For those of you who are like me and see Science Fiction and it scares you away…let me introduce you to this novella that has left me more curious now than ever before of a genre that I typically don’t read!

Checking in at only 168 pages, I did a combo reading and listening to this one and yes the story was told in the future. However, the meaning behind it was very relatable and moving.

A young woman struggles and contemplates her thoughts about staying at home or going to a place no one has ever been or seen before in her town. She has duties and responsibilities at home, but imagines how much knowledge and wisdom she could gain by doing something that only 1 and a million get a chance of being able to accomplish!
( )

This novella or short novel is set not long after civilization has crumbled under the effects of both runaway climate change and an aggressive fungal infection, told in the author's up close and personal prose via a teen/adult presented with a choice both hopeful and terrifying. It's rich in detail and thoughtful, harsh but not without hope, and asks some tough questions. I am never quite ready for Premee Mohamed stories; they are always an experience you have to live through to appreciate. I have this urge to keep an eye on my fingernails now... ( )

A 2022 Aurora Best Novella nominee, this story explores the difficult choices a teenage girl must make in an apocalyptic world ravaged by a climate disaster and a mind-altering parasite. I liked Mohamed's writing. However, there were a several aspects about this futuristic world that were not well explained, so I would not mind if she were to revisit it in a future work. ( )

A short novel about a character with a congenital (and possibly in time fatal) fungal parasite, growing up in a post-apocalyptic community who now gets invited to travel through the wilderness to the Big University City to study and Do Big Things.

The point of the book is mostly a character/society study about her current life and what she's leaving behind. And I get that and respect it but also I really really wanted to see her journey and what she'd find at Big Uni City. I think maybe just not quite what I was looking for at this moment in time? It's very good but just yeah. ( )

The apocalypse wasn’t a climactic event; there was no final day to curse; there was just a series of failures that exposed a fragile global ecosystem engineered around efficiency and profit. When cad – a deadly parasite – spread around the world like wildfire, it was just another disaster as all humanity’s bills came due at once. For those who live in the ruins, the past is a foreign country – and one resented for its selfish plenty.

For Reid and her mother, who both carry cad, life is more fragile than most: any day could be the one that the delicate green tracery under their skin goes wild and kills them. When Reid receives an unheard of invitation to join a fabled university, the news is greeted with disbelief, disapproval, outright betrayal. Reid has a choice with no easy answers. She must either dismiss the university offer as nothing more than a childish dream or turn her back on a community that she loves and that needs her. But with the parasite infecting her thoughts, how can she be sure her decision is her own and not one imposed by a symbiotic creature bent only on its own survival?

The novella unpicks the burdens of guilt and duty as Reid is torn between love, rage and fear, alternately supported and undermined by those who know and love her best. The result is a searing depiction of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, caught between childish mistakes and adult ambitions, confused about her feelings for her best friend and her increasingly charged relationship with her mother.

The Annual Migration of Clouds may be a post-apocalyptic tale of survival, but – like These Lifeless Things (which you should also read) – it’s one built around acts of faith and love in a world that may be broken but still has something to offer. It’s about the decisions we make that shape our lives, and the forces that shape the context in which we make them. Premee Mohamed’s prose is a delight, as is her knack of cutting straight to the heart of her story with loving banter and vicious truths. And if that’s not enough for you, there’s feral pigs and a magnificently grumpy lesbian couple who are much too old for anyone else’s nonsense.

Full review

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ( )