Author: Alison Stine

Publisher: Wednesday Books

ISBN: 9781250878731

A teenager tries to follow her father’s lead to “get back to the land” as he abruptly moves the family across state lines based on a premonition. As the teen battles her own securities because of her disability and the burning need to broaden her world, she must also contend with a climate that provides only the harshest of conditions. Veteran climate fiction author Alison Stine returns with a contemplative look at how teens can fight for themselves in an unforgiving future in her newest book Dust.

Thea Taylor knows all about dust. It’s everywhere—on the table, on the floor, in the air. No matter how much she and her mother and sister clean the new home they’ve moved into, the dust finds a way to creep through the cracks and settle.

Of course, the house really isn’t new, just new to them. It was left behind by Old Man Cuthbert in Bloodless Valley, Colorado, after he couldn’t make the farm yield anything useful. Thea’s dad bought the farm for next to nothing and moved the whole family from Ohio to the new state where the air is so dry it’s causing Thea’s sister to develop a serious cough. 

It seems like she’s the only one worried about her sister. Her dad is wrapped up in making the farm produce something, anything, worth selling. Her mother falls in line right behind her dad, although money is tight. Thea gets a job at the only café in town, and her mom works at the tiny grocery store next door. There’s no denying the Taylor family needs the money, but Thea also can’t ignore just how much her father hates that she leaves home every day. Young girls should be at home learning to mind hearth and family.

What’s worse is that Thea’s partial deafness irritates her dad. It’s almost like he holds it against her and has even insisted she pass for a hearing person. It’s easy to ignore him; there are so few visitors to Bloodless Valley that Thea spends her days sweeping the floor under the watch of her kind boss, Louisa, and almost no one else.

Then one day Thea meets Sam and his nephew, Ray, and she’s flabbergasted to discover that Ray is deaf too. Sam works as a federal land agent who visits farm families and often takes Ray with him. They invite Thea along, and for the first time Thea gets to meet the other people who inhabit the valley. Except her father hates all the connections she’s making and tries everything he can to stop it.

The dust everywhere is enough of a deterrent to living a normal life, but soon Thea can’t ignore the fact that something’s coming. She can sense it in the air. Her parents don’t want to hear about anything she’s learned. Yet Thea begins talking to people and forming her own opinions, and she knows that the dust everywhere is trying to send her a message: either the people of Bloodless Valley prepare for the worst storm of the century or risk getting blown away by it.

Author Alison Stine settles easily into Thea’s voice. The book is told through first person point of view, which allows readers the chance to get to know the protagonist well. Thea’s frustration with her deafness, with other people’s reactions to her deafness, and her father’s inability to admit just how badly life in Colorado is actually going all feel organic. Not all readers who come to this book will have a disability, but everyone can relate to feeling like they’re not being heard or even acknowledged in their own lives.

The picture Stine presents feels uncomfortably close to our current times, and that discomfort will keep readers engaged from start to finish. Even with the romance subplot that feels a little obligatory at times, Stine’s book offers a fresh way to think about disabilities and how those with living with them navigate the world in a way abled people don’t ever have to consider. The result is a thoughtful look at the realities of ableism and how it hurts others.

The resolution of the book feels a little too neat and tidy, but readers may be willing to forgive Stine the slightly rushed ending because of the buildup of the book. Those who enjoy climate fiction will definitely want to check this out. I recommend readers Bookmark Dust by Alison Stine.