TBR

The first sentence had me.  I love these sort of terrifying ultra plausible, inevitable eco-dystopias.  Really, a collapse of the delicate systems of human beings wouldn't take much.  And when will we know when we're actually IN IT?  The scenario in Claire Vaye Watkin's imaginative book is drought causing sandvalanches at the site of the Amargosa Super Dune, swallowing America 500,000 years before it should, particularly in the already-almost-gone deserts of the American West.   Luz is an ex-model squatting in the rich mansions of the "laurelless canyon" with her boyfriend.  Because of Luz's status as a Mojav, a new sort of refugee from the waterless places, disregarded and condemned by those living in the "better" parts of America, Luz, her boyfriend and a stolen child find themselves in the Super Dune.  Though now as I'm typing, I'm questioning if Luz is a Mojav, because I feel there wasn't enough of her back story.   Either Luz is too vapid for this book, the desert slows everything down OR possibly some of these topics are tough for Claire Vaye Watkins to write about...  I'm not sure if it was a combination of selfish main characters and the result of some of their choices, or the writer's own closeness to things like her family's familiarity with a cult or operating a writing workshop for teens called the Mojave School -- but something seemed to keep the general text at a remove from the reader, while I loved the level of detail in other parts of the novel.  One example: the story is told in different ways, like a Super Dune bestiary including drawings.  Though there is no set time that I could find (which is a smart thing to do for any eco-fiction), a fantastic description of future nightmarish TV shows probably set the time (yet since the publication of this book in 2015, TV is probably much closer to TV shows available now.)  It's the little details that make Claire Vaye Watkins a writer I'm looking forward to reading more from.
Set this on the shelf next to:
The New Wilderness - Diane Cook
California - Edan Lepucki
A Friend of the Earth & Drop City & The Tortilla Curtain - T.C. Boyle
Trouble No Man - Brian Hart
Severance - Ling Ma
Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer (if America was being taken over by a desert instead of what happens in 'Annihilation')