This story had a lot of promise, an interesting CliFi (climate fiction) story in the near future where some even has caused the eastern seaboard to be inundated with water, and a mother finds herself in Floria, trying to make her way up to Boston to her teenage son. Nothing much happens, and the story that does happen is a bit flat. Also the ending was frustrating because nothing got resolved. It was interesting enough for me to want to keep reading, and for that I gave it 3 stars, but it just didn't quite live up to its potential

(2.0 Stars)

I debated if this was a 1 star or 2 stars book. I went with 2, but I'll expand on that more later.

The world-building in this book is "explained", but not coherently. It is unrealistic, implausible and just doesn't make sense or seem to be based in any reality. Even the scenes that were supposed to be tense and dramatic were just underwhelming.

The characters are flat, and unlikeable. I spent the whole book trying to bring myself to care about what happened to them. They do not follow reason, or seem to have any logic skills.

I'm trying to be generous to the author, and kept thinking that maybe this was a warning for what could happen to a country that places conspiracy theories and religious zealotry above fact, science, and reality... but I really don't think that is the case. It's like listening to a fantasy of "what could happen" as told by your crazy, tin-foil-hat wearing uncle.

The narrator was ok. She did try a few different "accents", but mostly everyone sounded the same.

Unfortunately, this book also does not have a logical ending. Like the rest of the book, it seemed confusing, not well thought out, and anticlimactic.

So, why did I give it any stars at all? especially a full two stars? Well, I have a feeling that if this book gets a sequel, I'd read it... hoping that the author grows and has an actual plan for a real ending.

Inland imagines what-if (or, when) the ice shelf melts and the water level of the Atlantic Ocean rises to engulf the Eastern seaboard. It follows one mother of two teen boys who has flown down to the Tallahassee area to help her mother evacuate and a neighbor dad of two teen girls who is also heading to Tallahassee on business. They’ve left their spouses and kids home in a Boston suburb when the floodgates open (literally) and seawater claims the suburban streets. Tallahassee is not much better, with the absence of a marina (now underwater). The chapters alternate between Juliet, the mom, and Jim, her younger son. For some reason, the author chose to place the story in a time when smart phones were criminalized following by some report about toxins in the phones. But flip phones are OK? That part of the story seemed weirder to me than the flooding of the East coast from climate change. Anyway, this all happens right away so I’m not spoiling anything. The story is in places fast-paced, frustratingly bureaucratic, scary, and all-too-realistic.
My thanks to the author, publisher, producer, and #NetGalley for access to the audiobook of #Inland for review purposes. It is currently available. Read it once hurricane season is over!

I am not going to finish Kate Risse's "Inland". I have absolutely no idea how it currently has 4.7 stars on Goodreads, from the first 15 readers.

I'm having the worst time engaging. It's supposed to be about families surviving climate change, but the characters are making ridiculous and deadly decisions. I can't find sympathy for them. I don't even like them.

Also, WHAT IS UP WITH THE NATIONWIDE BAN ON SMARTPHONES? If the author is going to make up something damaging or toxic about what the phones are made of or how they work, please tell us so we're in on the details of the world you're creating. Otherwise it comes off like conspiracy nonsense. The first 20% of the book is all about how the phones are contraband, but everyone can't put them down, but they're making people sick (?), so they should be resisting. It's all just too much, and too little at the same time.

As well, Rachel Fulginiti, the narrator, has a harsh and gravelly voice that is a real turnoff for me.

Overall this was a one-star.

Format Review 🎧 It took me a few chapters to get used to the narrator’s style. At first, I found it very robotic, like assistive text, but when I turned up the speed to 1.25x, I had a much better time. I appreciated the different voices the narrator had for the different characters!

Story Review 📖
This was terrifying, a propulsive read. It grabbed me right from the beginning and held my attention throughout: between the Gulf Stream collapse, apocalyptic flooding, crumbling infrastructure, cottonmouths… it was pretty non-stop action from both Juliet and Billy’s perspectives.

Pacing between Juliet and Billy chapters is well crafted using the common thread of their messages to enhance their perspectives and context for me as a reader. At the beginning, Juliet’s sections were most riveting for me. But, about midway through, I was enjoying Billy’s more. Billy had a more interesting development arc for me. As Juliet travels north, she kinda unravels a bit and her actions don’t make a lot of sense. I kinda felt bad for Billy being pressured by Juliet to leave the house for Martin’s daughters. His frustration with Juliet obsessing about those daughters was palpable. Like Billy, I was distractingly interested in where the dad and the brother were! The Juliet/Martin dynamic was uncomfortable as heck.

Risse’s descriptions and language gave me a vivid picture of the landscape throughout the book. She has such a rich and illustrative writing style that, combined with the audio book format, truly brought this book to life for me.

There’s a lot of “phone bad” rhetoric in this story, with Juliet even linking phone use to climate breakdown that felt a bit silly. That notwithstanding, the climate breakdown theme was really well done and, to some extent, many of the unknowns around the flood strengthened the atmosphere of the story.

I liked the ending but was kind of annoyed with all the unanswered questions. I could have spent a lot more time with this story!

🐶 Is the dog okay? When Billy first finds Salty, there are upsetting descriptions of drowned dogs. Salty doesn’t come to any harm for the remainder of the story. Pepper’s status after Juliet leaves Dog Island is unknown.