It’s not often, in my experience, that futuristic speculative fiction feels so sweet. Not that the imagined future is sweet. Or even its characters—although some are. But the story is. There are moments of true suspense, violence, and grief. Actually, those moments take up most of the novel. And yet, it is so touching, so simple in some ways, that I think it will hold a lot of appeal even for people who might find it hard to pick up a generally scary, unpleasant survival story. I hesitate to call this dystopian because the societal decline often captured in dystopias has, at least for the intents and purposes of our protagonist, already occurred. This seems more like apocalyptic fiction, but I’m kind of splitting already-unimportant hairs. The point is, this is a society where hope is virtually lost. But hope fuels survival. Trust becomes a necessity. Bigotry and climate change are nearly unstoppable forces. None of these themes felt revolutionary, but they do feel revolutionarily told through the dynamic of the survivors we follow, especially our Beagle friend Seamus. After I read this, I cried and tried to memorize the feeling of my dog sleeping next to me.