SLOTH BY JOANNE ASKEW [BOOK REVIEW]

14/12/2021

Whether you are a diehard apocalyptic fiction fan, a dark science fiction enthusiast, or simply have an appreciation for well-rounded female characters, Sloth is certain to leave you satisfied and have you seeking out more of Joanne Askew’s work.

Sloth by Joanne Askew
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Queer Space (7 Dec. 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 90 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1608641805
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1608641802

A horror fiction review by Rebecca Rowland

When Joanne Askew’s sci-fi novella opens, Natali (“Tali”) and her wife Lana are scavenging for supplies among the dead. As they step carefully through the frigid, murky water of a bog, Tali discovers a waning victim of Sloth, the deadly virus that has ravaged most of the population, and mercifully euthanizes her: “’You can sleep now,’ I said. Her long death had become short. She didn’t blink again. I watched as she sank slowly into the mud. I couldn’t tell what colour her hair used to be, what race she was, how thin she had inevitably become over the year of the Sloth. It took most of five minutes for her to fully sink. Lana called to me a few times, but I didn’t respond.” Askew paints a grim portrait, both of a world reduced to primal survival and of the struggle faced by those remaining lovers tirelessly fighting to stay human.

Methodically, the author leads her readers into a post-apocalyptic nightmare that is one part Anne McCaffrey in its cadence, one part PD James’ Children of Men in its bleak landscape: "In the gaps there weren’t cars, there were bodies. The smell greeted you like a friend you were avoiding. Once the scent took hold of your nose, it never seemed to leave. It was the fragrance of England now. Picked clean by crows and animals, beige bones flew flags of rotting material, stripes, spots, some seventies metal band T-shirts that had been all the rage just before Sloth. A raven stood atop a rib cage wrapped in an ACDC shirt; like a twisted album cover inviting you into the madness."

In a cruel joke on the listless despair most pandemics inflict on populations (as 2020 taught us), the Sloth virus only may be warded off by increasing the heartrate of those infected, so sufferers already weakened by a reduction in nourishment must force themselves to stay active as an additional torture. Forget weapons and toilet paper: in this diseased wasteland, it’s shoes and FitBits that are at a premium.

For much of the book, Tali and Lana are making a pilgrimage to a safer location up north that sounds promising, but the journey itself is not without its own set of perils, from opportunistic mercenaries to sadistic hunters. Askew’s characters are both complex and diverse, and she flushes each one out adroitly: no small task in a fast-paced novella clocking in at under one hundred pages. Although there is plenty of action—and quite a few suspenseful scenes as well—the tender romance between Tali and Lana that is interwoven throughout the chapters buoys the tale even higher. Whether you are a diehard apocalyptic fiction fan, a dark science fiction enthusiast, or simply have an appreciation for well-rounded female characters, Sloth is certain to leave you satisfied and have you seeking out more of Joanne Askew’s work.