This is not a heartwarming and entertaining book but it's an excellent book that talks about how our future could be and how we are affecting the world around us.
It reminded me of the books set during the Great Depression: Coral, Foxglove, Summer and the other characters live in a very degraded environment but they are full of zest for life and love.
The world as we know collapsed and changed. Plastic became a commodity and a lot of places are under water.
The story is told switching between past and present, different POVs and it kept me enthralled. I was scared because I know this isn't a dystopia set in a distant future, this could be our world in 50 years.
The author is a talented storyteller and did an excellent job with character and plot development.
There's plenty of food for thought and this is an excellent speculative fiction, it's bleak but there's also hope.
A good way to look at the possible future and hope that it will be only fiction.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to MIRA and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Not since I read Station Eleven have I fallen this hard for a book that is fairly bleak, but so beautifully done that it pulls you in. Trashlands is a look at the land of Scrappalachia. A world after a cataclysmic world climate event has decimated everything that we once took for granted. Numerous plants and animals alike, a thing of the past. A new generation of people exist who can barely comprehend a world where things were once single use, or convenient. Instead, this is a world of survival. One where a single wrong step can mean your death. And yet? People manage to thrive.

We all know that characters are my favorite parts of stories, and so I have to give a ton of love to Alison Stine for the vast tapestry she weaves. Coral and her family are vivid, and sturdy. Even if the reader is thrown into the story without much explanation, it’s not hard to understand Coral’s way of being. She is used to a world where men rule, and women suffer the consequences. She has known hurt, and loss, in a way that has altered her forever.

Around her are numerous other people, each eking out their own meager life as best they can. From Trillium, the tattoo artist, to Foxglove, the sex worker, each one has their own unique way of dealing with the world. I loved that Stine didn’t attempt to build any fake levity here. This story pulls no punches. It shows each person’s struggles in vivid color, but that also allows the little bits of happiness to leak through and shine brighter. It’s the kind of story that once again reminds us that we should be more present in the moment, and thankful for what we have.

This would have easily been a five star read for me, if only it did a bit more of a deep dive on what actually occurred to cause this new world. Since I am heavily a character driven reader, it didn’t bother me as much as it might some people. The way this story is told is almost poetic in a sense, which makes sense now that I know Stine is a poet as well. The story walks this line of tense atmosphere that keeps you on your toes. I was happy to see the people I met fully fleshed out, rather than quickly rushed over. The world never felt large per say, but in a way that felt like exactly what it was supposed to feel like. Still, for people who are more focused on world building, Trashlands may feel a little unsatisfying.

The other slight issue I had was that some of the messages here felt a little heavy handed, especially set against such a poetically told story. Again, this is definitely a story that is pushing people to pay attention to climate change and our part in it. It never pretends not to have its own sense of feminism either, with the female characters constantly assessing this “after” world ruled by men. These things never pulled me out of the story, but I do feel they might affect other readers differently so they are worth mentioning.

Am I glad I read this book? Absolutely I am. It was gorgeous. A huge round of applause to Alison Stine and this work of art.

Set in a post-cataclysmic world where plastic is the only surviving currency, Trashlands is a horrifyingly plausible future setting. Applachia, where the novel is set, is now known as Scrappalachia and Trashlands is a strip club that a community forms around. Here, a group of "pluckers" - trash pickers that sift through mountains of garbage to find plastic to trade for food and living supplies - encounter a reporter looking for his sister, who's vanished and presumed dead. At the heart of the story is a young woman named Coral, whose son was taken from her seven years ago, and who stays at Trashlands in the hope that he'll escape and return to her. Trillium, Coral's mate, is older and tattoos for a living. Mr. Fall, the closest thing Coral has to a father, acts as a teacher to Trashland's children, and Summer, Mr. Fall's companion and Foxglove, a disillusioned young woman, are both strippers at Trashlands, and Rattlesnake Master is the owner/operator of Trashlands.

