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Hello everyone, how are you today?
As for me, it's fine! It's Monday and everything's back to normal, even if the blog never really stops. On that note, I'll leave you with the novel Cherche la pluie, but especially with its summary before you read my review of it.
Ten years ago, a wave of sand swept across the Earth, devastating everything in its path. Since then, it has not rained. The planet is now covered in an arid steppe where only a few cacti grow.
Maya, a teenager born before the Great Catastrophe, lives with her little sister Eldo and their father in a hut near a well. Every day is a struggle, enduring the heat, lack of water, hunger, sandstorms, fire, and boredom.
When the water level in their well begins to drop and their father disappears, Maya is left to manage their home and her younger sister alone. The two girls then begin a journey in search of their father, rain, or the oasis they hope to discover in the heart of the desert.
When we talk about post-apocalyptic, we often think of zombies, the end of the world, a heavy atmosphere where humanity has little chance of survival. Here, life is difficult, harsh, yet it is still possible to survive by being careful. The climate, in this novel, is what will have triggered the change, an upheaval forcing the world to adapt, to simply fight to live. No deformed monsters on every street corner.
A gentleness shines through in this universe of extreme temperatures in the company of the characters, of what they experience, desire. The vision of this world once ours, the one Maya knew, that she saw disappear. In the company of the protagonists, I learned many things about survival without realizing it because the elements came naturally, took their place without being a hair in the soup.
The descriptions in Midnight allow you to immerse yourself in the harsh atmosphere, the places, the places you may have known, but are so different now. Some may find the beginning rather slow given that the journey does not begin directly, for my part it allowed me to better absorb everything that was happening, to shiver while telling myself that, yes, everything was realistic.
The comparisons between the past and the present are intertwined throughout the pages, making the whole thing very moving, especially compared to those who knew it. Hope is no longer really present for some people who are just trying to move forward from day to day, to continue moving forward for their loved ones. The latter being those for whom it is possible to do anything and everything... even venture into hostile places.
I had no trouble reading and devouring the novel, no trouble feeling each of the elements that came through. I loved exploring this possible “future” and at the same time my heart sank at the end. A first question came to me: “Is it even possible that it ends like this or should I understand it differently?”. The pain in the case where I had to understand with a double meaning… The joy if this was not the case.
And that's what I find so beautiful about this novel, because deep down it's possible to live the adventure, not get lost, want to scream or panic, have moments of relief. I lived this adventure with our two heroines and I don't regret for a single moment the time spent in their company... Even if this ending leaves me perplexed in the good sense of the word.
Are you planning to try the adventure on your own?
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