Rut

This was another quick read, but a very strange one.  I had no information as to what Rut was about, since the back cover carried no description.  After having read it, I'm still not sure I know what it's about.  It's the story of a small town in Colorado (I think) that used to be a tourist destination but has since largely died out due to the wholesale ecologic destruction of much of the United States. From what I could gather, global warming caused major climatic changes and then pollution resulted in mass extinction or bizarre mutations. Every frog in this new world is deformed - extra legs, failure to mature from tadpole to frog, etc.  This is important because one of the main characters is a naturalist studying frogs.  As with Cranford, there isn't actually much of a plot. We just follow the naturalist as she finds some healthy frogs, then follow other members of the community about their daily lives. The mayor is corrupt, the town vet has become both the doctor and the school principle, and the local mine is hiring foreign workers.  The book is an interesting study of a town after collapse and I enjoyed reading it, but I wasn't invested in any of the characters. The book is short and it bounces around so much that you never really get a handle on who any of the characters are.  The "world building" is also scattered and can be distracting when a new tidbit gets dropped into a scene at random.  For example, you apparently have to register your religion in the state of Colorado, and creationism is taught in the local school. What impact this has on the characters or why this is the case in the larger context of this altered world is not clarified.

I liked reading this book, but I wanted more. I wanted to know more about the world and why certain things had changed and others had not. I wanted to know more about the characters.  I think that speaks to the strength of the writing... I just wanted more of it.

I give this book 6 out of 10.

Next up: #41 White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway