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Ladder to Heaven

by Katie Welch (Goodreads Author)

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Aaron said: " In Katie Welch’s near-future novel Ladder to Heaven, Del must overcome addiction, self-doubt, and a massive earthquake to reunite with the family she left behind. Welch adds a wrinkle to this post-apocalyptic setting because plate tectonics has done In Katie Welch’s near-future novel Ladder to Heaven, Del must overcome addiction, self-doubt, and a massive earthquake to reunite with the family she left behind. Welch adds a wrinkle to this post-apocalyptic setting because plate tectonics has done more than relieve pressure. It has opened a doorway between languages. Humans can now communicate with animals. Coyotes are “annoyingly loquacious,” cougars are “pithy and inscrutable,” and moose speak in “furious flashes transmitted like viewfinder slides.” In fact, Del reveals large parts of her past to a duo of curious walruses.

Welch’s depiction of Del’s family dynamics is real and complex. She tries and fails to be a present mother to her three children as they enter their teen years and move away from her, but the only real constant in her life is her battle with addiction. “I had gone three days drug-free…. Next time I would go longer. I would start tomorrow. Or maybe on the weekend.” The realism is true for her descriptions as well. We are just as likely to get a gritty description of the spring thaw exposing “matted brown grass littered with coffee cups, foil wrappers, aluminum cans and dog crap” as we are to see the unvarnished beauty of nature: “Cloying mist cloaked the forest in the morning, like a blanket over a birdcage.”

Adding to the uniqueness and drama of story, the Juan de Fuca Plate periodically earns its own chapters. In particular, I liked the character Cheng, a stranger who sails into Del’s life with his own ghosts in tow. Katie Welch wrote him with subtlety and heart. And his presence helps reveal Del’s internal conflicts and, in some ways, brings out her true self from underneath her own personal rubble. When he gives her a bag of rice, she does not know how to respond: “It was an impossible gift. How could anyone be so generous in a broken, selfish world?”

Del is a great survivor, but more importantly, for us, she is a great storyteller. She shows us the lengths we go to in order to avoid responsibility and the lengths we go to make things right. Ladder to Heaven is a powerful, nuanced novel. ...more "

Oct 23, 2025 07:31AM · see review

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