Alison Stine’s dystopian novel Trashlands envisions a world where environmental catastrophes have radically altered the American landscape and human civilization. The story takes place in Scrappalachia, a wasteland of broken vehicles, contaminated rivers, and extreme poverty where nonbiodegradable plastic is the only material of value. In Scrappalachia, people find shelter wherever they can, usually in abandoned vehicles or makeshift shelters. A man as cruel as his name, Rattlesnake Master, runs a club called Trashlands, where women are forced to entertain in exchange for room and board.
Necessities like eyeglasses and expired medicines are traded for things like milk jugs, pool noodles, water bottles, and credit cards. Children are often abducted and housed in prison factories that make structural materials for building new cities far to the north.
Despite the grim setting, survivors band together, form friendships, marry, and raise children. Some create art and strive to memorialize their world. Others teach the next generation about their lost heritage.
Fans of Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale and Emily St. John Mandel’s apocalyptic Station Eleven will enjoy this cautionary, yet strangely hopeful, tale of human survival that may leave you pondering things like single-use plastics, sustainability, and survival.
Alicia Cavitt
Information Specialist
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