PositiveLos Angeles Review of BooksCook draw[s] gutting parallels between the ways we soften the harshness of the world for children—through games, in stories—and the mental aerobics required to disguise our obliteration of the planet ... Climate fiction is, yes, about the horrors we inflict on the world and the dystopian path we are plummeting toward—but it’s also about the way we tell these stories. The words we use matter. The characters that walk these pages know this ... In The New Wilderness, every section is called a Ballad, and in this framework, Cook casts us into the same world. We, too, are sitting around the fire. We, as readers, exist as audiences and participants. We are implicated. Perhaps the most powerful tenet of climate fiction is this kind of invitation, the realization that we are in this story, too.
Lydia Millet
PositiveLos Angeles Review of BooksThe obvious metaphor here is that the burden of climate change rests on the shoulders of the young. But A Children’s Bible takes the allegory one step further. Perhaps the more interesting component here is that, similarly to the way that the parents absolve themselves of all responsibility, the children of Millet’s world renounce their parents ... Millet...draw[s] gutting parallels between the ways we soften the harshness of the world for children—through games, in stories—and the mental aerobics required to disguise our obliteration of the planet ... We, as readers, exist as audiences and participants. We are implicated. Perhaps the most powerful tenet of climate fiction is this kind of invitation, the realization that we are in this story, too.
