California by Edan Lepucki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Okay I couldn't wait to finish this on my next drive to SA. I got this audiobook for free from the Ford Audiobook thing and was super excited about it. I was really wanting to read this book anyway and was going to be driving a lot in September and October and thought why not. So first impression is that I really liked it. Second impression is that add some teenagers and it'd be just another annoying dystopian novel. Third impression omg people lie to their spouses! OMG people LIE. And so I really kinda landed with liking the book because there's a lot more there than just the average dystopia.
So quick summary, some natural and man made disasters have happened in the US and people retreat to exclusive "communities" however you have to have money to go to the communities, so cities like LA become kinda slums and there are no commercial industries outside of the communities, people have to fend for themselves and grow produce and things. Our two main characters Cal and Frida escape LA and go live in the wilderness trying and kinda succeeding to survive on their own. After a few years out in the woods on their own they discover a non-community community close by, try to become a part of it but there's all sorts of trouble because this damn couple wont stop lying to one another!
So half way through this book I got so frustrated and really did yell at the characters in my car to stop lying to one another. Half their heartache could have been avoided if they'd just been honest with one another. But then I started thinking that well that's probably life. People lie to one another all the time. We lie to our friends, family, co-workers, and spouses. Sometimes we lie because we think we're protecting them (dammit Cal tell Frida her brother is a jerk), sometimes we lie because we're punishing our spouses (dammit Frida tell Cal what happened with the pirates!) and then sometimes we lie just because it becomes a habit. Like so many other dystopian books before it the author uses a very cliche'd method of switching points of view every other chapter, but in this book it didn't bother me as much as it used to. I think partially because both characters head's thought similar things and both absolutely thought they were doing the right thing. But still I wanted to scream at both of them...Another thing I liked was that there was no love triangle, thank god.
The audiobook itself wasn't horrible, but it wasn't my favorite. The narrator sounded like a child. She sounded like she should have been reading a bad YA dystopian novel. Overall though an enjoyable 12 hour narration, half done on my drive to and from San Antonio and the rest in the morning while getting ready for work and the evenings while getting ready for bed. I don't know how I would feel about this book if I had actually read it...
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