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meagan_young's review against another edition
5.0
I ended up really liking this one! The world building was so atmospheric, and the tone and plot was reminiscent of The Road and Station Eleven. I loved the feminist undercurrent, how it explored women’s perspective, fears, and roles in an apocalypse setting.
jenpaul13's review against another edition
4.0
Weather can have strange impacts on people's behavior, with the extreme winter driving people toward desperation in Alison Stine's Road Out of Winter.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Wylodine has lived her life mostly apart from the rest of her Appalachian Ohio community as her family lived on a relatively remote farm growing marijuana. Her mother and stepfather have left for the warmer clime in California before the harshest intrusion of the increasing winter weather, leaving Wil to fend for herself and maintain the farm to the best of her growing ability. Making the life-altering decision to head west toward her mother, Wil packs up the precious grow lights, the money buried in the yard, and hitches her tiny home to the truck to begin her journey. Joined along the way by others looking to escape their dire situations for the dream of something better (and warmer), Wil and her small. newly adopted family encounter dangers from the weather, the perpetual search for nearly nonexistent supplies, and threats from strangers lurking in the hills.
In a possible near-future, the extremes in weather have changed the world, and with it, society; the way this incredibly relevant concept is explored in this narrative through the perspective of a young woman who previously functioned on the fringes of her community offers interesting insight into the state of the world. Though there are smaller, impactful events that take place throughout their journey, their progress feels quite slow and even stunted, without providing more extensive development in the characters or world that would balance that stagnation out; as an example, we know that Wil is a young woman over 18, but her age, and that of those around her, doesn't feel quite defined, particularly when she oscillates calls the guys in her adopted family men and boys. With survival on the line, the idea of hope sprouting despite circumstances and from innocuous origins is well explored throughout the text.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Wylodine has lived her life mostly apart from the rest of her Appalachian Ohio community as her family lived on a relatively remote farm growing marijuana. Her mother and stepfather have left for the warmer clime in California before the harshest intrusion of the increasing winter weather, leaving Wil to fend for herself and maintain the farm to the best of her growing ability. Making the life-altering decision to head west toward her mother, Wil packs up the precious grow lights, the money buried in the yard, and hitches her tiny home to the truck to begin her journey. Joined along the way by others looking to escape their dire situations for the dream of something better (and warmer), Wil and her small. newly adopted family encounter dangers from the weather, the perpetual search for nearly nonexistent supplies, and threats from strangers lurking in the hills.
In a possible near-future, the extremes in weather have changed the world, and with it, society; the way this incredibly relevant concept is explored in this narrative through the perspective of a young woman who previously functioned on the fringes of her community offers interesting insight into the state of the world. Though there are smaller, impactful events that take place throughout their journey, their progress feels quite slow and even stunted, without providing more extensive development in the characters or world that would balance that stagnation out; as an example, we know that Wil is a young woman over 18, but her age, and that of those around her, doesn't feel quite defined, particularly when she oscillates calls the guys in her adopted family men and boys. With survival on the line, the idea of hope sprouting despite circumstances and from innocuous origins is well explored throughout the text.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
suzanne2712's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
babsxi's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book.
Fast, gritty, deliberate. The anxiety our young protagonist feels is translated directly into the text. The short, matter of fact sentences can be found through out the genre, but Road Out of Winter felt different. The text doesn’t lack any visual imagery or empathic character distinctions. Each scene is carefully crafted in the slightest of ways, and yet, the book reads like a movie. It’s almost mind boggling how easily so few words could create the most elaborate pictures.
The author touched on so many aspects of climate change that will be our inevitable doom if we don’t get our shit together. For example, our main character never truly acknowledges the never ending winter as the result of human induced climate change. She alluded to it during a conversation with Dance, but from the jump she is just going through the motions and trying to survive like she always has on a weed farm. She notes they knew things were changing, but they never put a name to it. It didn’t effect them in the moment, so they just kept trimming and doing whatever else was necessary. Willful or not, this is negligence that many of the characters seem to admit to.
Another aspect is the failure of local, state, and federal governments to prepare the people, infrastructure, food production, energy conservation, etc. for the inevitable effects of a winter that never ends. Power, internet, data, all go down, and there was no plan to prevent Ohio from becoming Mad Max. All gas stations are ransacked, food supplies are completely gone, and everyone is left to fend from themselves without direction from those in power.
So, what is to happen when there is a void left by those in power? Someone assumes the responsibility. Our main character encounters many of these people, and through each group the author seems to be highlighting major class differences and their respective preparedness based on how well they’re doing. Skate State while truly a nightmare, demonstrates the lower class response- eating sick deer and having to scavenge and pirate to survive. In stark contrast, the people in the woods have enough supplies to last however long it takes to protect the trees. These folks are college educated, and clearly middle-upper class based on their level of understanding what’s happening and the level of preparedness. Other examples are the church, the old man in the gas station, and the final “last good place.”
