Camp Zero

A Novel

By: Michelle Min Sterling

Narrated by: Graham Halstead, Greta Jung, Emily Tremaine

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick

Libby Book Award Winner for Best Diverse Author

In a near-future northern settlement, the fates of a young woman, a professor, and a mysterious collective of researchers collide in this mesmerizing and transportive debut that “delivers its big ideas with suspense, endlessly surprising twists, and abundant heart” (Jessamine Chan, New York Times bestselling author).

In remote northern Canada, a team led by a visionary American architect is break­ing ground on a building project called Camp Zero, intended to be the beginning of a new way of life. A clever and determined young woman code-named Rose is offered a chance to join the Blooms, a group hired to entertain the men in camp—but her real mission is to secretly monitor the mercurial architect in charge. In return, she’ll receive a home for her climate-displaced Korean immigrant mother and herself.

Rose quickly secures the trust of her target, only to discover that everyone has a hidden agenda, and nothing is as it seems. Through skill­fully braided perspectives, including those of a young professor longing to escape his wealthy family and an all-woman military research unit struggling for survival at a climate station, the fate of Camp Zero’s inhabitants reaches a stunning crescendo.

Atmospheric, fiercely original, and utterly gripping, Camp Zero is an electrifying page-turner and a masterful exploration of who and what will survive in a warming world, and how falling in love and building community can be the most daring acts of all.

©2023 Michelle Sterling. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Graham Halstead, Greta Jung, and Emily Tremaine narrate this dystopian sci-fi novel. In the near future, survivors converge on a remote camp in northern Canada. Rose is a Bloom, a sex worker assigned to Camp Zero. Rather than making Rose a figure of pity, Jung portrays her quiet strength of character and will to survive. Grant Grimley is a young academic who is desperate to escape his family and his past. Halstead slowly reveals the depth of Grant’s trauma while also stressing how he learns to endure. White Alice is a top-secret U.S. military operation in Canada staffed by an all-female squad. Tremaine’s stylized delivery of the Greek-chorus-style narratives of the soldiers is particularly effective at illuminating their forced proximity and obligation to work together." (AudioFile Magazine)

It was fine

I would not call this a sci-fi book, it’s mostly a character study. I was bored.

Interesting story

I almost skipped this one because of the first couple of weak reviews. I’m glad I didn’t, I liked exploring the post-apocalyptic world Sterling imagined.

Interesting enough

It took some time to get used to the three people POV setup but then when I was finally intrigued it kept me listening. Until the end when things started stringing together and they just blew it. Pretty disappointing because I feel like they could have taken many other pathways to end this and they chose possibly the worst one.

meh....interesting premise but not a favorite

There was too much going on with the multi perspective and jumping timelines. I don't understand why Grant's perspective was chosen to be told. He wasn't really a key character. The foreman's or damiens perspective would have been more interesting.

Another dystopian world

I liked it, kind of, then it just ended. This team of women do all of this work to survive in Camp Zero, then they are stranded there again, then they come up with a plan to survive but it takes years to execute. Some interesting characters along the way. Then, I guess she got tired of writing or reached the right number of pages for the editor because…”the end”.
Parts of it were pretty well developed so I was moving towards a 3 1/2 - 4 rating but sadly the ending just fell flat. I feel like this was rushed to publication when it needed better editing and a few more re-writes.

Slow burn but interesting

Book was definitely a slow burn but I knew that from reviews. I really thought it was an interesting dystopian future with great characters and a relatively engaging story. Definitely slow and took me a while to fully understand what was happening in the beginning but I enjoyed it.

Worth my time

An interesting and well developed world, an interesting twist, and some spiraling narratives. I liked it.

Sleepy book

The readers made me want to sleep- voices so soft and flowing-it was very disrupting to the story…. Which was odd

Expected more

This book was so different from the type of books I read. I did not find it as interesting as portrayed by the media.

Save your money for another book

The premise of the story actually was not too bad. The book as a whole however, it’s pretty terrible. Confusing timelines, weak characters, political, and social comparisons are poorly outlined and described. The performance by the readers sucked.