Review: ‘Green Rising’ by Lauren James
*Gifted finished copy received from the publisher, Walker Books. Opinions are honest and my own.
“She was calm. She was ready. The temperature was rising, but so were they.”
The climate crisis is scary, and it’s here. Two facts that I am constantly aware of. It’s also infuriating how the cycle of society means that it always seems to fall onto the shoulders of the younger generations to speak up and do something about it.
Never have I ever felt my existential dread creep over me while reading a book in the way it did when storming through ‘Green Rising’ by Lauren James.
And I say “existential dread” with fondness, because I think it’s too easy to become complacent, or to get lost in the mire of the “everything” that there is to be concerned about both on a small and large scale.
‘Green Rising’ is summarised like this:
Gabrielle is a climate-change activist who shoots to fame when she becomes the first teenager to display a supernatural ability to grow plants from her skin. Hester is the millionaire daughter of an oil tycoon and the face of the family business. Theo comes from a long line of fishermen, but his parents are struggling to make ends meet.
On the face of it, the three have very little in common. Yet when Hester and Theo join Gabrielle and legions of other teenagers around the world in developing the strange new "Greenfingers" power, it becomes clear that to use their ability for good, they'll need to learn to work together. But in a time of widespread corruption and greed, there are plenty of profit-hungry organizations who want to use the Greenfingers for their own ends. And not everyone would like to see the Earth saved...
As they navigate first love and family expectations, can the three teenagers pull off the ultimate heist and bring about a green rising?
(Published 02/09/21 - availble now from wherever you buy your books. We do have a bookshop.org account if you wanna look at it on there)
What did I like about this book?
Aside from the climate panic (which urgently beats in my chest) it created, I really enjoyed the characters and the way they developed.
Hester and Theo make a great pair. As a dual POV (with cameos from characters such as Gabrielle taking the wheel from time to time) it captures the differences between Hester and Theo perfectly.
Hester being the new face of corporate companies, Theo the working class suffering under their influence. But throughout the book you see them grow and change, and dare I say, blossom into grounded and independent young people. It was really lovely to watch them experience each other’s perspectives and adapt their own world view to match.
Classic S.F. and dystopian elements
I’m cut my teeth in the book blogging community at the height of the dystopian craze. So, it’s safe to say I have a soft spot for it.
‘Green Rising’ has all the components of a dystopian warning, while offering all the hope of a utopian beginning. There’s a great balance between things going terribly wrong, and humans having to opportunity to make it right again.
With the climate crisis at the forefront, however, it keeps this book firmly grounded within our own reality. I think that’s what makes books like this so effective. For instance, look to something like Orwell’s ‘1984’; when it was published it was a reflection of the issues and concerns of the time. It made itself relevant and poignant. I think ‘Green Rising’ does something similar in that you can easily see that this could be a version of our future, if we don’t make a change.
What about cons?
There’s nothing major. I think this is a good, solid read.
However, I do wish it was longer.
There was so much more that I wanted to explore within the story building and character development of this book, that I could have easily devoured an extra 200 pages if it meant I got a more in depth experience.
I also thought it could have been darker.
A personal preference towards the grim and macabre shining through, perhaps. But as I said at the top of this page, the climate crisis is scary and it is right here, knocking on our doors. So I think that I would have liked to have seen it taken that step further.
I’m not a fan of mixed media in prose fiction
I struggle with it. And I often skip it. things like blog posts, forums, social media elements. They make me pull a face. However, I appreciate them in ‘Green Rising’ because they offer a wider picture of events and how it’s something urgent and global and current.
But as I said in my TikTok review, it errs on the side of epistolary for me. And that gives me the ick.
All in all, this is an incredibly clever and imaginative read. One inspires action, long after you’ve closed the book and placed it back on the shelf.
With heart, and a carefully paced plot, I quickly zoomed through it. I’m just gutted I’m too old to suddenly sprout algae from my pores when I’m in the bath…
I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.r
Written by Sarah
