Alison Stine’s debut novel Road Out of Winter tells the story of a dystopian near-future where, for the second year in a row, it has remained winter. With no spring or summer, there have been no crops, and with food and other shortages, it has not taken long for society to begin to break down. Chilling, in more ways than one, this tale gives a pretty bleak outlook on our ability to function as a society with any sort of unity whatsoever. It seems that factions, cults, and gangs form almost immediately whether it be for safety, protection, or power.
This dark and gritty story focuses primarily on Wylodine, a young woman in her late teens or early twenties who grew up in poverty, with parental figures who taught her little more than how to effectively grow marijuana illegally. Her mother and her mother’s boyfriend have left Ohio and left Wylodine on her own for the last couple of years. But with no spring or summer, her skills as a grower are no longer sufficient to maintain any sort of livelihood. Wylodine prepares to leave the area in search of her mother, and through various circumstances begins to “collect” other stragglers as they band together out of necessity in search of a better life.
I was reminded of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven as so much of the story follows a small group of people traveling together in an unpredictable, and often terrifying, landscape. Additionally though, I was also reminded of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone. Wylodine has a tremendous amount in common with Woodrell’s main character, Ree Dolly as they are both strong, tough, rough-around-the-edges young women who are undoubtedly products of the world they have been raised in. This has given them strengths (at a price) that they had no idea they would need to have. Fans of Station Eleven or Winter’s Bone will definitely find a lot to like in Road Out of Winter.
Unlike in many dystopian stories, Stine does not focus at all on the “why” or “how” of the situation. Instead, as the climate change has already occurred, she allows the characters and the reader to deal with the problem at hand, rather than the sometimes heavy-handed “look what mankind has done to the planet” side of the discussion.
Some reviewers have commented about a perceived lack of depth or development in some of the characters, but I choose to see this as a deliberate choice by Stine. These people have just banded together, and in some cases are virtual strangers. They are not likely to reveal much about themselves in such a situation. So, as we go on this journey with them we, the readers, also have to wonder who to trust and who these people really are. It heightened the tension for me personally as I had to rely on my own instincts about who to trust, just as these characters did.
In a very impressive manner, Stine uses the weather and terrain almost as an additional character in this story. Her descriptive language is so completely immersive with the monotony of the snow blanketed landscapes, the unending mysterious woods, and the treacherous broken roads. The landscape becomes a villain on its own, yet another obstacle to be overcome as the main characters search for their Road Out of Winter.
Road Out of Winter is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore!
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Synopsis | Goodreads
In an endless winter, she carries seeds of hope
Wylodine comes from a world of paranoia and poverty—her family grows marijuana illegally, and life has always been a battle. Now she’s been left behind to tend the crop alone. Then spring doesn’t return for the second year in a row, bringing unprecedented extreme winter.
With grow lights stashed in her truck and a pouch of precious seeds, she begins a journey, determined to start over away from Appalachian Ohio. But the icy roads and strangers hidden in the hills are treacherous. After a harrowing encounter with a violent cult, Wylodine and her small group of exiles become a target for its volatile leader. Because she has the most valuable skill in the climate chaos: she can make things grow.
Urgent and poignant, Road Out of Winter is a glimpse of an all-too-possible near future, with a chosen family forged in the face of dystopian collapse. With the gripping suspense of The Road and the lyricism of Station Eleven, Stine’s vision is of a changing world where an unexpected hero searches for a place hope might take root.
