The Shutouts

A Novel

De: Gabrielle Korn

Narrado por: Gail Shalan

A brilliant queer dystopian novel from the author of Yours for the Taking, following a cast of characters on the margins of a strange and exclusive new society.

The year is 2041, and it's a dangerous time to be a woman driving across the United States alone. Deadly storms and uncontrollable wildfires are pummeling the country while political tensions are rising. But Kelly's on the road anyway; she desperately needs to get back to her daughter, who she left seven years ago for a cause that she's no longer sure she believes in.

Almost 40 years later, another mother, Ava, and her daughter Brook are on the run as well, from the climate change relief program known as The Inside Project, where they've spent the past 22 years being treated as lab rats. When they encounter a woman from Ava’s past on the side of the highway, the three continue on in a journey that will take them into the depths of what remains of humanity out in the wilderness.

At the same time, way up North, weather conditions continue to worsen and a settlement departs in search of greener pastures, leaving behind only two members, drawn together by a circumstance and a mystery they are destined to unravel together.

Set in the world of Gabrielle Korn's Yours for the Taking, The Shutouts tells the captivating story of those who have been shut out from Inside, their fight to survive, and an interconnectedness larger than all of them.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

©2024 Gabrielle Korn (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

Goodreads, Most Anticipated Books for Fall

Harper's Bazaar, Best Books to Read in Fall 2024

"[A] tense tale of climate collapse, survival, and conspiracies... The narrative is made harrowingly plausible by the author’s skillful exploration of alarming choices made by people in power and survivors’ attempts to forge communities. It’s another winner from Korn."—Publishers Weekly

“With The Shutouts, Gabrielle Korn has established herself as one of the brilliant dystopian writers of our generation. This book broke my heart but it also gave me immense hope. It made me cry and laugh and hug my babies and believe in people and in all the ways we take care of each other.”—Marisa Crane, author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

Chilling and gorgeous

I didn’t realize there’d be a continuation of the first book, but I’m so glad to have found this. Beautiful, terrifying, and full of complex characters you can’t help but cheer for, this story had me tearing up and completely enraptured.

Too many characters, too many timelines...

...too many ideas.

Way too many main characters (all women, all queer), too many side characters (mostly women, queer, trans). Too many timelines (and one timeline within a timeline). Too many ideas: climate change, queer identity, capitalism, romance, etc.

The first two hours is teenage romance, which was boring. As the timelines go forward: adult romance. Not much more interesting but probably because I felt so entirely neutral about all the characters. I didn't like or dislike them. I didn't care what happened to them. Normally, I'd DNF in this case but since there was way too much going on (aside from romances) at least that provided some intellectual interest.

The most annoying part was with the two characters who both identified as "they." It's hard enough to read one person who is a singular "they," but reading about two--especially during the romantic scenes bordered on ridiculous. It was hard to know if "they" referred to the one person in the scene or both, e.g., "They felt their heart beating hard." Was person A feeling person A's heart or person B's? Or was person A feeling both hearts beating? Who knows.