Wallace-Wells does a good job of paring down his original book to a bite-sized but still fact-filled treatise for the YA crowd. I liked that he mentioned so many of the strides and movements led by teens and other young people throughout the world in relation to climate action and how they are the ones precipitating small changes and forcing adults to keep climate change front of mind. The book is still both frightening and encouraging in its pared down format and I highly recommend it for adults in addition to the YA crowd. Thank you to Random House Children's, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for the early access in exchange for my honest opinion.

THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH by David Wallace-Wells is now available in an adaptation for Young Adults. It tells the story of "Life After Warming" and shares dire predictions regarding a range of topics including dying oceans, greenhouse gas, extreme weather events, and results like hunger and migration. However, the language is quite stilted (e.g., "like our sea-level myopia, it threatens to occlude our picture of what global warming means for us") and there is even an entire section improbably named The Anthropic Principle (how many high school students can readily explain that idea?). Plus, graphics or images are totally missing. And, despite an array of statistics included in the text, there are no sources listed and no bibliography for further reading. Those additions and a much more conversational tone would have made this text more appealing and more inspirational for its intended young adult audience. Kirkus sums it up well: "Heavy going, both in content and prose style, but filled with critical content."

Fortunately, there are a variety of accessible texts on climate change and the environment geared to high school students.

This is an intense book. Like shared in the excerpt below, climate change is a “hyperobject” which makes it seems so intimidating, but David Wallace-Wells does a good job of taking this daunting reality and potential future and breaking it down for the reader though he definitely did not sugar coat anything for the Young Reader edition. It is terrifying and a call to action. But it is also so important, and I am so glad that the author and publisher decided to make it available and accessible for young readers.

I really liked the structure of the books. Wallace-Wells didn’t combine everything and just throw it all at the reader. Each of the four parts are broken up into smaller topics where he focuses on just those aspects. For example, climate changes’ effect on hunger, wild fires, air, plagues, etc. This allows the reader to process each part and not get too overwhelmed.

I also appreciate that he added an afterword which has updates since the original book was published. I think this shows readers that science changes and needs to be updated and make the book more reliable.

I do need to add a warning: The book will not help with eco-anxiety. If anything, it will make it worse. I had to pause the book sometimes to take a breath.

If this is the young adult edition, I can only imagine how dense the original is. That being said, this is a very well thought out, different perspective from what I’m used to reading about climate change. While some may be burdened by the stark statistics and facts in this book, I found it refreshing. It takes a very scientific view on climate change and the trickle down impacts it has.