Mini Review: 'Haw' by Sean Jackson
Jackson weaves a somber and largely depressing tale of a planet that we've destroyed. A planet intent on destroying us back. There's not a lot of world-building here, but your imagination fills in the gaps.
There are no wasted words in Haw, no unnecessarily lengthy exposition. Just riveting storytelling and believable characters desperate to survive in their own very unique, violent, or inspiring ways.
I finished this in two sittings because it really was gripping, yet I felt it could have been fleshed out much more. Perhaps spending more time exploring the corruption, more time in certain settings to get us more attached.
Still, it's a brisk but recommended read especially if you like speculative fiction and dystopian futures. I dug it. And it's begging for a prequel, but to the best of my knowledge Haw remains Jackson's only novel.
Haw: A Novel
Author: Sean Jackson
Official blurb: Mired in a corrupt, dangerous city that is on the verge of collapse, a father and son flee to a rural village, hoping to find refuge from their violent lives. What they find is not the haunted hippie environs of local legend, but a gritty farm community that thrives despite the threat of criminal invasions and the ominous presence of a nearby nuclear reactor.
A bioengineer, Lucas lends his expertise to the efforts of sustainability, while his son—a rising young photojournalist—falls in love with one of the sons of a folksy family whose charm lies in its ability to keep the community together, through music and love—until disaster shakes their fragile world.
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