The Last Catastrophe by Allegra Hyde

The Last Catastrophe by Allegra Hyde is a book of speculative short stories about how humanity grapples in a world transformed by climate change as well as other serious issues facing us all. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “A vast caravan of RVs roam the United States. A girl grows a unicorn horn, complicating her small-town friendships and big city ambitions. A young lady on a spaceship bonds with her AI warden while trying to avoid an arranged marriage. In Allegra Hyde's universe nothing is as it seems, yet the challenges her characters face mirror those of our modern age. Spanning the length of our very solar system, the fifteen stories in this collection explore a myriad of potential futures, all while reminding us that our world is precious, and that protecting it has the potential to bring us all together.”

In The Last Catastrophe, readers experience vignettes from different possible futures, most of which stem from environmental catastrophe with the end of the world being the titular scenario. Hyde excels at exposing the humanity in her characters which struggle to connect with others when their worlds are falling apart, literally and figuratively. Several characters have to coddle fragile men—a systemic disease of our society—through the “virtues of white lies” or supporting the “husbands lost in the system.”

The stories “Loving Homes for Lost & Broken Men” and “Cougar” and “Colonel Merryweather’s Intergalactic Finishing School for Young Ladies of Grace & Good Nature” are standouts in this already excellent collection.

In “Loving Homes for Lost & Broken Men,” Claudette fosters abandoned husbands in a cruel system. She’s supposed to keep her distance emotionally from these fragile men but ultimately falls for Mr. Holm, a man with exceptional social skills and poise. When Claudette considers running away with Mr. Holm, something disturbing is revealed to Claudette.

“Cougar” begins with LeeAnn having sex with Viktor in the woods outside of their treatment facility. She’s trying to feel human in a place where the patients are being treated for a variety of technology addictions. LeeAnn’s addiction is a particularly pernicious one, something she tries hard to hide from the other patients. Will she survive her time in this cold treatment center?

In “Colonel Merryweather’s Intergalactic Finishing School for Young Ladies of Grace & Good Nature,” young Karoline confesses to her roommate hBEC-49011 (an AI speaker in the wall of her room that acts like a counselor). She’s part of an interstellar mission to find humanity a new planet, but the young passengers seem more concerned with the promenade to match up girls to eligible bachelors. Karoline is especially close to her hBEC who has its own dark secret.

Hyde is an exceptionally gifted writer. She excels at mining the humanity in her characters who are trapped in their circumstances created by these environmental catastrophes. I will be reading more of her work in the near future.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 6 stars if I could, but 5 stars will have to do in a five-star rating system.

Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780593315262