ChloroPhilia

The climate is changing. As a species, we can fight against inexorable nature, or we can change. Either way, the struggle will leave something of us behind. This is the core conceit of Cristina Jurado’s Chlorophilia. The novella opens with the world swallowed by a constant storm of sand, shutting down society and driving the survivors to extremes that would fit right in to McCarthy’s The Road. In the first chapter (titled “Zero”, and in affect a second prologue – more on that later), an unnamed geneticist stumbles from horror to horror until chancing upon an invitation to a place of safety. We jump ahead a generation, where the last community of humans exists in an enclosed habitat called The Cloister. Kirmen is perhaps the show more last child born, undergoing a life-long medical experiment, becoming more and more tree-like with every passing year. He is brutally bullied for his appearance, and constantly overseen by the attending physician – presumably the doctor from the first chapter – who has become a deeply unpleasant misanthrope in his old age. Kirmen is told he is the last hope for humanity, but no one seems to care…
Conceptually, this book has great potential. I especially liked the first prologue, which actually encapsulates whole story – from the sandstorm’s point of view! Much of the rest of the book is Kirmen’s deeply unpleasant relationship with the doctor. His disillusionment with humanity made sense, especially when looked at through his grief – it becomes clear his life’s work is to reluctantly replace humans with something new, something vegetable. He is learning to love the green. A significant portion of the book is he and Kirmen walking through the habitat, and the doctor grieving for all the experiences of the world neither he, nor anyone else, will ever have again.
In retrospect, the themes all fit together perfectly. While reading it, though, I struggled with the tone of many of the characters – to believe that anyone would speak like that, in those situations. The cruelty was alienating, but then again, maybe it was supposed to be. These people are fighting against extinction by planning the same for themselves. And just like the arresting and abstract opening, the conclusion switches to an entirely new, alien point of view. I didn’t love Chlorophilia, but as a piece of cli-fi, it did well asking what it means to be human at the rate we’re going.
Thank you to Apex Publications for a copy to review. show less