I was a little nervous when the first narrator of this story turned out to be a sex worker. Where was this story going? Then we are introduced to two additional narrators; a rich young man escaping his family, and a collective of women in a remote outpost (yes, the narrator is a collective - it works). While Rose, the sex worker, and Grant, the rich young man, are almost immediately in the same place in the story, the collective of women is more confusing. Where are they, and more importantly, when are they?

The bulk of this story takes place in the future (but not very far into the future) where climate change has created a number of unsurprising changes, including much of the United States being hot and inhospitable and both the North and designed floating cities providing the hope for the future. The story skips around between the three narrators, their stories now, and their backstories. They are brought together in a town in the North where everyone is there for a different reason, and these reasons are often in opposition to each other. No one knows the whole story, so each person is trying to put the pieces together. Men are not highly regarded in this story and most of them are not portrayed well. Uncovering the story and figuring out how he character will fare is worth the journey. Keep an eye on this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eGalley. My opinion is my own.

Published by Atria Books on April 4, 2023

Camp Zero is a novel of climate change, sisterhood, survival, and the privilege that accompanies wealth. In the relatively near future, southern climates have become unbearable, forcing migration to the north. The true impact of global warming in the United States is only hinted at in a story that primarily focuses on northern Canada. We nevertheless learn that one American city — a new one, constructed to house wealthy Americans offshore to avoid the threat of rising sea levels — has prospered despite (or because of) climate change.

Damien Mitchell lives in the Floating City. He invented the Flick, a device that is wired into the brain to provide internet connectivity. Damien has not told the public of a long-term downside to using the Flick. Camp Zero might be sending a message about the downside of staring at smartphone screens all day long, but the damage caused by the Flick is measurable. Unfortunately, after Michelle Min Sterling introduces that story element, she does nothing with it. Doing nothing with story elements is a recurring issue in Camp Zero.

Rose is Damien’s client in the Floating City. Rose is a half-Korean sex worker whose true name is revealed in an anticlimactic moment late in the novel. Using the promise of a decent life for Rose’s mother as an inducement, Damien convinces Rose to travel to Dominion Lake in Canada, where a camp employs Diggers to dig holes in the frozen ground. Rose is instructed to use her talents as a working girl to spy on Meyer, the architect who believes he is building a new settlement for Americans who are fleeing from the climate crisis.

Rose joins five other sex workers who are collectively known as the Blooms. They are supervised by a woman named Judith who extracts their Flicks, a seemingly pointless exercise since Dominion Lake has no wireless connection. Whether the Blooms feel exploited or happy to have a job (or both) is unclear, as neither the sex workers nor Judith are developed in depth. Only two Blooms are of consequence to the plot. Rose’s background is presented as a sketch while Willow’s underdeveloped character ties into another part of the story. Since the Blooms eventually seize an opportunity to make a better life, a reader can infer that they are unhappy with their present lives, but the women are so insubstantial that I found it difficult to connect with their plight.

Dominion Lake was once an oil drilling town but jobs became scarce after the US finally banned oil. Life in Dominion Lake is primitive. The Blooms operate from an abandoned mall. Why the stores left so many goods behind when they closed is never explained.

Grant Grimley came from money. With the help of his parents, he survived a hurricane that devastated Manhattan, but his girlfriend was less fortunate, perhaps because Grant’s parents regarded her as unworthy. Grant went north, accepting an invitation to teach English at a newly built campus in Canada. The campus at Dominion Lake turns out to be something less than he expected. His students are Diggers who, with Meyer, are supposedly awaiting an influx of funding so they can build a bigger community. Why it was deemed wise to give Grant a useless job is never made clear.

The story of Dominion Lake is woven into the separate story of White Alice. White Alice is a research station within snowmobiling distance from Dominion Lake. Because it was once used as a military radar base, it supposedly establishes American sovereignty, giving the US a foothold in an area that has an untapped supply of rare earth elements. The White Alice story, compressed in time, begins before the Dominion Lake story but eventually catches up.

The all-female team at White Alice has replaced a team that either went mad or starved to death when its home base stopped resupplying the scientists. This was apparently an attempt to see how well scientists survive without food and fuel in the frozen wilderness. The result was predictable, leaving the reader to wonder why the experiment was carried out. That’s yet another question the story neglects to answer.

To assure that the experiment is not replicated, some of the new scientists visit Dominion Lake in a search for supplies. One of them comes back pregnant. They decide to make their own little colony at White Alice, collectively raising a baby who grows up to be a proficient raider as they steal oil and supplies from other towns. Sustaining the colony will require an influx of new blood — that is, new breeding stock. The men who might be suitable for the task meet varying fates.

