The Past Is Red

The last remnants of humanity are adrift on a flooded earth, clinging to a giant life raft built from the refuse of the 'fuckwits' who destroyed it. Morbid & irreverent, with everything taken to extremes.

Reading time 3 days, 49 pages/day

A beautifully-written short novel that somehow manages to balance a bleak picture of a flooded earth where only the garage patch survives with hope and connection? Catherynne Valente is an incredible writer.

I was hooked from page one until the end. I loved the writing style, the setting, and the characters.

A fascinating novella following scenes in the life of Tetley, a delightfully unreliable narrator who is "a kind of post-apocalyptic Candide, always seeing the disaster of her existence as the best of all possible worlds." including an "I hope" speech on par with American Gods' "I believe"

Funny and irreverent and angry and at home and at peace with living on the garbage heap of our drowned future.

Tetley was born and raised in Garbagetown, the most beautiful place on Earth. Her friends include a bird, an otter, a plant, and someone called Big Red Mars.

The Past is Red is filled with the lavish, star-spangled language you expect from Valente. The story balances Tetley's rose-tinted optimism with the stark, horrifying nature of her reality.

I still resent how much trad publishing charges for ebooks, but at least this one was well-formatted and expertly edited.