Why you may not like this book: This is post-apocalyptic slice of life. We learn a lot about the main character's world, but there isn't a very strong central plot and everything is shared in a stream of consciousness style. The main character also has a very distinct voice. There is an abundance of swearing and references to us-- the humans who caused the climate crisis that ended the world. If that is going to annoy you, this won't be a story for you.

cw: climate crisis, violence, physical abuse, arson, parental neglect, excessive swearing

Why I loved this book: I loved that the grimness of the world is balanced by Tetley's brightness as a character and optimism. She isn't naive, which makes that optimism even more heart warming and wrenching. Valente's writing is always for me. It can be dense, but it's smart and wonderful. Thematically, I loved that this obviously had not wonderful things to say about the decisions that led to the apocalypse, but also showed us that humans haven't changed all that much. Even on a pile of trash, there were people who were living in excess. I thought the details of the world were interesting and honestly, I would read a bunch more stories from Tetley and in Garbagetown.

A short, thoughtful story that I haven't been able to stop thinking about.