3.5 ⭐️

Thanks to Atria Books for the copy of this ARC!

Camp Zero is a BIPOC debut centered around a settlement in northern Canada in 2050, a year when climate change has made a severe impact and technology is literally ingrained into everyday life. Told from the POV of Rose (sex worker and child of a Korean immigrant), Grant (professor from entitled family), and White Alice (group of women soldiers living in a research station), this book delves into themes of climate change, male entitlement, female empowerment, and classism.

While I was intrigued by this book, I wasn’t quite sure where the storyline was going. The Korean immigration piece mentioned in the synopsis was a minor past detail, and the climate migration was also more of a fact than a process shown in the book. In the end, we center on the mystery of the camp’s purpose and future, which is revealed as the characters also decide what they want their futures to look like. We get some flashbacks to better understand their decision-making process. I was definitely compelled to finish this one and liked it, but thought the twists were predictable and also found it to be just kind of weird. If the premise looks interesting, I’d suggest trying it out, but I could honestly take or leave it!

Read if you:
- care about the impact of climate change
- like dystopian novels
- like the dynamic of women finally overpowering entitled men