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A small boy is left waiting for his aunt outside a library. He’s there for two days before the authorities finally come to help him, only to discover something macabre and truly awful.
Some years later, Lotus is studying for her PhD, and the small boy is now her partner. She’s discovered that one of her test sites on the edge of the decaying city has gone into a rapid decline, but no one seems to care other than herself.
Restoration had me gripped from the first chapter; I was desperately concerned about the small boy, and even gasped when the Sheriff returned back to the car and was crying. It was a truly shocking opening for a book – discussing the fact that overpopulation and mass migration because of eco-disasters had seemed to force this woman and her nephew to act as invisibly as they possibly could. The man the boy became later tells Lotus that he was almost deported after the shocking discovery, but his youth meant he was allowed to stay.
In this book, Bradbury paints a picture of a truly terrifying future. The earth is dying; it’s last breath is being choked out of it by micro-plastics. Our deserts have been taken over by fast fashion cast offs. Any life that once grew from the soil, is now tainted or devastated by flash fires. Fresh, drinkable water is in short supply (so short that Lotus isn’t allowed to water a plant). The air is so polluted that one must wear a filtered mask in the outdoors, simply to be able to breathe.
While Restoration wasn’t my particular cup of tea, it is still an incredibly written book which carries an incredibly stark message which should be a warning to us all.
S. A.
This book was reviewed as part of the Reedsy Discovery ARC program. You can read the original review here.
You can buy Restoration here. It is also available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited.
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