Dark Life: Young Adult Novel

I chose to read the young adult novel Dark Life by Kat Falls. The story is set in a dystopian society, where people have been forced to live underwater due to extreme climate change. The novel was surprisingly very captivating for me, even though it was originally written for middle school and lower level high school students. Like many young adult novels there is lots of adventure, romance, and social unrest or conflict. I was able to make many connections to novels like the Hunger Games or Divergent, which all take place in the future. However, Dark Life focuses mostly on how climate change can affect the human race, and forever change the way we live.

The story line revolves around a young teen named Ty, who was one the first children to be born underwater, meaning he has never seen land. Ty meets a girl named Gemma who is from the land above, and is on a quest to find her lost brother. This was slightly confusing, because initially I thought all of the land was underwater due to the sea levels rising, which is being caused by global warming. However, it turns out that only most of the land was engulfed by the sea levels, and that there were in fact many humans who still lived “normally” (well to a certain degree. Most of the novel does not focus on the real climate change problem, but the whole reason for there to be these two different societies is from the results of climate change.

          Overall, I found the novel to be very enjoyable and I think it is a great way to keep sliding in climate change issues into children’s reading. The action scenes are described perfectly and allow for a child’s imagination to run wild. Also, when a young teen is reading this, they may realize that the sea levels really are rising, and being forced to live underwater isn’t exactly plausible. There is an element of fantasy and magic in the novel that eliminate the reality of it, however it is still a great way to get children thinking about their own future. The more people we can educate about this major issue the better off our current and future society will be.  

A Friend of the Earth: Post #2

So the last post about the novel A Friend of the Earth did not have lots of details due to the fact that the novel did not arrive on time, resulting in me being unable to read much of it. However, I have now been able to finish the novel and would love to share more information and my opinions about it. My initial post discussed how excited I was for the rest of the novel since the beginning had been so interesting and really grabbed my attention. Well the entire novel held that feeling of excitement and interest while also pulling at my emotional heartstrings a bit.

Lots of the novel focused on climate change and the extremes some people go to for the environment and future of this planet. The main character puts him, people he loves, and strangers in great danger for multiple causes all relating to climate change. Also, the description of the nature in the future compared to the nature in the flashback components of the novel have great contrast that leave a pretty major impact on the reader. While this central theme of the effects humans have had on the climate and the results created from it there is another major theme that runs throughout the novel.

The other theme that is quite prevalent is human connections and personal values. The main character has different relationships with many people, especially a deep connection to his daughter that has some rough turns due to his work as a climate change activist. Also, he has some romantic connections to other women throughout the novel that add a level of adult material, making this book unsuitable to children. Finally, the main character goes through many phases that lead him to have a better understanding of himself as well as other human beings.

Both themes fit together very nicely allowing for a well-written and impactful novel to be created. T.C. Boyle does a wonderful job of describing different settings in different eras, as well as giving the readers an interesting tale of a possible future. I would for sure recommend this novel to any adult, purely for the storyline however, the environmental aspect adds a whole other level. The book does have adult topics and other aspects that are not suitable for a younger audience, however college level and above would benefit greatly by reading it. Anyways, absolutely loved the entire novel, I am greatly interested in reading other novel that T.C. Boyle has written.