Winner of the 2015 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People
Named a 2015 Green Earth Honor Book by the Nature Generation
Pills and Starships, the first young adult novel by Lydia Millet,
offers one thrillingly scary scenario...There is much here to enjoy.
--Washington Post
Named a Best Book of 2014 by Teaching for Change
One of The Independent's Best Books for Children This Christmas
A deep read, but fast; it lingers in your mind long after it's been
read.
--New York Journal of Books
In the remaining wilderness of the Big Island, though, lurk people and
terrain that may or may not spell constructive revolution and optimism
for Sam, Nat and the planet's leftovers. Risk-takers both, they have
decisions to make.
--Center for Fiction, Junior edition
Named a Book that Buzzed at ALA by Library Journal's Barbara
Hoffert
One of The Airship/Black Balloon Publishing's 50 Must-Reads for
Summer!
One of Missoulian/Corridor's Summer Reading Guide picks!
Millet's dense novel has more in common with philosophy than with
fantasy...Millet, never a writer to settle into predictable patterns,
manages to find beauty in ugly places...this is the best thing about
Millet's work: it makes you notice the small details of the natural
world, makes you recognize those details as holy.
--The Rumpus
Lydia Millet offers a brilliant dystopian novel that eclipses all others
written for Young Adults with this beautifully written, dark but
ultimately hopeful tale.
--The Buffalo News
If your summer goal is to start taking better care of the environment (a
goal inspired, perhaps, by a trip to one of New York's trash-laden
beaches), grab a book that explores a world devastated by global
warming: Pills and Starships by Lydia Millet.
--The Airship/Black Balloon Publishing
Dark apocalyptic reading at its best...vivid, moving saga that will
attract mature teen fans of Divergent, Hunger Games, and similar
apocalyptic survival stories.
--Midwest Book Review
The details are terrific...and as the tension mounts it becomes a real
page turner.
--The Independent (UK)
In this richly imagined dystopic future brought by global warming,
seventeen-year-old Nat and her hacker brother Sam have come by ship to
the Big Island of Hawaii for their parents' Final Week. The few
Americans who still live well also live long--so long that older adults
bow out not by natural means but by buying death contracts from the
corporates who now run the disintegrating society by keeping the people
happy through a constant diet of pharma. Nat's family is spending their
pharma-guided last week at a luxury resort complex called the Twilight
Island Acropolis.
Deeply conflicted about her parents' decision, Nat spends her time
keeping a record of everything her family does in the company-supplied
diary that came in the hotel's care package. While Nat attempts to come
to terms with her impending parentless future, Sam begins to discover
cracks in the corporates' agenda and eventually rebels against the
company his parents have hired to handle their last days. Nat has to
choose a side. Does she let her parents go gently into that good night,
or does she turn against the system and try to break them out?
But the deck is stacked against Nat and Sam: in this oppressive
environment, water and food are scarce, mass human migrations are
constant, and new babies are illegal. As the week nears its end, Nat
rushes to protect herself and her younger brother from the corporates
while also forging a path toward a future that offers the hope of
redemption for humanity. This page-turning first YA novel by critically
acclaimed author Lydia Millet is stylish and dark and yet deeply
hopeful, bringing Millet's characteristic humor and style to a new
generation of young readers.
