annieb123's Review of The Fish

by Joanne Stubbs

'There is a fish on the sand; I see it clearly. But it is not on its side, lying still. It is partly upright. It moves. I can see its gills, off the ground and wide open. It looks as though it's standing up.'

A few decades into the twenty-first century, in their permanently flooded garden in Cornwall, Cathy and her wife Ephie give up on their vegetable patch and plant a paddy field instead.

Thousands of miles away, expat Margaret is struggling to adjust to life in Kuala Lumpur, now a coastal city. In New Zealand, two teenagers marvel at the extreme storms hitting their island.

But they are not the only ones adapting to the changing climate. The starfish on Cathy's kitchen window are just the start. As all manner of sea creatures begin to leave the oceans and invade the land, the new normal becomes increasingly hard to accept.

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Fish is a hubris soaked, sobering work of climate fiction by Joanne Stubbs. Released 6th Oct 2022 by Fairlight Books, it's 256 pages and is available in paperback, 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 very dialogue dense and erudite, if dark, book. It's not light, or very humorous and there's precious little uplifting or redemptive here. Humans are a plague on the planet and in this dark near-apocalyptic near-future, the natural world has gone past the point of no return. We've known for decades and seemingly been powerless to act comprehensively to make any meaningful difference in the catastrophic path we're all on.

In the meantime, the appealing characters go about their daily lives, planting rice in a back garden paddy in Cornwall, adjusting to life in Kuala Lumpur which is rendered a coastal city by rising tides, and surviving brutal storms battering New Zealand. Parallel lives, all in the same (sinking) boat.

Four stars. In the vein of Silent Spring, and On the Beach. It feels uncomfortably prescient.

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

Reading updates

16 April, 2023: Started reading

16 April, 2023: Finished reading

16 April, 2023: Reviewed