Asphixia, a writer, Deaf artist, Public Speaker and one of the #Own Voices, weaves a wonderful story with scintillating prose and gorgeous decorative art on every page. She beckons readers into the intimate life of a Deaf person and allows them a view of their challenges as they navigate their way through communication in a speaking world.
This is not a sad story! And not a biography. It’s an astonishingly well-written novel, told through art journal entries by the character, Piper McBride. Set in some future time, food is now recon, with medication added to destroy life threatening diseases.
Piper’s mother Irene is a leading scientist for Organicore, a company of meal designers that supply packaged food specially created to suit each person’s body weight and medical conditions.
Trees have been cut down for fuel. Petrol has reached exorbitant prices. Gas and electricity are extremely expensive. Water restrictions have been implemented due to the drought. A picture of despair is portrayed.
Irene loses her job, as competition is fierce for the improvement of new food and, companies’ profits come first. Piper and Irene begin to experience a lack unknown to them before.
Piper discovers that there are people who are practicing sustainability in secret and when hunger is at its peak, she sets out to discover how this is managed to copy it herself. Hope is born. Love is found.
This is a novel about love and renewal; of persistence and self-belief, rebirth of the land, sustainability, and of looking past all the hoopla. Multi-layered, it draws attention to many feasible and thought-provoking suppositions. Visible is the familiar brain-washing that influences people into believing that they must use things that are not necessarily in their best interests and are circulated to accommodate big businesses.
I loved this beautifully designed book and read it in one sitting as I couldn’t put it down.
Title: Future Girl
Author/Illustrator: Asphixia
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, $
24.99
Publication Date: 1 October 2020
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760294373
For ages: 13 – 16
Type: Young Adult Novel