And, all this was happening while our protagonist dealt with deep emotional and physical trauma. As a child she was forced to become a “gangster” and quickly became well versed in growing and trimming weed, the effects of hard drugs on her mom, and literally being left to sleep in a shed on the property away from her mother. She is riddled with anxiety, mistrust, and has an earned ability to survive in any situation. It comes to a head at the end of the novel where she chooses to save the little girl who would have grown up to a fate worst than the one she was dealt. Then, she goes back for the 14 year old whom she has become a big sister figure for. She finds her new family and vows to die before leaving them to fend for themselves. Which is more than she can say for her own blood relatives.
I’m not sure how the author accomplished as much as they have in just over 300 pages, but they did. And it’s worth reading.
Fast, gritty, deliberate. The anxiety our young protagonist feels is translated directly into the text. The short, matter of fact sentences can be found through out the genre, but Road Out of Winter felt different. The text doesn’t lack any visual imagery or empathic character distinctions. Each scene is carefully crafted in the slightest of ways, and yet, the book reads like a movie. It’s almost mind boggling how easily so few words could create the most elaborate pictures.
The author touched on so many aspects of climate change that will be our inevitable doom if we don’t get our shit together. For example, our main character never truly acknowledges the never ending winter as the result of human induced climate change. She alluded to it during a conversation with Dance, but from the jump she is just going through the motions and trying to survive like she always has on a weed farm. She notes they knew things were changing, but they never put a name to it. It didn’t effect them in the moment, so they just kept trimming and doing whatever else was necessary. Willful or not, this is negligence that many of the characters seem to admit to.
Another aspect is the failure of local, state, and federal governments to prepare the people, infrastructure, food production, energy conservation, etc. for the inevitable effects of a winter that never ends. Power, internet, data, all go down, and there was no plan to prevent Ohio from becoming Mad Max. All gas stations are ransacked, food supplies are completely gone, and everyone is left to fend from themselves without direction from those in power.
So, what is to happen when there is a void left by those in power? Someone assumes the responsibility. Our main character encounters many of these people, and through each group the author seems to be highlighting major class differences and their respective preparedness based on how well they’re doing. Skate State while truly a nightmare, demonstrates the lower class response- eating sick deer and having to scavenge and pirate to survive. In stark contrast, the people in the woods have enough supplies to last however long it takes to protect the trees. These folks are college educated, and clearly middle-upper class based on their level of understanding what’s happening and the level of preparedness. Other examples are the church, the old man in the gas station, and the final “last good place.”
And, all this was happening while our protagonist dealt with deep emotional and physical trauma. As a child she was forced to become a “gangster” and quickly became well versed in growing and trimming weed, the effects of hard drugs on her mom, and literally being left to sleep in a shed on the property away from her mother. She is riddled with anxiety, mistrust, and has an earned ability to survive in any situation. It comes to a head at the end of the novel where she chooses to save the little girl who would have grown up to a fate worst than the one she was dealt. Then, she goes back for the 14 year old whom she has become a big sister figure for. She finds her new family and vows to die before leaving them to fend for themselves. Which is more than she can say for her own blood relatives.
I’m not sure how the author accomplished as much as they have in just over 300 pages, but they did. And it’s worth reading.
bookph1le's review against another edition
3.0
An okay apocalyptic novel. It's pretty slow-moving as it switches between present-day events and things that happened in Wil's past. At times I wished it would have focused more on what was going on in the present rather than Wil ruminating on her past. My biggest beef, though, was with the ending. It felt like the story just kind of petered out and was over.
ainsleym's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this, but it was more simplistic than Trashlands and I don't think this did anything that Trashlands didn't do better. Interesting to read Alison Stine's early work and I'll definitely keep reading from her because Trashlands was fantastic and I think the themes and concepts she writes about are very interesting.
lauralauralaura's review against another edition
2.5
A horrific post-apocalyptic road trip where terrible stuff just keeps happening. Based on the way characters' choices and motivations were presented, I spent the book wondering whether the author had actually met any people who were not deeply traumatized and made all choices based on that trauma.
cheshiretrick's review against another edition
3.0
it was mostly fine if not pretty boring and relatively uninteresting, just made me want to reread other books similar to it like Severance and especially All That's Left In The World. liked where it ended though, not sure if I liked the ending itself I just respect that it ended right where it did
smalltownbookmom's review
4.0
A wonderfully atmospheric winter read!! I loved this dystopian/survivalist novel narrated to absolute perfection by Brittany Pressley!! Following a rag tag group of young teens who are trying to survive in a world stuck in winter. I was reminded a LOT of the television show The walking dead (but without the zombies). Definitely a fun read if you're in the mood for a wintery thriller. Highly recommended on audio!
rjsreadingnook's review against another edition
3.0
The concept was more interesting than the execution. I like the idea of a climate change influenced apocalypse story, but the cast of characters weren’t strong or felt real enough to carry the plot. The book comps to The Road and Station Eleven don’t really hit the mark either.