I received a copy of this in advance via NetGalley in return for an honest review, so thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

I found Saltcrop somewhat slow-going at first. A lot of the first half of the book felt rather tedious, and the characters felt like they had some growth to do, as if they hadn't quite found themselves. Of course, long journeys are good for self-discovery, and the second half of the book was much more interesting, the pace picking up despite the journey slowing down. Or possibly because it slows down. On the boat there was the world building and the backstory; off the boat there were the consequences, which were perhaps a little on the nose. The climactic plot point didn't really surprise me, but the ending was a somewhat hopeful and pleasant surprise. Not necessarily a <i>happy</i> ending, but a tentatively positive one. The character growth was solid and didn't lead to an erasure of their previous selves, and the various points of view of the same events, providing fuller backgrounds were interesting to me too. Overall worth a read if you're into corporate thrillers and climate science, if you can get over the first half slog.

After reading, and loving, Kitasei's 'The Stadust Grail' earlier this month, I couldn't resist requesting her latest release. Saltcrop was nothing like her previous book, but I enjoyed it all the same. At it's most base level, it's a story about three sisters and the lengths they will go to to save one another, but it's so much more than that. It's filled with corporate conspiracy, a realistic look at the future of global warming and despite being a dystopian read, carries a sense of realness to it that's rare for the genre

The story is told in three parts, each focusing on a different sister: Skipper, Carmen and Nora. Each character fits into their respective role; Skipper the youngest, still living with their grandmother, barely making ends meat and constantly having to be bailed out by her older sisters because she struggles with the real world too much to get an actual job. Carmen, the middle sister who carries the weight of everyone. She resents Skipper for never standing up and doing what needed to be done, and she resents Nora for escaping their town and becoming something better. And Nora, the eldest sister whose love for science is only outweighed by the love for her family. She left to make something better of herself, but also in the hope that her sisters would follow her example, realise there was more out there in the world and go looking for it.

Saltcrop is easily one of the best representations of a 'sister' relationship I've read. Reading this book from all of their POV's we see the good and the bad. The love and the hate. How they would sail across the earth to save each other, would kill for one another, and still resent them, still wish they would be different. Each POV is unique to the sister we are reading it from, and Kitasei allows us to see the same scenarios from each of their POV's, showing some of them to be unreliable narrators at time's, but also just how easy it is to miss-understand people, even if you think you know them better than anyone else. It's jarring at times, emotional and cutting. These sisters carry a lot of trauma from their childhoods, being pitted against one another, meaning it's not an easy journey, in the physical and emotional sense, but even when the actual plot of the story slows, I still found myself gripped to the pages, invested in the bond between these three sisters.

Despite having the bones of an 'adventure across the planet to save their sister and the world' style novel, I think what differentiates this from so many others in the genre was the authenticity that seeps through the story. There are some pretty out there scenarios our characters find themselves in, but Kitasei manages to write them with a genuineness to the world she has created. Everything just feels plausible, and this creates an underlying tension that weaves through the novel, because whilst the sisters are searching for Nora, Nora is uncovering a conspiracy that will shake the world. Kitasei takes a good look at big corporations and asks the question of what would they do in the case of a a worldwide famine. Would they help people, or would they do what they could to benefit from it. It's scathing, but undoubtedly realistic to what would actually happen, and I enjoyed how even after the big reveal there was no hurrah, no celebration, they might have saved the world, but life must go on.

It is a slower story. The main plot points were a little predictable in places, but I ultimately didn't mind that because I wasn't there for the 'save the world' plot, I was there for the 'save the sister' story, and this is what I found myself engrossed in. It's a bleak story, set in an even bleaker world, but there is so much hope when you look at these sisters, not in themselves, but in each other. The rose tinted glasses may have come off through the journey, but they still love each other unfailingly, and Kitasei does a fantastic job in building these beautiful relationships. If you're looking for a dystopian read that is so much more than that, one steeped in conspiracy and politics, but focused on the unbreakable bonds between siblings, I would absolutely give this a go. I've only read two books by Kitasei, but she's become a favourite author of mine, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.