Monday, January 4, 2016

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King

Earlier this year, it felt like I kept hearing about this book.  Sometimes that can be reason enough for me not to read it but I am very happy that I gave this a chance.  Even though I read it months ago, it still sticks with me.

Glory O'Brien's life is far from normal.  Since her mother died, her home life has been bleak.  Her father loves her but they exist in a mutual avoidance of conversation.  Neither one wants to talk about their grief.  Her only friend, Ellie, lives across the street in a kind of hippy commune with her family.  One night, when everything is feeling a little too depressing, the girls take a petrified bat that has turned to dust and mix it with a cheap beer.  Suddenly, Glory can see everyone's infinite past and much more finite futures, to their final descendants.  What she sees is terrifying.

In the future she sees a civil war in a country where women have lost all of their rights and become nothing more than property.  In the past she sees war after war, in different places and different times.  But Glory can't see her own future and she's not sure what that means. -RYQ

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