The Island of Last Things

Emma Sloley provides various themes in her novel. I see the dystopian world of the not-so-distant future. That world is reeling from a pandemic like death of plant life across the globe. That series of events leads to the death of animal life except for animals ‘saved’ in elaborate zoos. One such zoo exists on Alcatraz. Yes, that Alcatraz of Al Capone and death row lore. The prison with multiple design changes now is home to animals, birds, and plants. Keepers tend to the animals. Two such keepers are Camille and Sailor two women who are the protagonists of this tale.

I wanted to follow the story created by Sloley, I really did! However, what appeared to be a telling of redemption and survival became in large part a telling of randy insecure men and the erotic/platonic/erotic relationship between Sailor and Camille.

The link between the two is important to understand the penultimate closing chapters. However, there is important and then there is oiling the surface a tad too much. Intrigue develops as protestors clash with the Pinkton family. The family owns the zoo and is mega wealthy; the dynasty has visions for growth of their Island on the Bay. (Wealthy tourists spend mega bucks seeing the animals in the FX and CGI created world on Alcatraz. This point is critical to the story.) On we go with men appearing, men lusting, men screwing things up and Camille and Sailor playing their damsel/feminist/Lara Croft roles to . . . some outcome?

The novel provides glimmers of more particularly with a hoped-for Shangri-la that may be a boat trip or a lifetime away.

Ah but we return often to snippets such as this through the text: “He (Joseph) nuzzled my neck, friendly now and maybe even a little contrite. I couldn’t help but notice he always responded to any perception of coolness on my part with renewed passion. It wasn’t exciting to me, though. On the contrary, I found it tedious. I didn’t know much about love, but l knew it wasn’t something that needed to be tested periodically like a smoke alarm.” p. 101.

I give this colourful taste of dystopia and wandering hearts three stars of five.