The Copper Elephant

This post-apocalyptic tale was - naturally - relentlessly bleak. The character was well described just by the language she used. Her poisonous environment in which love survives is vivid. Unfortunately the ending was a little off, but I think it would have been hard to be believably hopeful. I looked into Rapp's other titles, but they also looked relentlessly bleak, without the post-apocalyptic angle, so I don't think I'll bite.

Although this started out well, it just lacked enough detail to make it real. I also felt the age and animal-ness of the main character reaching puberty was too unbelievable. There was an uneven-ness to what she knew and didn't know that felt odd. Just couldn't get engaged with the misery, figure out how they were getting food and things, and what the woman from off the shelf really wanted her for.