What I liked most about 'There's No Place Like Home' was the focus on the way thirteen-year-old Vic's perception of her situation and her relationships changed over the course of the story. The story is set in a near future America where climate change has made large portions of the USA uninhabitable and where Vic's generation, born after the major changes hit, are, for reasons unknown, perpetually stuck in prepubescence. There are lots of intriguing details about climate change and its effects on daily life but I liked that while these details provided an essential context for the story, they weren't allowed to dominate it.

The heart of the story lay in Vic's reassessment of her relationship with her parents. Initially, Vic comes across as a Daddy's Girl. He has been her teacher and her friend and was the person that she most loved and admired. Until, in the early pages of the story, he kills himself.

Vic needs to understand why he did this. She needs to grieve. She needs to rebuild her relationship with her mother. Most of all, she needs to find a way to earn enough money to get herself and her mother out of the financial hole her father's death has left them in.

As the story progresses, Vic comes to realise how poorly her father had been coping with the reality of the world that she has grown up in.

He was an educated man who was constantly mourning the loss of the world as it used to be, forecasting the inevitable doom of the human race and disparaging the unprincipled things that people were doing to survive.

It takes Vic a while to see that this worldview was a sign of weakness rather than wisdom. Vic looks at her world as it is, acknowledges the discomforts and the personal challenges but still sees beauty in the world and has a desire to go on living.

By the end of the story, Vic has accepted three things: by committing suicide, the power of her father's voice in her head has been nullified; her mother is and always has been, the stronger parent and Vic's future, such as it is, is hers to build.

'There's No Place Like Home' took me a little over an hour to listen to but, in that time, I got to see a plausible near-future and got to meet the women who were finding a way to cope with it. To me, that felt like time well spent. ( )

This glimpse into a future where climate change has harshly impacted life on our planet is obviously not a feel-good story, but there is a sense of resilience that stops it from being too depressing. What is truly depressing is that it's not inconceivable that it is our true future. ( )

Searching for Understanding
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook edition (October 2018)

There is really effective world building in this post-apocalyptic short story where a young teenager searches for understanding of her father's suicide while looking for work with a local salvage crew called The Sandbaggers. It has a very Mad Max feel to it, although not in the action thriller sense, just in the environment. This is the first that I've heard of writer Edan Lepucki and I'll be interested to read her other work.

There's No Place Like Home is one of the 7 short stories included in the Warmer Collection, a series of climate-related fiction released October 30, 2018 from Amazon Original Stories. Fear and hope collide in this collection of possible tomorrows. What happens when boiling heat stokes family resentments; when a girl’s personal crisis trumps global catastrophe; or when two climate scientists decide to party like it’s the end of the world? Like the best sci-fi, these cli-fi stories offer up answers that are darkly funny, liberating, and all too conceivable. ( )

Vic is 13 years old. In a world ravaged by increased temperatures, her generation will never really grow up. Girls her age, in the extreme heat and stress of everyday life, no longer go through puberty. Lots of people are moving north, abandoning places further south to the baking heat. When her father commits suicide, Vic wants to understand why he took his life, why he let her mother work so hard and why he made some of the choices he made. She discovers that truth isn't simple.

There's No Place Like Home is the 4th story in the Warmer Collection from Amazon/Audible Originals. Each story presents a picture of a world ravaged by global warming.

This story is very dark and Vic learns a rough lesson. Not only does she have to contend with a messed up life in a ravaged, hot, horrible world, but she faces betrayal from unexpected directions as well. The future is pretty much hopeless.

This entire collection so far has been weird and not all that enjoyable. I didn't really like this story all that much either. Very bleak. Not all that believable. And horrible characters. I felt Vic was horribly betrayed by both her parents...by everyone around her....and by life itself. The story itself is strange, rambling and uncomfortable. Not all stories are for every reader....and this collection so far seems to not really be my cup of tea.

I've been listening to the audio versions of these stories. Each one is about an hour long. There's No Place Like Home is narrated by Lauren Ezzo. She does a great job narrating. She reads at an even pace and has a nice voice. I have partial hearing loss, but was easily able to understand the entire story.

I'm going to listen to the entire collection, but so far I'm just not feelin' it. For me, these stories have been strange and disappointing. Moving on to the 5th story -- Falls the Shadow. Maybe I will like the next one better. ( )