Trashlands is a character study into these personalities in a harrowing world that feels too close for comfort. Told from each character's point of view, we get a complete story of each character's painful origin and their often desolate present. Some plot points lag and some seemingly come from nowhere, but overall, a solid SFF choice.

Trashlands is a very haunting tale of a future post-apocalyptic world in which plastic becomes the currency of the world following a climate apocalypse.

Away from the cities, in a junkyard known as Trashlands in Scrappalacia, Coral lives in an old school bus with her adoptive father, Mr Fall, and her man, Trilllium. Life is extremely hard for Coral and the others as she searches and “plucks” plastic from the river to help feed her family. Trillium works as a tattoo artist, and Mr. Fall teaches school to the children of the junkyard.

Nearby, a stripclub known as Trashlands is where the self-proclaimed Mayor of Trashlands lives with his bright pink neon sign powered by solar. Evil Rattlesnake Master makes sure everyone who lives there has to depend on him for food to survive. Men wander into his club to watch the dancers and drink homemade brew spending their hard earned plastic.

Two of the dancers are friends with Coral and her family and do what they can to help Coral find her son. Seven years before, Shanghai was snatched at the age of 7 to work in a factory to sort the plastic that would be made into bricks. The plastic bricks were the new materials to use to build homes, or other buildings.

I love post-apocalyptic stories and Trashlands is one that will stay with me for a long time. I really found myself rooting for Coral, her family, and her friends. It was really eye opening to see how they survived on almost nothing whatsoever. No clothes, shoes, medicine, food, even water. They knew how to make do with almost anything, bark, weeds, plants, and especially, plastic. This was a tale of a very dark and very bleak future. But I couldn’t get it out of my head and would pick it back up every chance I had.

*Thanks to Harlequin Books and NetGalley for the advance copy!*

Trashlands is a beautifully written literary dystopian style story that hooked me from the start and maintained a haunting compulsion that I couldn't look away from. This story looks at a future in which climate change has irreparably altered the landscape of the world and people's ways of life, and we follow a select group of people as they live and navigate in this new world. I really enjoyed and appreciated getting to follow these characters and understand their mindsets as they struggle to survive. There was a lot of care, thought, and detail given to this story, and it is reflected so well in Stine's writing and exploration of this futuristic world. I didn't fully connect with this story as much as I'd expected to, and I'm not sure exactly why since the characters were explored in depth, but I think something about the writing created a sense of distance between reader and story/characters. Regardless, I still very much enjoyed this story and would definitely recommend it.

Personal rating: If I were in a dystopian world, I'd probably trust Coral with my life.

Reasons to read: if you're looking for a thought-provoking, emotionally driven book that pulls out the beauty and love in the world from literal garbage

So, I've always been a fan of dystopian books, mainly YA because they're not afraid to give us stories about youth and hope climbing from the fire of a ruined world. My favorites will always be The Hunger Games, Delirium, and City of Ember. In the adult genre, I love The Handmaid's Tale, Station Eleven, and The Stand, but Trashlands is the first book I have read where it takes the idea of a flooded world but dives deep into the lives of those scraping to survive. To say this is an uncomfortable book would be correct because it does get into the very true idea that women are in the most dangerous positions when law and order have been eradicated and the only way to survive would be to strip or sell sex to gain protection and money to survive. In Trashlands, plastic is the new currency, and children are stolen from their families and brought to factories to work/

[Mr. Fall said there used to be a color called Dayglo that would burn so brightly it hurt your eyes. Coral didn't understand how a color could just disappear. But whole cities could disappear. Coasts could disappear. Trees and flowers and animals.]

Coral lives as a "plucker", one who pulls plastic from rivers. She lives in what used to be the area of Appalachia. She'd gotten pregnant by someone who left soon after and eventually loses her son to collectors who come around to take children to work in plastic factories. Coral is told the children are well fed and safe, but she lives each day thinking of ways to find him. On the edge of the junkyard is a strip club known for miles around. it is owned by a man called Rattlesnake Master who is Trashland's unofficial mayor. Summer and Foxglove are two of his employees.

