In the not-so-distant future, climate change has wreaked havoc on most of the United States. The wealthy have created a safe haven in the form of the Floating City, protected from the heat of the sun, rising sea levels, and the ravages of hurricanes.

Enter Rose, a sex worker from the Floating City, who has made a comfortable life for herself, but is still without the means to save her mother from the devastation on the mainland. When a client offers Rose a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a citizen of the Floating City, allowing her mother to move there too, she can't resist the chance. Now, she finds herself in the Canadian wilderness, seducing an idealistic architect and discovering the secrets of those at his camp.

Enter Grant, a privileged recent college graduate, who has accepted a position to teach at a university being founded by said idealistic architect in the Canadian wilderness. He's looking to leave behind a family who has amassed a fortune through the decades by exploiting the Earth and its inhabitants, but as he starts his work, he discovers not all is as it seems.

And then there's White Alice, a military mission, a climate change study, and probably much more. A group of women who are determined to not only survive, but thrive in the Canadian wilderness.

How these three storylines intertwine creates a speculative work of fiction that is atmospheric and thrilling. Some of the world-building could have been stronger as we meet a lot of characters, but only get to know a small number of them well. Technological advances, like the Flick, a smartphone-like device that's embedded into individuals from birth, sound interesting, but the way they're dealt with feel mostly didactic. A solid read, but lacking nuance and depth.

I haven't read dystopian fiction in a hot minute, but Camp Zero was the absolute perfect book to kickstart that interest again. I devoured this book in two days. The characters and world building really were incredible, and the different points of view we were privy to in a world detrimentally changed by climate change each gave purpose and perspective to the overall story. Compared it to Station Eleven is accurate, and I honestly liked this book more. Capturing both the futility and hope of different economic and racial backgrounds was especially important in Camp Zero, and I think this is a very important spec fic book that will probably be underrated given its content.

Camp Zero is a refreshingly original take on dystopian climate fic. It feels hopeful and doomed at the same time which seems to be the best possible way to face a world that is so catastrophically broken. The world Min Sterling constructed highlights the conflicting motivations that so often cause even well intentioned plans to fall apart.

I enjoyed the dual timelines and narrators which all told a distinct aspect of the story and the way it all came together in the end. Highly recommended for fans of dystopia, climate fic, and character driven stories.

A prescient and thrilling look at class, privilege, and gender in the Impending climate apocalypse as resource wars, climate refugees, and persistent natural disasters are a reality for much of the world today.

Thank you #netgalley for this arc. I found this book a really intriguing take on a dystopian world that doesn’t seem so unrealistic given the climate change we are experiencing. I found the plot dragged a bit in the middle but I really enjoyed this book, the character development and ending.

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling was a great story with a fresh perspective. I really enjoyed reading this and watching as the plot developed.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc.

this is a dystopian set around year 2050, where the climate crisis has nearly destroyed the world. it had similar vibes to Station 11 and Handmaid’s Tale. unfortunately, I found it generally slow, boring and pointless 🤷🏼‍♀️ there were a few good “oh dang” moments but otherwise, I honestly don’t get what this book was trying to do. thanks anyway to @netgalley for the gifted digital copy.

I really tried to love this book but I got halfway through and I couldn’t stay interested it took me two months and a lot of books inbetween before I got to the last page. It’s probably my fault for requesting it but I love post apocalyptic/dystopian fiction so I thought I’d enjoy it but the writing was basic and similar narrative to so many others I couldn’t stay interested.

I truly struggled with this one... I wanted to LOVE it and the beginning started off SO dang good, but it started to lose my interest barely 15% into the book. Futuristic type of book where people wear "flicks" to capture every moment and there's a "floating city" for a specific population of guess what.. nonother than the RICH. Climate change is at the peak during this time period and there's now a group of people set to an area called Camp Zero that'll start the reconstruction of the world. At Camp Zero there's no transportation to let you leave, there are no cars to use to leave, and it can take days for help to arrive. Do what you will with that information. Okay okay that's the synopsis, now time to get into the characters.

Rose and Grant are the primary POVs with another called "White Alice". Rose agreed to come to Camp Zero in order to spy on what's going on as an escort. Who would have guessed there are escorts in the future?? have to please the men.. smh Grant arrives to the site with the sole purpose of distancing himself from his family and a terrible decision made earlier on. Only Grant realizes that there was a different reason for why he was accepted to come here.

I don't like Grant, especially after finding out why he went to the site. I didn't feel an ounce of empathy for him. There was nothing to justify his actions and I would have preferred a different outcome for him, but I guess it'll do. On the other hand, Rose I quite enjoyed. It took quite a bit to understand her background and why she was in the position she was in, which was a bit frustrating. I felt the book was quick to get into then was slow paced throughout the rest of it... I actually had to switch between audiobook and the ebook version to help me get through it. The only reason I gave it 3 stars was because of the ending... I think I found the beginning and the lat 15% to be the most interesting and captivating in the entire book. Overall, I'm content with how everything turned out and found the concept of "White Alice" fascinating!!! Women rule! haha I was expecting this book to be more thriller and mystery than what I actually received.

realistically I understand that the end of the world due to global warming wouldn't be an action packed event but this took the end of the world being boring to an extreme. We follow Rose, a prostitute in "camp zero" a commune/college/safe place for Americans being built in Canada. We also have chapters from Grant's and White Alice's prospective.

