The Past Is Red

The Past Is Red is a post apocalyptic coming of age novel by Catherynne M. Valente. Released 17th Aug 2021 by Macmillan on their Tor Forge imprint, it's 160 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a beautifully wrought story; often breathtakingly beautiful and angry and sad all at the same time. The language is simple but brutally direct. I would normally classify it as YA/NA but in this case the language is -very- rough throughout, so for librarians recommending to younger patrons, the language and content are definitely things of which to be aware. For fans familiar with her oeuvre, this is a novel length retelling which contains and expands on the novella The Future is Blue, and serves as a sequel. 

I was enthralled by the story. Protagonist Tetley Abednego is heartbreakingly sympathetic and easy to care about and grows from an almost everyman character to a prophetic, messianic presence changing everyone and everything around her profoundly. Despite the sober dystopian setting and hopelessness, there are a fair number of truly humorous moments which surprised a laugh out of me along with some small fleeting glimmers of hope. 

As stated before, the language is often rough, lots of cursing and some moderately explicit (consensual and implied non-consensual) sexual content. There is also lots of physical violence, brutality, death, and illness (they're one of the last scattered human settlements on a drowned destroyed Earth, so it's all in context). 

The audiobook has a run time of 5 hours 1 minute and is expertly narrated by Penelope Rawlins. There is quite a lot of rapid dialogue in the book and Ms. Rawlins performs remarkably well, managing multiple disparate accents and voices in rapid succession and performing characters who are male, female, old, young,and even inanimate flawlessly. The production and sound quality are top notch.

This book made me quite sad and angry, amused and wistful, often at the same time. It's abundantly clear that was absolutely the author's intention. 

Five stars for the book. Five stars for the audiobook and narration.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.