California by Edan Lepucki

by:  Edan Lepucki
published by:  Little Brown and Co
publish date:  July 8, 2014

The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they've left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable despite the isolation and hardships they face. Consumed by fear of the future and mourning for a past they can't reclaim, they seek comfort and solace in one other. But the tentative existence they've built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she's pregnant. 

Wow, so there was a ton of buzz about this book.  Congrats to Edan Lepucki for generating so much hype.  This book was on my radar because it seemed like the kind of book I'd want to read, but it wasn't until all the talk started that I did read it.

For the first third of the book I was kinda eh about it.  One of my issues about the book was that it was called California.  Their names were Cal and Frieda.  Doesn't that sound kinda similar.  Cal's last name was Friedman.  Frieda Friedman?  Later in the book it was cleared up that she kept her maiden name.  But really, the name thing throughout the book was really bothering me.

Once Cal and Frieda set out to find other people, then the book got more interesting.  I found myself to be more interested in their characters.  Cal seemed like a pretty boring guy, but toward the end of the book he got a lot more charismatic.

I don't think I would recommend this book to everyone.  I know there's starting to be some dystopian burnout.  This one is probably only for the people who are still really into prepping and doomsday and end of the world type stuff.  Those real conspiracy theory types will really go for this book.  This is an adult novel, not a YA, so the governmental plot stuff is a little more complex.