeper plot.
I really need to read more of Valente’s books.
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