Book Review: Dengue Boy by Michael Nieva & Translated by Rahul Bery

 

Dengue Boy by Michael Nieva & Translated by Rahul Bery 

205 pages, Hardcover

Published February , 2025 by Astra House

 

I don't remember where this book got on my radar; I think I was poking around on the library app and saw the comparisons ¨Michel Nieva follows in the footsteps of Kafka, Cronenberg, Philip K. Dick, and Junji Ito to create a universe entirely his own, holding up a mirror to our faces and asking the dire question of what we want our future to really look like.¨ You invoke Cronenberg and PKD; you have my attention. A translated work of international SF with a Cli-fi angle this ticks many boxes. 

There are many elements of this novel I really enjoyed. The concept is interesting. A boy engineered to be part mosquito to better survive the climate post-apocalypse is one of our point-of-view characters. The title character, Dengue Boy, is bullied at school and gives the novel a social justice angle. 

Climate destruction, adaptation and capitalism prospecting play a central role in this novel. Weirdly for me, the character stuff didn't connect. But the world-building was magical and on point.

“When the Antarctic ice caps that had once covered the Argentine Atlantic finally melted for good, the YPF company (with the backing of British capital) began extracting hydrocarbons from Belgrano Base 2, an activity that over the years yielded huge dividends from multiple sectors of the economy. Given this, no one could explain how nor why two or three years ago the drilling had been suspended overnight and the wells submitted to rigorous carbon sanitaire, monitored around the clock by the army.”

The setting was wildly evocative of a world almost alien compared with ours, transformed by our actions today into something alien tomorrow. It was also interesting to me because it was the effects of climate change in a part of the globe American readers often forget.  Keep  in mind the rest of the world is dead.

“A wonder of planetary geoengineering from Atlantic Pinamar to Nueva Mar Azul, the Bellinghausen Seas are the refreshing waters that bathe the shores of this Caribbean, famous for being the only ones on earth without scolding hot temperatures. With the global average of 194 Fahrenheit and maximum temperatures of up to 392 Fahrenheit, it is calculated that in some regions such as California or the Middle East a Turkey will roast at room temperature around 20 minutes, and then the egg will fry in less than one.”

This climate apocalypse interested me most, more than the characters, though it is hard not to be interested in the mosquito-hybrid boy. The subplot about the historical video game totally lost me.

Overall, this is an interesting, thoughtful work of international SF, and I want more of that, so I hope people check it out, and talk about it.