12 new science fiction and fantasy releases to get chills with this October
By Lacy Baugher
October 2021 release: Trashlands – Alison Stine
Set in a climate-ravaged not-so-distant future, Trashlands is set in an area known as “Scrappalachia”, where the bulk of its residents make a living as “pluckers,” i.e. those that scavenge plastic from the local rivers and junkyards and trade it to survive.
The book follows the story of Coral a young girl and aspiring artist who lives in the titular junkyard, so named for the strip club at its edge, but who longs to create something more beautiful and lasting than the ugliness and trash that defines her life. And though she spends most of her time working trying to earn enough to free her child from the backbreaking drudgery of work at the recycling factories, she also makes art, passion projects that most of her neighbors don’t and can’t understand.
One part dystopian drama, one part love story, and one part meditation on a climate future none of us want but may well be hurtling toward anyway, Trashlands is a story unlike anything else on this list this month – and possibly that’s hit shelves this year.
The official synopsis describes the story as follows.
"A few generations from now, the coastlines of the continent have been redrawn by floods and tides. Global powers have agreed to not produce any new plastics, and what is left has become valuable: garbage is currency. In the region-wide junkyard that Appalachia has become, Coral is a “plucker,” pulling plastic from the rivers and woods. She’s stuck in Trashlands, a dump named for the strip club at its edge, where the local women dance for an endless loop of strangers and the club’s violent owner rules as unofficial mayor. Amid the polluted landscape, Coral works desperately to save up enough to rescue her child from the recycling factories, where he is forced to work. In her stolen free hours, she does something that seems impossible in this place: Coral makes art. When a reporter from a struggling city on the coast arrives in Trashlands, Coral is presented with an opportunity to change her life. But is it possible to choose a future for herself?"
Trashlands is available on October 26.