Had the characters been given more depth, had the story addressed unanswered questions, Camp Zero might have been a strong entry in the growing subgenre of climate change science fiction. Sterling imagined interesting scenarios but did too little with them. While the story confronts the conflict between idealism and survival, its revelatory moment instructs us that “it’s a shit world, but it’s the only world we have.” As inspiration goes, that lesson is wanting. The novel did enough to hold my interest but not enough to realize its potential.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

This was quite the ride! I love a good multi-POV story. The characters were interesting and I enjoyed all of their stories. The pacing was a little slow but it was enjoyable to watch the story unfold. My biggest disappointment was the way the story ended. I have a tough time with ambiguos or open ended books with no expectation of any additional books or series. This book doesn’t fit the profile of a series book. The abrupt ending made the book feel rushed and that’s always disheartening. Other than that, I really enjoyed it! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! Overall, I would give this book 3.5 stars.

The premise of this sparked my interest. Climate change fiction is an intriguing genre, especially with the current state of the world, and this book held a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the pacing just didn't work for me. Readers who enjoy a slow burn will find it more engaging. The characters held promise, and those who find bleak dystopias especially interesting will perhaps have a little better luck.

Typically, slow paced books of this subgenre hold my interest, but I ended up starting, stopping, and restarting this one many times before I finally sat down with determination to power through. If I were not reviewing it, I probably would have DNFd. That doesn't mean it won't work well for other readers. There's interesting bits throughout, but over all, it didn't work for me.

Dystopian novels about the climate crisis are tough, since they are so close to home. This fabulous novel manages to keep the tension of our imminent threat while weaving together a thoroughly unique vision of what the future might look like. While it took me a while to figure out where I was and what was going on, I really appreciated Sterling's boldness in throwing us into the deep end. The richness of the world she built is a great scaffolding for an intriguing story.

2.5 ⭐️I was so excited for this book and while it was not terrible, it just was not for me. I do not typically read too many science fiction books, but the description was so interesting and Jenna’s choices are so popular. I found myself getting so confused with the storylines. There were also parts of the book that felt extremely slow and dragged on. I’m not even sure what the plot of the whole book was. Very all over the place, but very well written and I did enjoy some of the characters, like Rose and Grant. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What an interesting story line and concept. I was really excited to read this one after reading the synopsis (which I usually don’t do). This is dystopia.

I really enjoyed the middle of the book. The meat and potatoes were there. The excitement was there. The anticipation of what next kept me reading for long periods of a time. The MC’s had a lot of depth too!

The beginning of the book took a bit too long to figure out the where, when, and who. I actually took notes to keep track of everyone and how they’re interlaced! There were a lot of characters, with a few focused MC’s. I am not a fan of a ton of characters to keep track of & long chapters. This one has some very long chapters.

The ending seemed to just drop off a bit. It ended with some unanswered questions and as a cliff hanger. Maybe there will be a sequel! If you enjoy dystopian, this one is definitely worth giving a try. Overall I enjoyed it.

First I want to thank Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this book.

I really enjoyed Camp Zero. This is a wonderful first novel that revolves around a forgotten corner of rural Canada and the different parties that hope to make it their own. Camp Zero takes place in the near future after global warming has made sections of the southern United States nearly uninhabitable. Fires burn across the great plains and super storms ravage the coasts. Many believe that the North is humanities future and are hoping to stake a claim for themselves and their way of life.

The narrative style is really interesting as we switch between three main viewpoints to get a picture of the different players and their plans for the future of the abandoned town of Dominion Lake.

Camp Zero might be a good fit for anyone who enjoyed Station Eleven or Severance. I will definitely be putting this one on my shelf.

This was a really unique and intriguing story! I knew from the second I read the synopsis, I had to check it out. While it was slow at times, overall I would say that I enjoyed the book.

A well written Dystopian Climate Fiction story that follows three POV's who come to Camp Zero a settlement in Northern Canada which is trying to carve out an existence away from the crumbling world.
Rose who comes to Camp Zero as one of the sex workers The Blooms in exchange for her immigrant mother's protection. Grant comes to Camp Zero to escape his wealthy family and help teach the workers but finds more going on below the surface. And a group of woman doing climate research nearby known as White Alice.

This was an intriguing and thought provoking read but I found the timelines a bit confusing and thought the author tried to touch on too many subjects making the story as a whole a bit muddled. There's a lot going on in this slow burn story. While i'm not a huge dystopian reader I thought this was a better than average one and worth checking out if that kind of story is your thing. This one had more a literary feel than thriller so be prepared for a slower moving story that will finally intersect towards the end.

*Thank you Netgalley and Atria books for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

I just read Camp Zero in one sitting and overall really enjoyed it. First off though - I would suggest you do not read the synopsis on Goodreads. I went in without reading it and think it is better to let the story unfold as we learn things and sometimes I feel like a synopsis gives away too much.

