Crunch: 07/01/15

In recent years, speculative fiction and YA dystopias have been using the dwindling oil supply as their starting point. Of the ones I've read in the last year or so, Crunch by Leslie Connor is on my list of favorites.

Dewey Marriss and his siblings run a bicycle repair shop. His parents are out on a shipping run — the father being a trucker and the mother occasionally keeping him company. She is with him on the week that the local supply runs dry. With his parents stranded, Dewey and siblings have to meet the surging demand for working bicycles.

In Crunch the biggest difference from similar books is that society does not fall apart. Yes — people get stranded, electricity and such is limited by law and order and basic civility remains in place. The government from the top down saw this crunch coming and has made plans. They made new laws — turning most of the highway lanes into a bicycles (and other alternate forms of transportation) lanes.

So when things go missing from the bike shop and then bikes go missing too, it's not the sign of the impending apocalypse. It isn't neighbor against neighbor, (although some do get testy), No, there is one bad seed among the lot, trying to profit from the situation.

Five stars

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