The Offset

It is your eighteenth birthday and one of your parents must die. You are the one who decides. Who do you pick?
In a dying world, the Offset ceremony has been introduced to counteract and discourage procreation. It is a rule that is simultaneously accepted, celebrated and abhorred. But in this world, survival demands sacrifice so for every birth, there must be a death.
Professor Jac Boltanski is leading Project Salix, a ground-breaking new mission to save the world by replanting radioactive Greenland with genetically-modified willow trees. But things aren’t working out and there are discrepancies in the data. Has someone intervened to sabotage her life’s work?
In the meantime, her daughter Miri, an anti-natalist, has run away from home. Days before their Offset ceremony where one of her mothers must be sentenced to death, she is brought back against her will following a run-in with the law. Which parent will Miri pick to die: the one she loves, or the one she hates who is working to save the world?

Thank you so much to Angry Robot for sending me a copy for review. And for including me on the tour!

This book was such an interesting mix of science fiction, dystopian, and climate fiction. It was a really bleak look into the drastic measures that *could* happen if we don’t save our planet. I think the actual things in the book (the Offset, the prisons, etc) were a bit exaggerated. I mean this in the sense that I don’t know if they would happen in reality, though don’t quote me on that. With the way current events are turning out…anyway. These things just helped to intensify the point that the authors were trying to make. For this reason I can’t say that I really “enjoyed” the book, but I think it was really well done.

The central “conflict” of the novel is the choice that Miri must make – which of her mothers will die. As said in the synopsis, this is a struggle between personal feelings and making a choice for the good of the community. This is something that many can relate to, though probably not in such a critical sense as Miri. It resonated with me since my current career path (astrophysics) doesn’t have a tangible way to help people. I’ve thought many many times about if I should be putting my talents to better use to actually make a difference in others lives. So as I said, not quite the same as Miri since one of her mothers is literally saving the planet, but still. It’s a struggle that is not a mystery to many people in the world.

I think that is what makes this novel work despite the bleakness of the world, and the unlikeableness of the characters. For the characters, we focus on Miri and her two mothers, Alix and Jac. They all have their flaws, and the authors present them in a realistic and unbiased way. I appreciated this, I think it really lent itself to the tone of the novel. It’s really not supposed to be a feel good novel. If the authors had tried to hard to make the characters likeable, it would have taken away from the whole premise in my opinion.

I realize this review sounds rather critical but I do think it is a really good book. The authors managed to create a sense of despair and unease that wasn’t overwhelming. I enjoyed reading about the different experiments performed in an attempt to save the planet. The arctic forest of trees!! That sounds fascinating. I just hope we never have to resort to such drastic measures.

I hope you guys check out this book. It’s even been optioned for tv! The Offset releases tomorrow, so keep an eye out for it!