[She thought of plastic as time traveling. She knew that most people viewed it as money. But to Foxglove, plastic told a story. If only it could talk. What would it tell her? What had the world been like? What had the plastic in her water been-a toy or a shoe? Mr. Fall said that most plastics had been packaging. What a world that must have been, to have had to protect everything.]

One day, a reporter arrives with the task of finding something he'd lost. He also gives the people of Trashlands the vague idea that he's there to do a story of them. He enlists the help of Coral to help him look through the junkyard of scrap metal and old cars. He tells them all about his life in the big city. He's unlike the other men that come to Trahslands to watch the dancers, but he takes an interest in Coral.

[The song of the child forced to grow up too soon. The song of the teacher who alters his whole life to save a stranger. The song of the mother who sacrifices for her son. And the song of this stranger, this outsider, forever changed.]

The dystopian setting is a scary backdrop to the stories of the main three women: Coral, Summer, and Foxglove. But what I LOVED was that they surrounded themselves with decent men. (not you, Rattlesnake Master, although he was far gentler than I imagined he would be). There's a camaraderie within their group, and they all do what they have to do to survive.

This is not an action-packed adventure story; it's a mesmerizing piece of art. It hit all the beats for me: strong female characters, a bleak world, hope that crawls from the trash of grief and trauma.

Trigger warnings: violence, stillbirth, kidnapping, sexual coercion.

Generations in the future, the continents have been flooded. Global powers are no longer making new plastic, and it has become a type of garbage money in the region-wide junkyard of what we today know as Appalachia. No, that's not a dig; the area is literally an entire region of trash. Coral is a "plucker" who seeks out plastic. She unfortunately is stuck as park of Trashlands, which is a dump named for the strip club on the edge. Coral is trying to save up enough to rescue her child from recycling factories, where she's forced to work.

Coral tries to do this by making art.. While Alison Stine's writing is beautiful, even when describing dirty places and people, I just couldn't get into this one. Blame it on the season depression or my abundant workload, but I had to set this one aside. Still, there is a great deal of promise here so likely I'll grab a copy in the future and come back to it with fresh eyes...when the sun comes back out.

Trashlands by Alison Stine is a dystopian science fiction fantasy novel. The story is one that is told by changing the point of view between a few characters and is set in a future world in the United States.

Years from now the landscape of the continents will be changed with the coastlines changing which herded people inland. The global powers around the world agreed to cease in the production of plastic which in turn made it more valuable than ever with it becoming the new currency.

Coral lives among the Trashlands in a place junkyard in Scrappalachia always searching for a way to survive. Coral’s child was stolen from her and taken to the recycling factories to work where only small hands can manage. Coral has never given up hope that she will one day find her child again so when a reporter shows up she sees it at a sign to change her life.

So Trashlands by Alison Stine is mostly getting glowing reviews but I found myself on the outside looking in once again when I read this novel. For me the biggest thing that kept me from becoming engaged in this story was the lack of world building involved. I never found myself understanding the hows and whys to get myself connected to the rather disturbing world inside with ladies at a dystopian strip club putting up with the violence. Since I was in the minority I’d say if this one is on your radar give it a try for yourself.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The Review

Captivating and thought-provoking, author Alison Stine shines brightly in this emotional and relevant eco-thriller/sci-fi dystopian read. The novel’s brilliance comes through early on in the use of shifting perspectives, allowing readers not only to see how this dystopian world evolved and grew but allowing them to see how the bonds between these characters formed and how they came to be who they are. The chilling atmosphere comes not from some horrendous mutant beast or alien invasion, but the horrors humanity inflicts on our own planet, forcing the Earth to reshape its landscapes and forcing good people to do whatever it takes to survive.

