Twenty-Five to Life

Life goes on for the billions left behind after the humanity-saving colony mission to Proxima Centauri leaves Earth orbit ... but what's the point?
Julie Riley is two years too young to get out from under her mother's thumb, and what does it matter? She's over-educated, under-employed, and kept mostly numb by her pharma emplant. Her best friend, who she's mostly been interacting with via virtual reality for the past decade, is part of the colony mission to Proxima Centauri. Plus, the world is coming to an end. So, there's that.
When Julie's mother decides it's time to let go of the family home in a failing suburb and move to the city to be closer to work and her new beau, Julie decides to take matters into her own hands. She runs, illegally, hoping to find and hide with the Volksgeist, a loose-knit culture of tramps, hoboes, senior citizens, artists, and never-do-wells who have elected to ride out the end of the world in their campers and converted vans, constantly on the move over the back roads of America.

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

Reading this right now felt particularly timely, as I am nearing a cross country roadtrip myself! However, I’m really hoping mine isn’t nearly as stressful as Julie’s haha. Most likely that will be manageable, seeing as how I’m not living in the bleak future that she is. I would classify this as a dystopian, but honestly the future Julie lives in seems more and more likely given the way our planet is going. I was afraid it would be too depressing to read, but R.W.W. Greene has infused this book with humor and good people, making it a lovely read.

The best thing about this novel comes as a result of it being a road trip novel. We get to meet a ton of people along the way! Firstly, we have Ranger, who is our second main character. I loved having the contrast between Julie and Ranger. Reading about the different experiences they’ve had as a result of growing up in different times was so cool in understanding them and how the world changed. It was also wonderful to see how their relationship grew, and how much Julie ended up learning from Ranger (even if she didn’t realize it). I feel like Ranger learned from Julie as well, which is great. It’s not always the older ones teaching the younger ones! It can be the other way around.

Then we have all of the various caravans that the two of them run into. Greene really got to showcase how many people can live in the same style for different reasons and in their own way following what is important to them. It also really got to show off the importance of having a community. People can really come together and create something beautiful! I loved all of the quirky personalities.

Julie’s search for a meaningful life is something that I think all of us can relate to. The drudgery of living in the city and just working all the time can really get to you. I think in current times we have more freedom than Julie does to explore things that make life worthwhile for us, without making such a drastic change. I loved that Greene shows that figuring things out is a journey. You never find the answers right away, and often you never arrive at a “final” answer, but just keep on changing and discovering.

Overall I really enjoyed this, but I did have one gripe. There were some offhand comments on how to be a sex worker you must be desperate. Sex work is real work, and these kind of comments rubbed me the wrong way since they were discrimination against sex workers. Very minor in terms of the whole novel, but it stuck out enough to bother me.

Again, thank you to Angry Robot!! This book is out now, so go get it for yourself and take a journey with Julie and Ranger!