Monday, June 30, 2014

2014 book 148

Mary Miller's The Last Days of California
Miller's debut centers on a young girl, Jess, whose family is road-tripping cross country to California for the Rapture, in theory trying to "save" people along the way. Instead, it's sort of a hellish family road trip--Miller really nails the claustrophobic atmosphere and the feeling of endlessness of driving west--where her older sister is secretly pregnant, and Jess is more interested in boys than God. The writing here is really strong, but I had some really mixed feelings about how things wrapped up, and wished we'd gotten more insight into the parents--particularly their mom. Miller absolutely nails teenage girls, though. B+.

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