As technology becomes more and more intimate, promising not just convenience but emotional grounding, Opposite World asks a question: how much of our buried pain would we relive to finally uncover the truth?
In a near future Piper “Pip” Screed enters The Reverie Cloud—a sleep-state virtual therapy program that allows users to revisit and reshape their memories and live out their deepest desires within the safety of their own mind. For many it’s healing. For others it’s escape. For Pip, it’s both.
Still haunted by her mother’s mysterious death and the sixteen year gap that followed, Pip enters the program to find answers within her own subconscious. Inside, she meets versions of herself who are bold and fearless—opposite of the life she’s built in the real world. The deeper she goes, the more dependent she becomes on the program and the more reality begins to shift in the waking world.
Soon Pip can’t tell what’s real. Time bends, memories blur, and people she once trusted start to feel like threats. She realizes she isn’t a client at all—she’s an experiment.
Set between Seattle’s tech sector and the misty woods of Snoqualmie Pass, Opposite World turns the mind into landscape. Perfect for fans of Inception, Dark Matter, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shutter Island, and Sea of Tranquility, it’s a perception-bending novel that reveals a different way of viewing the story on a second read.
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The Strand
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From Kirkus:
In Martins’ speculative novel, a newly widowed mother must survive a post-apocalyptic wilderness with her toddler in tow. Civilization collapsed when a phenomenon known as the Shift caused massive earthquakes and floods that irreparably altered the planet. Now, the United States government no longer exists, power grids are irrelevant, and the idea that humanity is inherently good seems incomprehensible as people fight for power or their next meal. Marauders hunt the “dry lands” for other survivors whom they can oppress—or even consume.
In this dangerous landscape, Liv Vela fights to survive and protect her 3-year-old son, Milo. Her husband, Felipe, died during their desperate escape from the East Coast, leaving the mother and child alone during their travels to Felipe’s grandmother’s house in the mountains of Tennessee, where they hope to find relative safety. Evoking Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006), Martins sets her protagonist on a treacherous journey through an apocalyptic wasteland that forces her to rethink her worldview, ethics, and parental philosophy.
The narrative thrives when it focuses on Liv’s perspective as a desperate and determined parent. As Liv tackles each new threat to her and Milo’s survival, the novel positions her as a symbol of single motherhood and the apocalypse as a metaphor for the struggles such mothers encounter without hope for assistance. It’s made clear that Milo’s future rests solely on Liv’s shoulders—whether the problem is finding his next meal or explaining the concept of death to him.
There’s a stark beauty throughout Liv’s observations, as when she acknowledges “the indifferent moon” above them, and this makes this dystopian novel stand out from a crowded field. A testament to the power of hope and motherhood in the worst of situations.
Links:
Great Group Reads Pick by the Women’s National Book Association
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Elizabeth Anne Martins 