The character arcs in this narrative are the true heart of this book. The various perspectives we have to allow the reader to see the balance Coral must find in not only surviving for herself but in finding the means to save her son, taken years ago from her to work in a factory. Her ability to find beauty and the means to create art for others while still putting herself through perilous work to earn the means of leaving everything behind and saving her son showcases mankind’s ability to persevere in the face of adversity and find hope in the darkness that surrounds us, a message that rings true for so many people.

The Verdict

An engaging, emotionally-driven, and thematically important read, author Alison Stine’s “Trashlands” is a must-read novel of 2021! The perfect story of survival, hope, and finding beauty in the most troublesome of times, this story will take readers on a roller-coaster of emotions and showcase a depth of world-building that readers will come to love from this eco-thriller.

Several generations from now, floods, fires, and earthquakes in the wake of climate change disasters forced global powers to stop producing new plastics and pollutants. Coasts and national borders were redrawn due to the flooding, and entire regions were devastated by garbage, and the survivors of these disasters eking a living out of the poisoned ground. Coral is a plucker, one that plucks plastic out of polluted rivers, living near a junkyard in the shadow of a strip club. She's never had a chance to want anything before, and a reporter from the coast provides the stirrings of hope.

I read this book with a barely contained sense of rage. Not because it's terribly written; on the contrary, its spare language is excellent at evoking the quiet desperation of these characters, the men that seek to abuse those without power, and the hopelessness that pervades Scrappalachia. This is a world where children are stolen and forced to work in plastic factories, picking out plastic from sludge and slurry, then make bricks for the rich to build with. This is a world where the disposable trash of our daily lives is the currency bartered for all the trappings of life. A fall or infection could be death, as there is no medicine other than what was scrounged out of a dilapidated and decayed array of buildings. There's no food, water, fuel, or clothing that isn't polluted in some way, gone stale with the lack of knowledge or filters to clean it; when the focus is on survival, information was one of the first things to go.

I felt like part of this world, one with the problems of Coral, Foxglove, and Summer trying to eke a life outside what Rattlesnake Master would give them; the glimpses of their pasts are ones of loss and pain, and the families they tried to build for themselves are small and just as broken as they are. I felt their struggles and pains like my own, a testament to Alison's skill. Even those considered rich in the cities aren't too much better off than they are. There are still glimmers of hope here and there, and the future lies in the relationships that people are still able to make. That's the only way to survive, and I wish all of the characters except for the Rattlesnake Master the best.

[ Blog Tour ] Thank you to MIRA and NetGalley for the eARC to read and review!

"Trashlands" is an engaging novel reflecting a likely future of our world through haunting and lush details.

Through multiple POVs comes a story of love and sacrifice, estrangement and community, living and surviving, art and purpose. And plastic has become the currency that rules all.

I read this book in quiet fascination, riveted. Existing alongside the complex, deeply scarred residents of Trashlands as they worked and scavenged day in and day out in order to survive.

The setting has its own dismal magnetism. Trashlands is the name of the strip club and the surrounding area. It’s located in Scrappalachia (the Appalachians in North America), specifically the Ohio region for most of the story. Some cities (The Els) survived the floods, fire, storms and pollution. City life is a tenuous illusion of normalcy, vastly different from that of Trashlands where homes are made with garbage, bugs are a cuisine, and women and children are the most vulnerable. The proverb, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” rings true in this forever-changed world. People have had to get creative in how to use and reuse plastic, clothing, medicine, and more.

As I got to know the characters, I grew to care deeply about them. For Coral, doing all she can (giving all she can) to one day buy back the son she lost. For Foxglove, a dance at the club, trying to exist (to cope) in a body not fully her own. For Trillium, distancing himself from the pain of the past through his work as a tattoo artist. To name a few. The author has constructed a cast of dynamic and likable characters with heartrending stories. I liked that we got a range of memories/perspectives of those who remember life before the floods and those born into this new life.

I have never read speculative fiction or climate fiction before, so I wasn’t sure if I would like the story. But I was pleasantly surprised by how invested I was with what was going on. "Trashlands" was a really good read. There’s a lot to say and think about. The falling action was particularly touching after going through so much with the characters, experiencing the struggles of their world, and reliving their darkest memories. I highly recommend this story!

