An astonishing book, full of adventures and relationships both beautiful and terrible, and also filled with all the complex textures of love and strife between siblings. The vision of the future with its facets of both dystopia and inklings of utopia feel real, visceral, and powerful. A gripping page-turner.

SALTCROP s the gorgeously written, literary post-apocalyptic sister story of my heart. I've always had a thing for bleak post-apocalyptic landscapes, melancholy places that carry their own moments of joy and beauty, and this book delivers on all those vibes. SALTCROP also has a unique structure, written in three parts which are each in a different sister's POV. The portrayal of the three sisters and the unbreakable bonds between them was poignant and relatable.

I'm usually not a fan of third person present POV, but Kitasei makes it sound poetic and lovely, and the sweeping descriptions of sailing across a perilous sea were visceral and breathtaking. The ending was both satisfying and sweet as well. I've enjoyed both of Katasei's previous books, but I can really see how she's taken her craft next level here, and this is my new favorite.

Saltcrop is set in a dystopian world (maybe in the near future) where food has become scarce due to a blight that devastated staple food crops. Because of the symbiotic relationship between crops and insects, the majority of pollinators have vanished.

Meanwhile, we have a crooked company, Renewal, only concerned with padding their wallets. They've created a monopoly on the agricultural business making the population reliant on them--it's hard not to make comparisons to the world we're living in today.

Wow, okay. I wrote a lot of notes reading this book and a lot of great quotes throughout. This is a thrilling journey about 2 sisters risking it all to find their sister, who works for Renewal, after they receive a cryptic and concerning message from her.

But what I got out of it? Saltcrop shows the imperfect love we can have for family members. It's messy, illogical and logical, complicated. We can learn to love not based on someones whole being, but what they can offer (obviously there are exceptions to this concept). The sisters come to realize this during their treacherous journey and it's actually really beautiful. This shows the strength of the bonds of sisterhood and the sacrifices we make for the people we love.

On top of everything said, Yume Kitasei has created a whole ass world in this book. It's vivid and has cinematic qualities.

So all in all, I really loved this. The first 1/3 dragged for me a bit; that's my only complaint.

This is the first title I've read from this author and enjoyed it enough to put her additional work on my TBR. This story's dystopic elements are a perfect blend of SFF and just-over-the-horizon levels of alarming, Kitasei's imagination is my favorite element in the book. The characters are memorably stubborn, heartfelt, and navigate their shared family trauma with an earnestness that kept me see-sawing between who to root for and who I'm upset with in a given chapter. If you enjoy well-written character relationships, this one is worth your time. Between work and life, I was forced to put this story down more often than I wanted. I'm especially vested in a book when I can come back to it and fall right back into the world, as if I'd never left.

Recommend!

Part fight against a corrupted world, part meditation on sisterhood, family, and finding your place, Saltcrop is a beautiful story. Yume Kitasei's prose builds the world of Saltcrop into something that isn't just easy to imagine, but to feel and taste around you.

Discovering the world through the sisters very different viewpoints allows for such differing perspectives to form of the places and people we meet throughout the book

Once again, Kitesai delivers a solid plot, excellent writing, satisfying character arc, and the kind of light touch on serious topics that leaves quiet echoes in your background thoughts for a long time afterwards.

Saltcrop is about the relationship between sisters. About the ways those relationships can bind and pinch, but also provide safety, resilience, and joy. It is also about generational trauma and the way that the same event can be experienced completely differently by multiple people. It’s about the devastating effects of climate change on people at the bottom, and the knock-on effects of poverty on physical and mental health. It also fulfills the classic sci-fi mandate to warn current-day readers of “days to come” if we don’t stand against the inevitable slide into corporate authoritarianism and global conglomerates. But it’s not preachy, don’t get me wrong.

It’s an excellent read. In all three Kitesai books I’ve read so far, I’ve been delighted with her ability to Tell A Story— that elusive gift to combine words and imagination in a way that takes the reader entirely out of their armchair and into the author’s world. Well done. Can’t wait to read more.

Amazing concept, but convoluted beyond belief. Trying too hard to have a particular style, which turns readers like me away who just want to read the story for what it is. The tense also absolutely threw me off.

Yume Kitasei’s Saltcrop is a quiet storm—gathering slowly, steadily, until it hits. Set in a haunting, dystopian future where oceans have swallowed the land and agriculture is balanced on the edge of collapse, the novel imagines a world where crops fail and new diseases can be fatal. But what truly elevates this story is not just its eerie vision of the future—it's the sisterly bond.

Skipper, Carmen, and Nora are three sisters with a relationship that ebbs and flows like the tides. When Nora—the eldest and a brilliant scientist—goes missing, Carmen and Skipper set out on a sweeping journey across land and sea to find her. What follows is not only a physical quest, but an emotional reflection. Kitasei's choice to weave in perspectives from all three sisters adds to the story.

The atmospheric tension is thick, and the drowned world Kitasei creates is both strange and beautiful. Saltcrop is epic, and it will haunt you long after the last page.

#Saltcrop #FlatironBooks #SpeculativeFiction #DystopianLit #yumekitasei

Deeply felt, well-written and unputdownable, SALTCROP is a fantastic read. Equal parts ecological thriller and intimate portrait of a family. Seaspray and corporate treachery, a beloved boat named Bumblebee, all the ways family accidentally defines us. Fantastic.

Kitasei has something to say about capitalism and climate change - in both this and “The Deep Sky” there is a clear message! The message has been different both times but it’s been there.

As someone with a glut of siblings, I loved this exploration of the depth and strength of sibling bonds. Even when the sisters didn’t understand each other or, really, like each other, there was a deep love and a commitment to do absolutely insane things for each other. That these insane things were happening while in a world where capitalism has driven economic and environmental disaster seems almost background.

A lot of heart (and a little body horror)!