An Etiquette Guide to the End Times

The dystopic near term future imagined in this book is so believable it is a little bit scary, but the light-hearted and down to earth tone of the first person narration makes this a fun and engaging read nonetheless. Set in Toronto a few years after the consequences of ignoring global warming become obvious, the story follows Olive as her already rearranged world is rattled again when the somewhat authoritarian central city government wants her to turn her successful internet etiquette column into a state-sponsored radio show. Because the story is set in the future, I've categorized this as "sci fi," but the real focus of the story isn't the technology or even the entirely believable world the story builds: it is the characters and how they help each other- or don't. In that sense, the book really is an etiquette guide to the end times.