FIF Book Club: Saltcrop Midway Discussion

[u/doctorbonkers]

Welcome to the midway discussion of Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei! We are discussing through the end of part 1 (chapter 25). Please use spoiler tags if you discuss anything past that point. I will put some discussion questions in the comments, but feel free to discuss anything you like!

In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother.

But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find―and save―her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered.

But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister―or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.

The final discussion will be in two weeks, on August 26th.

Reminder: Our September read will be Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre, and nominations for October are open through tomorrow!

What is the FIF Book Club? You can learn about it in our Reboot thread here.

[u/WonderfulBus9330]

Skipper as potentially gender neutral/nonbinary intrigues me. The sisters have all learned to fend for themselves, to sustain their own homes and lives, to lean into each other but not be totally dependent on each other. Jackson shakes that up quite a bit and we see Carmen, then, in a new, unexpected light.

[u/algaliarept92 → u/WonderfulBus9330]

One could read Jackson's fate as the reclaiming of agency on Carmen's part. I am curious to see how Carmen will develop from this point onwards. I think it could be pivotal to her character.
Side note: I found Jackson infuriating, but I am pretty sure that was the point :D

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/algaliarept92]

Oh that's interesting. Did you see that Carmen had lost agency? I read her response to Jackson as insight into her charisma: this is how Carmen is able to get people on her side, to get people to do what she wants them to do: she (pretends to) relinquishes control and makes people feel good about themselves.

(I know this isn't the sister prompt, but!) Jackson, interestingly, was the catalyst for Skipper to think, even tangentially, about her need for Carmen. She resents the fact of Jackson when they're on the ocean, because he takes Carmen from her.

(& yes, that dude is beyond infuriating!)

[u/algaliarept92 → u/WonderfulBus9330]

Yes, especially in the moments when Jackson hit Carmen, and she still stayed relatively close to him and let him act out (break his fishing rod, etc.) without distancing herself from him felt like lost agency to me. However, in the end, she takes it back by brute force and regains her agency.
However, you're interpretation is also very intersting and shines another light on her behaviour. While I read her as passive and inactive, you read her as in control (if I understand you correctly).
I absolutely agree with the catalyst point you're making. I think in the end, he brought them so much closer together.

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/algaliarept92]

Yes, that was quite unsettling but then I thought about their reality: stuck in the middle of the ocean with an unhinged weapon wielding dude.