Status Updates From This is Our Undoing

The low level but content tension in this wears away at me as I read, making me as ansxious and uncertain as the main character.

Just when I'm sure I'm reading a political dystopia novel, it starts to shift into something more and different. There's a possibility of non-political explanations for violence and a small hint that something supernatural or at least monstrous may be in the woods.

I like this genre-crossing fluidity in the story.

I like that the environmental fieldwork in the mountains feels real and routine. It reinforces the sense of the work and the mountains as a refuge from the rest of the world. I like the way that the external politics feels like a lengthening shadow, present, unexplained and threatening. I like the quiet resilience of the main character - her cool head combined with a sense of threat is disquieting. I like the pace.