This books seems to want to push a message. It often reads as a fable. It also pushes some extreme feminism, like "kill all men" type feminism. A lot of anti-consumerism, kill the rich, anti-cell phone, pro sex work, and feminism.

Overall this wasn't for me but that just means I'm not the target reader not that this book is bad. I'd recommend this to people who want soft sci-fi and slow reads that focus on the characters.

I really enjoyed Camp Zero. I loved the strong women depicted in this dystopian tale set in Canada. The world-building wasn't hard to follow either.

Maybe I'll try this again in the future but this was one of the rare exceptions where I didn't like the dual narration. I was really looking forward to this one due to the fantastic cover and intriguing premise so I'm disappointed.

Occasionally you just run into a book that is not right for you. It doesn't mean the book is bad, poorly written, or something for others to avoid - it just means this was not the title for you. Which is why I am surprised that I didn't like Camp Zero more. It is everything I usually like: Sci-fi/Fantasy and dystopian. However, I felt, and maybe this is just the male point of view, that this was (at least a little bit) of an attack on the male gender. Because of this I really didn't have any connection to the characters. I suggest you try it, many others love it, it just wasn't the right fit for me.

This started off a little shaky as the various factions and characters are introduced. I am glad I kept reading because the story starts to unfold and the interactions make sense. The blooms were my favorite feature as their story unfolds captures the vulnerability and strength of women.. Strong women are depicted and they are resilient as natural resources in a future world are depleted.A good read with some plausible elements.

Copy provided by the publisher and Net Galley

A beautiful story that mixes Canadian history and tragedies with a dystopian future. The US has become uninhabitable through global warming and a group of Americans flee to Canada, where they will attempt to set up camp and eventually force their way into indigenous lands. North of them is a group of women who have been living off the grid for almost 3 decades, just trying to survive by any means that they can.

This book felt like the movie Martian, but on earth. With some additional similarities to the Hunger Games, in that there is the Floating City (similar to the Capitol) where the elite live and enjoy the delicacies of life while the rest of the planet suffers.

This is a story about power, greed, strength, and survival.

I really wanted to like this novel. The writing is very good and the storyline is one that interests me. These days, any post-apocalyptic writing feels like realism! There are several stories being followed in this book and I really liked how they merged in the end. I wasn't expecting it until the end. That said, I felt like I kept waiting for the story to begin. Because of the structure, I never felt like I got deep enough into any of the characters. The characters themselves, I also liked. I craved more. It wasn't until the last quarter of the book that I felt it had much momentum. I would check out other writing from this author however.

This book really started out with so much potential - addressing the climate crisis, severe wealth inequality - all with a really great feminist premise. Also, the writing is good and really draws the reader in. There was a lot of squandered potential, unfortunately. For instance, why was the pillaging of native lands essentially glossed over? I think it got one or two mentions. And one of the main characters - Grant - felt like an afterthought, a "poor me White boy" trying to atone for the sins of the father. Overall, I'm giving it 3 stars for the overall theme of women doing it for themselves despite the shortcomings.

Told in the same vein as The Light Pirate, Camp Zero is an environmental dystopian novel told in three stories that eventually find themselves intertwined. The planet has become unbearably hot in many former habitable regions and the weather has become deadly. Rose arrives in northern Canada as a “Bloom”, one of several women hired to serve the important men of a new dig site. She is there to extract information so she can eventually return to her mother and be able to provide her with a comfortable life, far from the climate disaster she currently lives in. Grant comes from a wealthy family with a distinguished lineage. Hoping to escape his family name, he agrees to a teaching job in the north, but when he arrives, he realizes it’s not so easy to escape who he is. White Alice is a research center seemingly at the top of the world. When an all-female crew arrive, they form an unbreakable bond of women who will do what is necessary to survive. I found the storyline to be unique but the execution felt somewhat slow and I had a hard time wanting to keep reading. The ending was actually the best as I think the author did a wonderful job of tying all the stories together.

A super cool book with interesting characters and complicated but likeable characters.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review!!

Camp Zero focuses on a world that has been hit by very real climate activity, leaving survivors displaced with limited resources. Our main characters, Rose and Grant, come from very different backgrounds and have experienced very different results from climate change. I loved that Sterling chose to deliver the story through both of their eyes. The reader is able to get to know both of their backgrounds and witness their reactions to life at Camp Zero. Rose’s sections were stronger in my opinion, as I found her story to be very compelling and I wanted to root for her throughout.

In addition to these narrators, the reader is given passages from White Alice, a group of female soldiers living and working at a research station. I had no idea at first what these sections had to do with the story, but I loved how Sterling brought everything together at the end.

The pacing to Camp Zero falls in the mid-range for me with certain scenes adding more tension than others. There is a lot of great backstory provided by Sterling that brings Earth’s current living situation to life brilliantly. The ending definitely picks up quite a lot and I was very worried about what would happen to all of the characters I had grown attached to.

If you’re looking for a climate fiction read for your TBR, Camp Zero is a great option!

A huge thank you to Atria Books for my gifted copy!