\u201cSaving Asha. That\u2019s my religion. That\u2019s my science. It\u2019s based on love and hope and not giving up. Ever.\u201d In Kathryn Clark\u2019s debut, Things I Learned While I Was Dead<\/b> (Faber, \u00a38.99), we witness sisterly love taken to the extreme when Calico volunteers to be cryogenically frozen along with the dying Asha, as part of an experiment that may sound a tad dodgy, but is the only option left.<\/p>\n
Waking up decades later, after the \u201cGreen War\u201d has changed everything (there\u2019s a nice nod to \u201cGlobal Eco President Thunberg\u201d), Calico discovers there\u2019s still no cure available, and that she\u2019s one of several teenagers in a former prison that feels like somewhere people \u201cgo to rot\u201d. <\/p>\n
As the thriller unfolds, there are also chapters in verse from Asha\u2019s perspective \u2013 cryptic lines about life or death that contribute to the uneasy sense that all is not quite as it seems in this \u201cvast but empty\u201d space. <\/p>\n
The book closes with an epilogue that lapses into triteness a little too often, an unnecessary coda for this thought-provoking exploration of medical ethics and the nature of grief. This is sci-fi with a big heart, demonstrating the power of speculative fiction to tackle some of life\u2019s hardest challenges. I am excited to see what this writer does next.<\/p>\n
Lauren Wilson\u2019s The Goldens<\/b> (Harper Fire, \u00a38.99) tugs us into the web of a \u201cperplexing gossamer thread of a human, every inch of her glittering gold\u201d. Chloe, an aspiring writer unsure how to fit in at university, finds herself \u201cbewitched\u201d by wealthy, glamorous Clara from the instant they meet. Thrillingly, Clara seems to be drawn to her too, and that feeling of being chosen is a heady one. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn my experience, by the age of eighteen, every girl knows another girl that she would follow to the very ends of the earth. For me, that girl was Clara Holland.\u201d <\/p>\n
Soon, they\u2019re living together, and it\u2019s all so lovely that Clara decides to invite others \u2013 reaching out to her vast army of online followers \u2013 into the circle. So begins the Goldens \u2013 \u201cthe ultimate girl gang\u201d, a group of \u201cstrong, beautiful, independent young women\u201d who may or may not be a little cult-like. <\/p>\n
But people are always critical of such feminist enterprises, aren\u2019t they \u2013 and what evidence is there, really, that Clara has anything to do with that girl who never made it home alive from one of her extravagant parties?<\/p>\n
This appealingly glossy thriller is given depth by Chloe\u2019s scepticism \u2013 despite her attraction to Clara, she\u2019s also aware that the rhetoric is a little much. \u201cWhen all was laid bare,\u201d she thinks, \u201cshe was a pretty, privileged girl opening up her lovely home to girls just like her … Surely, the only young woman she was empowering in this scenario was herself?\u201d <\/p>\n
What Chloe gets from this isn\u2019t just proximity to the golden girl \u2013 it\u2019s what seems like a real career opportunity in the form of ghostwriting a book. Her complicated motivations make her plausible and relatable; this is a compelling, fun summer read.<\/p>\n