Green Rising by Lauren James – Book Review
Green Rising by Lauren James – Book Review
Green Rising
Author – Lauren James
Publisher – Walker Books
Pages – 384
Release Date – 21st September 2021
ISBN 13 – 978-1406384673
Format – ebook, paperback
Rating – 5 Stars
I received a free copy of this book.
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Synopsis
Set in a near-future world on the brink of ecological catastrophe, Lauren James’s novel is a gripping, witty and romantic call to arms.
Gabrielle is a climate-change activist who shoots to fame when she becomes the first teenager to display a supernatural ability to grow plants from her skin. Hester is the millionaire daughter of an oil tycoon and the face of the family business. Theo comes from a long line of fishermen, but his parents are struggling to make ends meet.
On the face of it, the three have very little in common. Yet when Hester and Theo join Gabrielle and legions of other teenagers around the world in developing the strange new “Greenfingers” power, it becomes clear that to use their ability for good, they’ll need to learn to work together. But in a time of widespread corruption and greed, there are plenty of profit-hungry organizations who want to use the Greenfingers for their own ends. And not everyone would like to see the Earth saved…
As they navigate first love and family expectations, can the three teenagers pull off the ultimate heist and bring about a green rising?
Review by Stacey
Green Rising is a YA novel that features a comprehensive look at how the earth could look in the future due to global warming/climate change. It also covers life on Mars and a strange phenomenon that is occurring globally as some teenagers gain the ability to grow plants from their skin.
Gabrielle Ventura is the first teenager on Earth to grow plants from her body. She decides to use her abilities to help climate activists help to stop global warming.
Teenager Theodore Carthew (Theo) has joined a team of plant growers who have been selected to travel to America and use their powers for what they think is good but working for Dalex Energy (an oil company), a company not know for their honesty.
Hester Daleport is one of the youngest managers working for Dalex Energy, well her father runs the company! She is in charge of the Greenfingers project as she too has the supernatural ability. She has been taken in by years of her father’s speeches and appraisal of his company and can’t see how they are contributing to the Earth’s destruction.
With the Earth at near critic point, can this trio with the help of Greenfingers from around the world, reduce/reverse the effects that are killing the planet?
What I loved about this book was how touching, topical, and truthful it is. It is a book about standing up for what you believe in and questioning those who have the power to make a change. It is quite a political book and mildly dystopian (although the author will disagree with me).
Green Rising is a story showcasing what will happen to the world in the future and gives you enough ideas on what you can do now to help. It is actually an uplifting novel that doesn’t focus on doom and gloom but rather on the ways to help.
The chapters are quite short and end with things such as transcripts of a podcast, Twitter messages, data, group chats, etc making the book very much in the now. These little things are what make the book stand out.
Overall it is a captivating read. I enjoyed it immensely and it held my interest the whole way through. It is insightful, eye-opening, and needs to be read.
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Lauren James is the twice Carnegie-nominated British author of many Young Adult novels, including The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe and The Quiet at the End of the World. She is also a Creative Writing lecturer, freelance editor, screenwriter, and the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League. Her new release is Green Rising, a climate change thriller.
Her books have sold over a hundred thousand copies worldwide, been translated into six languages and shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and STEAM Children’s Book Award. Her other novels include The Next Together series, the dyslexia-friendly novella series The Watchmaker and the Duke and serialised online novel An Unauthorised Fan Treatise.
She was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, UK, where she studied Chemistry and Physics. Lauren is a passionate advocate of STEM further education, and many of her books feature female scientists in prominent roles. She sold the rights to her first novel when she was 21, whilst she was still at university.
Lauren lives in the West Midlands and is an Arts Council grant recipient. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the Guardian, Buzzfeed, Den of Geek, The Toast, and the Children’s Writers and Artist’s Yearbook 2022. She has taught creative writing for Coventry University, WriteMentor, and Writing West Midlands.
