It's Not the End of the World – Jonathan Parks-Ramage
Climate-focused novels are usually hit or miss for me (“The Overstory” and “Private Rites” both fell flat). I liked but didn’t love Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s “Yes, Daddy,” but with an ALC from Libro.fm and Bloomsbury Publishing, I was willing to give him another shot.
Even though he comes in hot — the first chapter delivers a slaughtered family and a glimpse of climate-ravaged Los Angeles — it is honestly tame in comparison for the ride you’re about to go on.
We then meet Mason and Yunho, the wealthy, image-conscious couple at the center of the novel, prepping for a $100,000 baby shower in their climate bubble. By chapter two, we’re deep in dystopia: right-wing autocrats have reshaped the U.S., gay marriage is legal but McCarthyism 2.0 targets “anti-American” sentiment and the wealthy live in manufactured weather under designer gas masks, with bodies synced to their devices.
It’s speculative fiction with shades of “Parable of the Sower,” but more overtly red/blue in its politics — and definitely not subtle.
Parks-Ramage keeps the pace manic, throwing in pink fog that turns people into zombie-like tech destroyers (“Dawn of the Dead” meets “Cell”), satirical details like Chris Pratt as California governor and maximalist gore and queer horror.
There’s a lot here — body horror, political satire, climate collapse, capitalist rot, progressive infighting and heteronormativity debates — often coming at you so fast it’s hard to take a breath. At times, the anger works; other times, it’s exhausting. What kept me hooked was less the characters (every single one is unlikable) and more the “so crazy it could come true” plotting.
Mason and Yunho’s relationship, their decision to have a baby and the baby shower countdown form the book’s backbone, but the real punch is in Parks-Ramage’s worldbuilding — imagining future gay havens, climate communes and how the privileged cling to control while the world burns.
He’s sharp on learned helplessness, showing how people adapt to a svengali life while convincing themselves they have free will. The book nails the desperation of living inside a collapsing system while clinging to the illusion of control — very post-COVID, we’ve seen this movie before energy.
It’s heavy-handed, biased and at times lazy in its character work (especially around Mason and Yunho’s contradictory desires for picket-fence stability and edgy superiority). But it’s also chilling in its depiction of a not-so-distant future where politics and climate collapse collide.
[mild spoiler]
The final flash forward — Mason nearly immortal on Mars, returning to a demilitarized Montana to meet an elderly Gabriel — is a fittingly bizarre capstone to a book that never stops swinging.
[spoiler ended]
The narration by André Santana gives each character a distinct voice (Mason, Claudia and Gabriel standouts), though even he gets lost in the chaos at times.
While not a modern masterpiece, it is an audacious, bloody and often grimly funny ride that pairs the bourgeois nihilism of Bret Easton Ellis with the horror of Stephen King and the commentary of Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood.
If you can handle the excess, there’s plenty to chew on — even if you occasionally roll your eyes while doing it.
Rating (story): 3.5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (ALC)
Dates read: August 8 – August 13, 2025
Multi-tasking: Good to go, but it will stress you out, so definitely plan on activities – like exercise – to keep you grounded.
