Nearly everyone has read parts of, or at the very least heard of, ‘the Odyssey,’ but not everyone has heard it the way Block retells in ‘Love in the Time of Global Warming.’ The story is told through the eyes of protagonist Pen as she searches through an earthquake-ravaged Los Angeles in search of her family.

The characters address something not often covered in literature: self-awareness. But, it is not addressed in the way that some media today seems to be, by alienating it’s audience. Instead, readers are treated to characters that make decisions that seem genuine and actually pick up on the parallels of their own experiences and the epic, using it to their advantage at times.

The most notable thing about the book isn’t the plot or the self-awareness of the characters; rather, it is Block’s writing style. The book is written in what seems like standard prose, but the description she uses to paint the world feels poetic at times. Through this writing style, she is able to weave a fantastical approach to the apocalypse that evokes an atmosphere that compares to that of a fairy tale.

What originally drew me to the book was the LGBT representation. It doesn’t feel like an afterthought or something pushed to the side that was there solely to draw in readers, as so many YA novels sometimes do. It also doesn’t make the ‘queerness’ of the characters their main attribute or struggle; it is simply a part of them, rather than their only feature.

‘Love in the Time of Global Warming’ isn’t a long book by any means but what it lacks in excessive word count it makes up for in dynamic, relatable characters and beautiful writing.