Book: Drowned Cities

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Reviewer: Cris Crissman, Adjunct Asst Professor, Curriculum, Instruction & Counselor Education

My vote for best young adult novel for 2012 goes to Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi.  Frighteningly realistic after hurricanes have “drowned” New Orleans and New York, Bacigalupi’s dystopian, biopunk setting presents a grim future of what might yet be if we can’t quell the ravage caused by climate change and loss of homeland and humanity that result. Tool, a bioethics nightmare, is one of the most complex, fascinating characters I’ve ever met.