Happy Friday! I am on a train at the moment, traveling back from my friend’s book launch in London! Side note: her book is an adorable cosy fantasy and you should read it!

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish discussion meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @DiniPandaReads. Each Friday, bloggers will write posts about a particular topic and share on their blog.

Climate fiction is an increasingly popular genre, and has grown from being seen as a sci-fi subgenre to a broader category of its own — its own literary prize even being established in 2025. Have you read climate fiction (‘cli-fi’) or books centred around environmental issues?

Dini, did you write this topic for me?

In all seriousness, though, if you’re a reader of this blog, you probably know how much I love climate fiction. I’ve posted about The Climate Fiction Prize since it began, reading the shortlist for 2025, and I’m currently working my way through this year’s entire longlist.

It’s no secret that I’m incredibly passionate about our planet, and I care deeply about what we as a species are doing to it and all that live here. Climate fiction is a way for me to broaden my knowledge of issues around the world that I may not be experiencing myself. This year, climate fiction has really taken a front seat in my tbr, prize list aside, and I don’t plan to change that any time soon!
I actually have a curated list of climate fiction over on Pagebound that I am continuously updating as I read and discover new books.

Do stories about the climate or the environment make you feel hopeful, anxious, or something else?

Climate fiction stories make me feel all the things. I’ve said this many times, but I’m actually not an emotional person for the most part, unless we are talking about the environment/animals. Reading climate fiction does make me feel more than any other kind of story.

So much of climate fiction is anxiety-inducing, for how can it not be? We are talking about the destruction of our habitable world. I’ve read books that made me cry over the descriptions of habitat destruction, that made my heart pound with fear for characters, that caused me to feel rage against corporations and people who just don’t care.

I’ve also read books that made me smile, shed a tear of happiness, and filled me with hope. Not all climate fiction is scary. Even the books with worrying premises can offer some light. Some climate fiction is pure hope-core too.

I think it is good to take a balanced approach to reading climate fiction, especially if you are reading it for the same reasons that I do. It won’t do you any good to just read the difficult books, and it also won’t help to just read the super hopeful ones. By reading both, or books that touch on both sides, is the best way to approach this sub-genre in my opinion.

Do you think cli-fi can influence how people think about the environment?

Absolutely.

Stories are one of the best ways to get people to understand issues that we face as a people. Fiction allows us to explore unknown things from a place of safety, and it helps us to imagine scenarios we may not even be aware of. A lot of people today are truly scared of what might happen to our world, and by having these kinds of stories, we can not only imagine this future, but explore how we might be able to respond to it too.

There have been some studies that show climate fiction does actually make a difference, but it depends on the people to choose to read it in the first place. At the moment, I feel that those most likely to pick up something branded as climate fiction are already worried about the future. By having climate fiction ideas in ‘regular’ fiction, the messaging will reach more people, which is why I am pleased to see that many books being published today in all different genres include elements of climate issues within their stories. It’s these books that I think will make the biggest difference right now.

It is also more effective when we have a continuous stream of climate-focused narratives, which is why I am particularly excited about the new prize, and I hope it will encourage cli-fi to become more mainstream, and also encourage publishers to pick up more of it.

You Tell Me: Do you read climate fiction?