#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway 87: The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon.

After a week off to attend ALA Annual [and get some awesome ARCs for future  giveaway], I am back with 3 copies of a book I just reviewed for Booklist. Details below, but first, how to enter: 

1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see giveaway 86. Our winner was Erin from Winnetka-Northfield [IL] Library District. Now on to today's giveaway.

I have three [3] copies of today's giveaway to pass  on to three [3] winners!!!

The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon is the PERFECT summer read for those who want to feel the fear both in their gut and as they are sweating out the summer heat. But like every "Nature Gone Wild" Lebbon title, while the action and characters hold your interest and keep the pages turning, it will also make you stop and think. 

Below is the text from my post on the general blog when the review posted in Booklist earlier this month. It also includes a my thoughts on how Cli-Fi in SF is  different than Climate Horror. 

Click here for the original post. I also have the bulk of that post pasted below.

Global warming has turned most of North America into a desert. Twenty years ago, Jesse, a “Rainmaker, brought down a deadly storm containing more than water. Now, living alone, off the grid, Jesse is punishing himself, not only for the harm he caused that day, but also because when he realized that his young daughter, Ash, held even more danger inside of her and tried to halt her training, he may have caused her death. For ten years, Katrina, Jesse’s estranged wife, has been searching for Ash, and when she hears word of a young Rainmaker, Katrina convinces Jesse to join the search and save their daughter. But Jesse and Katrina are not the only ones looking for Ash. Lebbon's [Eden] latest climate change fueled Horror novel uses multiple points of view to allow the characters to develop and the suspense to intensify, racing to a climactic, stormy battle. Thought provoking, disturbing, and family centered, this tale will appeal to readers of tales as varied as fans of the storytelling style of The Violence by Dawson, the family centered, dark fantasy of The Changeling by LaValle, or water crisis fueled cli-fi The Water Knife by Bacigalupi.

YA Statement: Teens will be drawn in by Ash and her compelling and unique coming of age storyline, but they will stay for the intensifying action and honest assessment of a near future climate dystopia. The addition of some terrifying monsters literally falling from the sky is a nice bonus.

Further Appeal: This is a plot driven narrative, but with character development and a strong sense of place. There was so much detail about the most important storylines that frame this story that I had to use up many of my 175 allowed words on that in the draft above. However, I did add words back into my final sentence that do NOT appear in the magazine.

The original frame for Ash and Jesse's powers was fascinating and very well developed. They are genetically derived from a single line of humans with the ability to enter a parallel dimension and bring rain into our world. Descriptions of the process and what each of them–Jesse and Ash– see while there is very cool and I will not spoil it for you. And this world building of their separate spaces collides nicely toward the end. I think those were some of my favorite parts of the book.

Some more notes from when I was reading: High unease, through provoking, family focused, fast paced, multiple povs, cli fi, compelling, disturbing, intensifying!!! With a little cosmic twist. Walks the Horror-Dark Fantasy-SF line in a satisfying way.

The multiple points of view are key. With such a fast-paced, plot heavy story, there is no way we could have gotten the character and place development we needed here without that. This is a book that will satisfy a wide range of readers for that reason.

I also wanted to drop this quote from my book here as it explains the different between climate fiction in Horror versus Science Fiction because it might matter for some [see the YA statement above for a sneak peak at why this is Horror].

"Climate change horror differs from its science fiction fueled cousin (“Cli-Fi”) in that it is not simply the changes in climate which bring the unease. Rather in these horror stories, as the climate itself brings natural disasters, it is also an instigator of the creation of a monster itself, whether born of the climate change or awakened by it."

Three Words That Describe This Book: Climate Horror, high unease, multiple points of view 

Readalikes: The plot is very different here than in The Violence listed above, but the similarities between the two stood out to me as I was reading. Many will want more fast paced, cli-fi and the Bacigalupi is the best place to start there before sending them to this extensive archive of excellent Cli-Fi choices via Book Riot. But I wanted to make sure people understood the very touching parent-child story here. The LaValle rec is to hammer that home as well. Also fans of Christoper Golden [and there are many] will enjoy this and all books by Lebbon.

This book comes out in early July, so if you haven't pre-ordered yet, fix that ASAP. And thanks to Titan for the multiple copies.

I will pick three [3] winners this week and get them in the mail on the 5th.

Enter now and be entered going forward. I have some amazing upcoming titles from publishers big and small!

Good luck and have a nice holiday weekend [here in America].