Our Take

What separates Something New Under the Sun from the crowded field of climate fiction is Kleeman's tonal control. This is not an anxiety-spiral novel or a didactic one—it is genuinely, darkly funny, and it earns its horror by first earning your laughter. The synthetic water plot is outlandish enough to be satirical and plausible enough to be nauseating, and Kleeman deploys it with the patience of a writer who knows exactly when to tighten the screws. Patrick Hamlin is a particular kind of protagonist: well-meaning, self-deceiving, adrift in a system he didn't design but has absolutely benefited from. Cassidy Carter, the starlet he's reluctantly paired with, is considerably sharper—and the dynamic between them gives the novel much of its momentum and wit. The LA Review of Books noted that Kleeman's great skill is blending the horrific with the mundanely troubling, and that's visible on nearly every page. Time called it "a darkly satirical reflection of ecological reality," and the New York Times described it as "a ghost story not of the past but of the near future." Both framings are accurate, and neither fully captures it. Readers who loved The Sellout by Paul Beatty for its willingness to be both furious and funny will find a kindred spirit here. Fans of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel who want something thornier and less elegiac should pick this up. And anyone drawn to White Noise by Don DeLillo—the original novel about toxic catastrophe, corporate language, and American denial—will recognize Kleeman as a direct heir.