Reviewed by Madeline Robinson
In the all-too-near future climate dystopia, Lucy leaves her claustrophobic hometown for Denver. In the ravaged city, she searches for information about her dead brother, hoping she’ll find answers in the woman he met there. Instead, she finds more questions; Who is The Jumper terrorizing her neighborhood? Why is she so drawn to Helen? Who is she without her brother, and what does she really want?
What is a queer coming of age for Lucy is an acute exploration of grief for Helen, as she grapples with the strange similarities between her dead best friend, Mikey, and the girl who’s moved in across the hall. Helen slowly reveals the events leading up to Mikey’s death to the reader, painting a portrait of the doomed artist who was more than a brother, but less than a lover to her.
The novel’s Colorado setting is handled with so much care that it feels almost like a love letter to the state. From Boulder to Bandimere Speedway, the attention to detail almost made me homesick. This love for the state makes the climate disasters even more heartbreaking, as everything from tornadoes to firestorms threaten to destroy the country.
There Are Reasons for This pulls the reader into a world not far removed from our own, which toes the line between devastatingly realistic and distractingly self-aware. The world outside is harsh and chaotic, and inside everyone is increasingly alone. Hail the size of ping pong balls fall in the middle of a day at the pool, where Lucy is paid to accompany the lonely old woman who lives in the attic of their shared home. Helen is hired to spend time with people, providing emotional intimacy and platonic cuddling through an agency. Through this, she brushes shoulders with the rich, who are similarly lonely, but more successfully able to drown them in drugs at nightclubs.
In a novel about a fractured humanity being slowly replaced by artificial intelligence and robots, the exploration of what it means to love is the beating heart of the story. While Lucy falls headfirst into her infatuation with Helen, the real love story at the center of the novel is between Mikey and Helen. Neither ever expresses romantic interest in each other, but their relationship is built around an obvious tenderness that stems from each learning how to be vulnerable for the first time. Helen becomes softer around Mikey, who for the first time is able to explore his identity outside of where he grew up. Lucy — who was isolated from her family before she left to follow Mikey — finds family in Mrs. McGorvey, the eccentric old woman who lives in the same home. She becomes something of a granddaughter to her and together they are able to grow in the hostile city.