I was a little bummed though because the reason I was so excited to pick it up was seeing a lot of comparisons to Station Eleven which is one of my favorite books. Going in with that comparison gave it a high bar and it wasn't quite there.

However - I do think this book did what most of my favorite science fiction does which is to take a new world that is different from ours and illuminate things from our current lives in a different setting. This story managed to do that with a lot of current issues - climate change, reliance on technology, greed, misogyny - without feeling like we are being preached to which can be a fine line to walk. I'm glad I read this and appreciated the story but it's not one of my favorite books of the year.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

I am so glad I heard about this book because it was absolutely incredible from start to finish. The three different story lines came together so beautifully. The end left me hanging, but in the best way! I hope there is a sequel!

Camp Zero is a dystopian climate change mystery thriller that follows Rose, a young woman sent to a frigid northern Canadian camp called Camp Zero. This camp is an American owned building project that’s riddled with secrets and it’s Rose’s job to spy on its architect.

This is a bleak story that I didn’t want to put down. Through the lens of a few different characters, we see a miserable, dying world in the near future. The temperatures are rising along with the water levels. There are floating cities on the ocean for the rich and elite while the less fortunate deal with climate change fueled natural disasters on the mainland. With the exception of a very black mirror type of technology, everything else about the disasters, environmental and societal, is not too far fetched. Although the world in Camp Zero is quite unsettling, I really enjoyed reading about it.

Set in the future, this story follows multiple climate change survivors. They're all going to Canada to help build a new settlement called Camp Zero. It's supposed to be a new way of life.
While they all want a better future, they each have an ulterior motive for going. No one is who they seem to be, and it's difficult to know who to trust.

I enjoyed the writing and most of the story, but the flashbacks were not my favorite.

This book is disturbing in that it could happen, and the behaviors of some of these people were disturbing as well. I'm curious to see where they end up.

This one was a slow burn, it took me a while to get into it and really understand what was happening. I enjoyed all the individuals back stories: the development of White Rabbit, and the childhood/early adulthood of the other two characters. I thought the present day scenes seemed a little sluggish and could have used something else. Overall I enjoyed this book but I honestly don't think it will be one that sticks with me.

Camp Zero is a dystopian story that follows three perspectives in a world where climate change has ravaged the earth. Severe weather and climbing temperatures are the norm. The future lies either in a specially constructed floating city for the wealthy or far up north. The characters we follow have all fled to Canada for a variety of reasons. The plot culminates as their stories converge.

This book was just not for me. I sensed that early on and would have DNF’d it, but I wanted to give an honest and thorough review. One of the main characters is a sex-worker turned spy trying to survive and many of the situations she finds herself in are described. There was a serious ick factor here that really bothered me. The world of this book is very bleak and it was difficult for me to stay there. The characters are all morally grey (at best). Everyone is scraping to survive and morality and ethics have been left far behind. The ending also felt rushed and incomplete.

Fans of The Power by Naomi Alderman, which I stopped halfway through, would likely enjoy this book but it was just too bleak for me.

Thank you the NetGalley for the ARC.

Camp Zero released on April 4th, 2023.

- CAMP ZERO is a near future dystopia, terrifying in that it's not all that different from the path we are currently on.
- I flew through this novel, fully immersed in its world and invested in the characters, all of whom have come north for different reasons, all of whom have done good things and bad things and are simply trying to survive.
- CAMP ZERO mainly explores how gender effects each character's path in this melting world, but it also gets into class, race, education and more. I already want to read more by Sterling.

Dystopian near future Earth coping with climate crisis. Characters and places vividly written and memorable for me. I loved the pace of this book and how three different viewpoints connected. Would be great for fans of Station Eleven.

I loved the first half of this and was really excited about it, especially the White Alice chapters, but then the last half didn't nail the landing for me. Far be it from me to complain about men being portrayed badly, but it really started to feel like it was showing that men ruined everything singlehandedly. Although one of the main characters is mixed race, I didn't feel like the critique of the power systems addressed race or any intersections other than gender, though I could have missed it. Also, when a running theme of this book is colonialism, I wish this had an Indigenous point of view—or any significant Indigenous character. Grant as a POV character didn't feel necessary to me. I feel like this had a ton of potential that wasn't realized.

I really do love a good dystopian novel and I don’t pick up enough of them. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this one though.

This was a super unique concept that had great potential. There were glimmers of a really intriguing story that pushed through, but it was overshadowed at points. I found myself getting a bit confused in the beginning trying to keep track of all the characters, where they belonged, and what their motivations were. I also found it difficult to connect with any of the characters.

This was a slow burn which typically isn’t my favorite and I, unfortunately, did start to get bored at points and struggled to stay engaged.

In the end, I powered through because I did ultimately want to know what happened, but it wasn’t something that I felt I needed to drop everything and read to find out. I really hoped to like this a lot more.