I was super excited for this after really enjoying the author's debut . And so my expectations were high, sure. But Trashlands? Yeah, blew my expectations right out of the water. I adored this book, so much. And now I shall tell you why.

►It is so full of heart. These characters have been through it, yet they're still surviving. Some survive for themselves, some for their families, but they try so hard to make their lives mean something. Coral, the main character, is trying desperately to get to her son, who was stolen by what amounts to child traffickers. And everyone in her life strives to help each other as best they can, even in the most dire of circumstances.

►The world was kind of incredibly done. The author alludes to life outside of "Scrappalachia", but it is where the main story takes place. It truly seems plausible that at the end of the world, trash is all that remains. That people are finally forced to reuse everything, to make something new from the refuse our generations leave behind. It's bleak, for certain. The few who do have wealth treat those who don't.... well, you know, as you'd expect- horribly. The strip club in the sea of garbage is a shining example. The owner not only owns the club, he owns all the foreseeable land around it, and in essence, everyone on it. People steal, cheat, lie, and it's messy, to be sure.

►The atmosphere was spot-on. I mean, it's garbage world, so you'd need it to be pretty bleak! And it was, but with definite hope, too. The homes were made of scavenged vehicles, odds and ends the occupants find along the way. The land itself was desolate, and barren, which was fitting too.

►It was thought-provoking and emotional. Obviously it was thought-provoking in its relevance, but more than that, it brings up so many questions of how the reader would handle these situations, too. And you cannot help but feeling absolutely devastated for Coral, for so many reasons. Without going into too much detail (for fear of spoilers of course), Coral's story absolutely tugged at my heartstrings- and her desperation to find her son was gutting.

►I loved the characters so very much. Beyond the fact that they were all survivors (of all varieties), they were all really well developed and unique. I loved that they all had personalities and goals and lives, even in such bleak times. Like yes, survival was a priority, but they all also were their own people beyond that, which I found especially lovely.

Bottom Line: Absolutely loved everything about this book, cannot wait to see what Alison Stine has for us next!

“A consistent stream of plastic washed up. There was so much plastic in the world, Mr. Fall said, it would never run out.”

In this environmental dystopia, climate change has wrecked havoc. Flooding & tides have wiped out whole cities & states, changing the coastland. The world’s remaining governments agreed not to produce any more plastic. What’s left is a hardscrabble life as people cope without enough food, clean water, or electricity.

Coral is a plucker. She finds plastic items in rivers and woods that’s sold or bartered. Plastic is the new currency and plastic is life. Coral lives in Trashlands a giant garbage dump in what was once Ohio. It’s main draw is a strip club which offers girls, drinks, and air conditioning. Coral refuses to leave Trashlands because she hopes one day her son will find his way back to her. Her son was kidnapped as a young boy, sent to work a brick factory. Small quick hands are needed to sort plastic before it’s melted down & made into bricks. When a mysterious reporter turns up at Trashlands, he offers Coral hope and the means to find her son.

I loved so many of characters in this book! Coral’s an artist at heart in a world where everyday is a struggle to survive-especially for women and children. Mr. Fall, is another wonderful character. Even living in a garbage dump, he believes in education. He teaches the kids and the strippers who live at Trashlands how to read with a precious, battered set of Encyclopedia Brittanica.

This is a remarkable and cautionary story populated with characters you won’t soon forget.

I enjoyed reading Alison Stine’s debut ‘Road out of Winter’ and I was excited to see how her latest book, also a dystopian fiction would match up to my high expectations. In some ways Trashlands is very similar in feel, but it has some key differences and this one certainly feels a lot more polished.

