I live in Colorado on a dirt road and the grasshoppers have eaten every green thing. I can relate to the rough growing conditions. Moving to Colorado was a bad choice for these poor farmers. In a different year the outcome may have been different. Luckily the mother and daughter found jobs. This story hit a tad close to home for me. So I didn't find the book as interesting as I normally would.

It was a good, original story with authentic characters and realistic dialogue. The characters difficulties keep the reader engaged from page one until the end. Community of characters that support Arthur Rowland character on our well fall out and lovely. The background information about the horrors we are doing to our planet as the climate changes and over forming destroys the soil was a great backdrop in the setting

3.5 stars, that I'm rounding up to 4 because 'dust' is its very own character. I still have a hard time picturing what a dust storm would be like, but it sounds horrific. At least with a tornado it's there and gone, or an earthquake might last a few minutes...but this, this red bull of a beast, has a mind of its own and heavens forbid anyone in its path. The story itself is truly a YA coming of age featuring a girl who is so very lonely, isolated and not really seen in her own family as she is taught to hid her partial deafness. She meets a boy her age, who is also deaf, and they strike up a friendship. And, as is common in young adults, they fall deeply in love in such a short time. Ahhhh, I remember young love. How consuming and freeing and angst filled. It's just a good story...with scary scary dust.

A father escaping a life under capitalism, finds a small, rural, isolated place in the Bloodless Valley of Colorado. He brings is wife and two daughters, to till the relentless dry soil and make a new life off the grid. Thea, his 15 year girl, is our main protagonist. Hard of hearing from a young age with a father who doesn't acknowledge it, Thea misses what people are saying. She is also unschooled and has a sensitivity to the land. While working at the local bakery, she makes friends with the community, which her father strictly forbids - all you need is family. But Thea feels the tides changing the dust storms becoming more frequent and severe. Can she save her family, can she save her community, when her dreams of blood red skies become reality?

I really wanted to like this book. There elements of it though I had trouble wrapping my head around. Firstly, I liked the character was hard of hearing and that the author would drop words from conversations. It was my thought that the story would have focused more on this attribute. This characteristic of Thea and Ray is overshadowed by the impending dust storms. I guess I didn't grasp by the description that this was going to turn into an eco-fiction novel about climate change. I have no problem with eco-fiction novels (I loved Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North.) One thing that irked me a little was that this girl who had arrived in the area fairly recently was so aware of the dust and storms, more so (it felt like) than the people whom have lived there their entire lives. Like she needed to help the locals learn how to live with the dust storms. Another thing that was strange was some little things dropped in weird places that they didn't seem to fit, Thea's name actually being a nickname because it was so similar to her sisters, when hard of hearing, it was hard to hear the difference. And there was this one part, maybe I just missed that she checked out two books from the library, but the ASL book that the hid under that house was just mentioned, yet I don't remember the library scene discussing her sneaking a second book out and definitely don't remember any part describing her hiding it, it was just conveniently there?

Overall, I did enjoy the book and would gladly put it in my library. I think there are students that would enjoy it.

Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. I enjoyed it!

Absolutely mesmerising! This novel beautifully explores the struggles of a partially deaf teen in an unforgiving world. It’s a powerful exploration of identity and resilience and the protagonist's journey of self-discovery and questioning everything she knows which is both poignant and powerful. A five-star read that will stay with you long after the last page.

There was so much of this I loved, but also this was a book that felt really slow through most of the middle.

Thea is partially deaf and after her family’s home in Ohio flooded, her dad brought them to Bloodless Valley in Colorado in order to live a simple life and return to basic farming lifestyle. But there is nothing simple about living in the Valley. There’s been a drought for a long time and corporate farms keep buying the water, making it harder for small farms to survive. On top of the drought, there’s also been severe dust storms burying homes and crops, and when Thea has access to the library and starts learning about 1930s Dust Bowl, she can’t help but see echoes of those events and experiences in her own life.

I really loved the messaging about climate change and the ways white people throughout history think they know the best way to cultivate the land while reality is they’re stripping the land of its resources and creating the disasters that harm them. I think this is a really important book on that front, and I also really liked how history is cyclical and change needs to be made to create change. This is also very strongly a book about community and community care, and the ways survival is often hinged on having others who help and support you.

I did really enjoy Thea’s story and her sister, Amelia, is one of the best characters. I also found the romance between Thea and Ray overall very soft. This was a very powerful story of not fitting in can be hard, but when you find others who can relate it grows your world so much. I think this is an important story, and I’m very glad I was able to read it.

[review will post to Cannonball Read December 2]

Dust was a mind-blowing read. Alison Stine has a way with taking serious, climate situations and scenarios and turning them into instant page-turners that leave the reader wanting more. This is a compelling story that will stay with you for a very long time.


A special thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.