Even though I gave California 2 stars, there were aspects of the novel I really enjoyed. Lepucki has a clear voice and the story never felt overly rushed. She took the time to let events unfold, never giving the reader more than she really needed in any particular scene--a necessary skill when writing dystopia. But that might be just the thing that frustrated me. California felt a little like, I don't know, paint-by-numbers storytelling? There's the couple alone in the wilderness, ominous hints that our own current economic/environmental/political climate led to these dire conditions, the "too good to be true" community that is not the salvation they were hoping for, etc.

The author is clearly well-versed in end-of-the-world stories, but I got the sense that she wasn't fully ready to let go of those other stories in order to tell her own? I look forward to reading her next novel. I hope that it is more her own.