Road out of Winter didn’t focus as much on the causes of the disaster that changed the world (a perpetual Winter that never ceased), however Trashlands gives a lot more backstory on the events. There’s been rising sea levels, floods and pollution and the world’s powers have agreed not to make any more plastic – meaning garbage is now currency. The scale of the disaster in a global, or even across state lines way is not explored fully – we only learn of events through character backstory but these small insights make for an interesting read. The story also has a moral of how much plastic we consume and throw away and I certainly felt guilty about my water bottle as I was reading it!

Alison Stine really shines at making believable, interesting and gritty characters and this really comes through in Trashlands. We meet Coral - a young mother who uses precious plastic to make art after her child was taken away, her partner Trillium - a tattoo artist, Mr Fall - an older teacher trying to keep the memories of the old society alive and Foxglove – a stripper who allows men to permanently ink their names on her body. The setting is Trashlands: a junkyard converted to a strip club owned by the shadowy Rattlesnake Master who owns everyone and everything inside. We learn a lot about the characters through conversations and backstory and this continues all the way through the book meaning you still have more experiences to learn about to explain why people act a certain way. There were some inconsistencies in this though – although I understand that Coral wanted to make art, sacrificing large plastic pieces that could have been worth a lot of money (money that she is saving to help her find her son) seemed very out of place. I didn’t really understand why she didn’t use nature or another medium instead of something so precious.

There’s a fair amount of tension and drama in the book but not too much action happens. I was quite disappointed that the ending leaves a key event hanging in the balance with no resolution but it has kept me thinking about the story for a while after I read it! This is also how Road out of Winter ended – not quite a ‘happy ever after’ conclusion but something which could be taken either way.

Overall, Trashlands is a character driven dystopian story with a point to make about how we are harming the world around us. Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin – MIRA for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Disappointing. I should preface my review by noting that I was a huge fan of Road Out of Winter and was very much looking forward to this. Set in Scrapalachia at some time in the not too far future, it's the story of a group of people who survive by picking plastic and live gathered around the Trashlands strip joint. Coral, who was found as an abandoned baby by Mr. Fall, is meant to be the centerpiece as she aches for her son Shanghai, who was taken by a gang to work in a plastic recycling factory. There's also a couple of strippers, three good men, a bad man, and so on. The world building is weak- I never understood what happened, why the plastic was in Scrapalachia, who was paying for the plastic the people picked, why on earth Miami thought he could find a single pink plastic bracelet and so on. The time line didn't work. The perspective jumps from person to person, which usually doesn't bother me but I kept getting Foxglove and Summer confused. And then there's Shanghai. Stine has a lot to say about our overuse of plastic, among other things, but she lost me. It's grim, dark and unbelievably gritty. Thanks ro the publisher for the ARC. I'll be the odd one out.

I don't mind admitting that Trashlands took me by surprise. I tend to avoid futuristic, doomsday-type stories because all too often, they either go completely off the rails or they depress the daylights out of me. But the blurb sounded different than what I'd seen, and the premise intrigued me. This one certainly gets a bit dark, and Coral has her share of problems, but there's an underlying sense of hope, the feeling that all is not yet lost throughout the book. The story is told from multiple points of view and the timeline jumps back and forth, both of which were much less jarring than I would've expected. The pacing feels almost lazy, for lack of a better description. It's not too slow, but it kind of wanders. Much like the genre, that's another element I don't usually care for, but it just works with these characters and their story. And that leads me to the author and her gift for storytelling. For whatever reason, the pacing, the jumping from past to present and back again, the multiple points of view, it all worked when Alison Stine put them together. This is a story well worth reading, and I'll be interested to see what the author does next.

Like Stine’s debut novel, Road Out of Winter (2020), Trashlands takes place in Appalachia, a setting that in its future form appears a lot like its present-day form in key ways. In this novel, people are named after things (animals/plants/cities) that have become extinct, Appalachia is practically coastal due to how high the ocean has risen, and plastic (in any form) has become the national currency. This novel explores how Art might figure into the climate-ravaged future, positing that the desire to create things for non-functional/practical purposes does in fact have a “practical” end in that it gives purpose to life. Trashlands is also simply a compelling story of a community in a junkyard + strip club at the end of the world!

