Hyde plants all sorts of IEDs in her first novel, shattering her protagonist’s heart, the streets of a decidedly un-United States and, especially, our fragile planetary ecosystem. This is cli-fi even when it turns intimate, with the first kiss between lovers or the failures of addict parents. Individual tensions generate unexpected crackle, but everyone’s caught in the same toxic knots, their environment collapsing around them. The upshot is a first novel way outside the norms: a work of imagination rather than autobiography ... She’s always jangling the nerves, even when the focus shifts to the psyche ... dystopias of the past and the future that together cast a chilling shadow over our present ... That last imaginative leap is one of Hyde’s most spectacular, but if you ask me, her act only falters in its portrayal of the Camp founder, a standard-model megalomaniac. The rest of the secondary cast, however, all enjoy moments of subtlety, and overall Eleutheria achieves a remarkable humanity for a work that sets off global alarms. Hyde knows her title comes from the Greek word for “freedom,” and knows as well that few concepts have been so perverted, so polluted. That maddening paradox enlivens everything here, 'caught in the slipstream of idealism and exploitation, the secret crux of the Americas.'
... very much a novel of ideas, taking up social movements, the survival of ecosystems, questions of morality when faced with scarcity, local versus global needs ... But for all its theoretical concerns, the novel spends little time in the abstract. It’s tactile in a number of ways. With the imprint of human movement and activity on the planet. With Willa’s language, sticky in its descriptions.
Fast-paced and dramatic, Eleutheria is a love story that plays out against the backdrop of a planet in trouble. Hyde, author of the award-winning story collection Of This New World, offers many twists and shocks throughout her first novel, delivering an eerie prophecy of a not-so-distant future if we continue our inaction toward climate change.
... a classic story of utopian yearning and collapse, affectingly updated to incorporate present-day concerns about climate change and the erosion of democracy ... reminds readers that daily life and the emotional turmoil of young adulthood carry on even as, in this case, the effects of climate change become increasingly evident and the United States starts to slip into authoritarianism. Eleutheria intelligently examines the way ideological convictions are formed from emotions and experiences, and how those convictions can lead to irreconcilable differences and heartbreak ... More alarming than Eleutheria's dark future might be how accurately it captures the sense of teetering between apocalypticism and hope, which seems as descriptive of the present mood as it is of an imagined future.
... a solid page-turner, made more compelling because the environmental disasters it describes may not be so fictional ... More jaded readers may find the Big Missed Clues a bit hard to swallow. Still, Eleutheria—a word that stems from an ancient Greek term for liberty—is a solid page-turner, made more compelling because the environmental disasters it describes may not be so fictional ... Unfortunately, the book starts to veer off-track as it moves toward the finale. It relies too much on the device of a letter that Willa possesses throughout the book but— straining the reader’s credulity—conveniently refrains from reading until now. Meanwhile, Hyde abruptly unloads a harangue about climate change ... True, this poor planet needs all the help it can get. But a well-told story almost always works better than a lecture, as most of this novel proves.
... fiery and engrossing ... Exquisite prose and keen insights into the limits of idealism and activism add to the propulsive narrative. This is a worthy entry into the growing field of environmental fiction.
The buildup of Sylvia and Willa’s complex relationship is well written, sure to please readers who love a good queer May-December romance, but the novel is too long on detail in many places and frustratingly short in others; the fraught relationship between the locals on Eleutheria and the crew members is hinted at but never fully fleshed out. Much of the novel’s momentum stalls in Willa’s long-winded, retrospective narration ... A sprawling debut with an urgent message about the danger of climate change that unfortunately gets lost in the clutter.
