I'm just going to put this out there: this book is not good. I read this book because I once loved FLB but man nothing I love about her early work is in this book! I said the same thing when I read How to (Un)cage a Girl and again when I read The Waters & the Wild. Maybe I need to just give up on her. That is painful to think about.

The story is told through a complex narrative, switching back and forth between narrators, perspectives and time without much effort placed on orienting the reader. There is a girl named Katrina (whoa metaphor) who has prescient dreams of things like a tsunami in Asia and 9/11 in NYC. She lives in LA and you are supposed to get the sense of the city being on the verge of a big earthquake - thus, the title "Quakeland."

Katrina has friendships and romantic relationships, but mostly her interactions with people are boring, frustrating, empty or stupid. Her boyfriend, Jasper, is one of those new-age guys who teaches like, yoga dance classes and wants to rub his chi with the chi of many other pretty, young, skinny girls. He insults Katrina during sex. He uses really passive-aggressive backhanded compliments and openly compares her to his ex-girlfriends (yes, even during sex). Her close lady friends try to support her through a series of highly regrettable decisions and try in vain to stop her from making worse decisions. The dialog is all west coast chakra touchy-feely emotional processing about energy and previous lives and spirits. Look, I'm one of the most emotional processing lesbians I have ever met, and this is too much.

Midway through the book, the narrators flip, Katrina gets lost in the shuffle, and I never had a resolution or any closure with her story. The last half of the book sort of limps off into the sunset like a wounded dog. I had to force myself through this book. It was painful. If you were a womens studies / feminist literature professor who really hated your students and had masochistic tendencies, you would teach this book. I am pretty sure I took that class in college, and I am deeply, profoundly grateful that this book was not written yet.