After reading and reviewing her first novel, Road Out of Winter, I jumped at the chance to read and review this one.

Trashlands is a story of true resilience, crafted in only a way someone who lived in Appalachia could give it proper justice, and Stine brings readers yet another believable story of a new dystopia. The ways of electronics and life in general have changed drastically due to a climate crisis, especially in lower class regions, leaving people to resort to bartering and a long-time tradition: the sex trade. It’s a world in which most housing is in buses or cars, and stripping and sex work are still viable ways to earn a living. Trading raw materials (such as plastic) is the modern currency. Among the junkyard of the Trashlands, there are a diverse group of people who become like a family, using their individual knowledge, skillsets, and of course their bodies to try to survive inside a region where very few are prosperous and most never escape. There are many individual storylines that when intertwined paint a clear picture of the struggles and resourcefulness that they have each faced in their quest for survival. The sum of each individual story gives credence to how the community bands together to help one another survive.

Despite the setting of the book, the themes are eerily current and the characters are relatable. The storyline is easy to follow, while sucking the reader in, keeping them interested. The only complaint I have is how the book ends, which is a recurring theme with her books. The ending is left open, I’m assuming in case she wants to revisit the characters, but it leaves me desperate for more.

Special thanks to HarperCollins for the advance review copy of Trashlands supplied to TehBen.com. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Alison Stine is back with another spectacular work of speculative fiction. Set in the near future, Trashlands transports readers to another vision of Stine's dystopian Appalachia. In Road Out of Winter, Stine envisioned a world in a state of near-perpetual winter, and now Trashlands showcases a world devastated by floods and tornadoes, where most cities are barely still standing and plastic is the only form of currency. Full of Scrappalachian plastic gatherers called "pluckers," and workers at the Trashlands strip club, Trashlands is a quiet analysis of how much things can change and how much they can stay the same--power is held in the hands of a few, traumatic events have lifelong consequences, and love is complicated. This novel has firmly cemented Alison Stine into my "auto-buy" authors category.

What I Loved

Trashlands by Alison Stine brings the reader to a most uncomfortable place. Why do I love that? I do because it is through discomfort that real change is born. This story is incredibly thought-provoking on a topic for which there are no easy answers. Let’s face it – no one is anti-environment, but there is not a cheap, easy answer for our situation. Plastic is cheap, and recycling it isn’t nearly as cheap as just making more. And, who doesn’t love low cost? How many of us are willing to have our buying power diminished by the expense of finding more environmentally conscious methods and products?

That’s why Trashland’s impact comes from its ability to put readers in an uncomfortable situation and let them just take in that discomfort. I couldn’t help but think of the prospects of a future in Scrappalachia, which was once the gorgeous Appalachia that we all know in person or by pictures. Imagine that pristine landscape reduced to a place of little life, and lots of trash is sad and mind-blowing. To experience what it’s like to live in a garbage dump and spend your days fishing plastic out of the river to trade for whatever goods are available is just beyond what we would typically consider or would quickly dismiss.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg for what the people in this book must endure. All the characters are highly complex and layered. This story is perhaps even more character-driven than it is plot-driven. The theme of family is heart-breaking and powerful, as everyone needs a family to even hope to survive. And, the narration of this story, through multiple first-person narrators, instead of being confusing, ends up making the story even more immersive and impactful.


Characters

Coral is arguably the main character of this story which features many of the inhabitants of Scrappalachia. She is everything you can hope for in the main character – determined, relatable, and incredibly sympathetic. Life has not been good to her, and to see that level of resilience is just extraordinary. All the narrators are survivors, but Coral has something special about her that compels you to keep reading even as your discomfort grows.

What I Wish

I wish there were more straightforward answers – that simple. But, I know we must continue to think about the problems and possible solutions even when they make us uncomfortable.

To Read or Not to Read

If you are looking for a thought-provoking story with strong, relatable characters, then you will want to visit Scrappalachia soon.