It Could Happen Here CZM Book Club: Everything that Isn't Winter, by Margaret Killjoy, Part One
Dec 21, 2025
Margaret dives into her own gripping narrative of post-apocalyptic love and chaos. The story kicks off at a vibrant Beltane festival, but soon shifts to a frantic battle against arson at the tea fields. As tensions rise, emotional distance with a character named Khalil adds depth to the turmoil. Throughout their forest journey, confrontations challenge survival instincts, highlighting vulnerability. A suspenseful encounter ends in violence, leading to a heart-pounding preparation for an impending attack, while complicated feelings of love and anxiety unfold.
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Beltane Festival And Liminal Tension
- Margaret Kiljoy reads her own short story “Everything That Isn't Winter,” set at a Beltane festival in a post-apocalyptic tea-growing commune.
- The narrator watches a lover dance, drinks mushroom-oolong tea, and senses liminality before a fire breaks out in the fields.
Arson Turns Celebration To Crisis
- A sudden fire rips through the tea fields, described with mythic imagery like Yggdrasil and Atlas to show its scope.
- The narrator runs for her rifle and searches the forest, signaling suspected arson and immediate danger to the commune.
Communal Economy And Strategic Geography
- The in-between lodge is a mutual-aid hub of interdependent communities guarding a strategic pass and trading tea.
- Collective life blends agriculture, defense, and commerce in the New World’s fragile political map.