Sip

Sip by Brian Allen Carr

I want to warn you that this book is kind of dark, truthfully graphic (like violent/naked/kind of uncomfortable situations presented in very blunt factual manner), and it kinds of reminds me a teeny tiny bit of A Brave New World. Just in the sense they present kind of taboo topics in a way where none of the characters really bat at an eye at it.

So, be warned? An amazon summary to maybe give you a better feel for the book, "A lyrical, apocalyptic debut novel about addiction, friendship, and the struggle for survival at the height of an epidemic.

The sickness with a single child and quickly spread: you could get high by drinking your own shadow. Artificial lights were destroyed so addicts could sip shadow at night in the pure moonlight. Gangs of shadow addicts chased down children on playgrounds, rounded up old ladies from retirement homes. Cities were destroyed and governments fell. And if your shadow was sipped entirely, you became one of them, had to drink the shadows of others or go mad.
One hundred and fifty years later, what’s left of the world is divided between the highly regimented life of those inside dome cities who are protected from natural light (and natural shadows), and those forced to the dangerous, hardscrabble life in the wilds outside. In rural Texas, Mira, her shadow-addicted-friend Murk, and an ex-domer named Bale search for a possible mythological cure to the shadow sickness—but they must find it, it is said, before the return of Halley’s Comet, which is only days away." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

The world kind of crashed and burned when people started drinking their own shadows...and going a little crazy. The shadow drinking essentially gets you super high...but it can also kill you if you have no shadow. You have to 'eat' shadows to live, and someone else can eat your entire shadow, leaving you shadowless, and also makes it so now you have to eat shadows to stay alive.

There are also domes where people can hide from the sun with decrease in shadows and be safe? It's a little odd and kind of unclear. Anyways.

So Mira and Murk live outside the domes, where Murk is addicted to his shadow, but he has a peg leg, so that means he doesn't run out... ....I'm still not entirely sure how that works. Mira can turn her shadow on and off, but she sips shadows without eating them to keep her mother alive, so she's not ill-affected by shadow harvesting. But the first scene we see...is Mira contemplating killing herself by getting close enough to the train to get shot. Where Bale, who guards the train as part of the dome guards, gets himself kicked off the train for not shooting her.

I don't know the book, is kind of a weird slapstick of one happenstance that I bet if I read it again I would pick up on subtle nuances that would paint a more complete picture? ...but I don't feel compelled. I'm kind of stumped by what I was 'supposed' to get out of this book? It kind of seemed like an inane ride through madness with enough landmarks along the way that it was kind of recognizable. I don't really have anything else to say so I guess...

Happy reading?