Welcome to the blog tour for Road Out of Winter by. Alison Stine!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: Road Out of Winter

Author: Alison Stine

Format: ebook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 9/1/20

Publisher: MIRA

Purchase Links: Harlequin |Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Books-A-Million | Powell’s

Categories: Dystopia, Climate Change, Eco Thriller, Survival

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Surrounded by poverty and paranoia her entire life, Wil has been left behind in her small Appalachian town by her mother and her best friend. Not only is she tending her stepfather’s illegal marijuana farm alone, but she’s left to watch the world fall further into chaos in the face of a climate crisis brought on by another year of unending winter. So opens Alison Stine’s moving and lyrical cli-fi novel, ROAD OUT OF WINTER (MIRA Trade; September 1, 2020; $17.99).

With her now priceless grow lights stashed in her truck and a pouch of precious seeds, Wil upends her life to pursue her mother in California, collecting an eclectic crew of fellow refugees along the way. She’s determined to start over and use her skills to grow badly needed food in impossible farming conditions, but the icy roads and desperate strangers are treacherous to Wil and her gang. Her green thumb becomes the target of a violent cult and their volatile leader, and Wil must use all her cunning and resources to protect her newfound family and the hope they have found within each other.

Thank you to MIRA and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.

Let’s break it down:

My Attention: intrigued but kind of waned in the middle

World Building: fascinating – Appalachia Ohio enduring a very long winter, resources are low and people are in survival mode

Writing Style: slow, tense

Bringing the Heat: more like cold, VERY cold 

Crazy in Love: no time for love in this story

Creativity: weed, an endless winter, and trying to survive makes for a very interesting story!

Mood: mixed feelings 

Triggers: drug use, violence, mention of rape

My Takeaway: The currency of the future in a climate crisis will be seeds and someone who knows how to grow them.

• I don’t read many eco-thrillers but this caught my eye because Wil is a weed grower and it’s a skill that will help her survive this endless winter. Wil comes from a place of poverty and heavy drug use, she’s been around all kinds of drug users since she was a child, and that helps her navigate her way out in this new cold world.
• I like how the author describes what’s happening in the towns as winter doesn’t let up. We see resources grow scarce, people panicking and leaving for someplace else. There is no internet, no way to really communicate, no news…it’s a dire situation and it’s something that could happen in reality. That’s the thrilling and scary part of the story.
• Wil is on a mission to get to her mom, so she needs to leave her town but she meets people along the way, and the further they get from home – they get into harrowing situations and meet other people on the road. They encounter different groups of people out there which made me wonder if Wil would get to her destination at all or intact?

• Who knew being a weed grower would be a skill to come in handy? There isn’t much weed growing happening in this story but I understand that once she settles down somewhere it will be the knowledge that will help her grow food to survive.
• I didn’t connect much to any character. But I think the story gets much more interesting when Jamey and Starla enters the picture.
• The beginning for me was a slow build but the later half is definitely when things pick up. There is more action as Wil and her friends try to get out of certain situations.
• The ending felt rushed, but will there be a sequel? I felt like more of the story could be told.

I think this was a solid eco-thriller. It made me feel this story could become reality in the future especially with how our planet is undergoing climate change. Wil is an interesting character who has survival skills because she grew up around drug users and she herself is a weed grower. Wil’s journey to her destination is filled with challenges and terror. If you like eco-thrillers, I think you will really enjoy this one.

About the Author:

ALISON STINE lives in the rural Appalachian foothills. A recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), she was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She has written for The Atlantic, The Nation, The Guardian, and many others. She is a contributing editor with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Author Website | Twitter: @AlisonStine | Instagram: @AliStineWrites | Goodreads