HOLLER

When citizens fought the construction of a pipeline in Appalachia.

Growing up in coastal Maine, Nalamalapu felt an intense pull to do good. “My mom and her dad,” the author writes, “encouraged me to learn about why injustice happens and how to fix it.” This drive led the child of South Asian American immigrants to the climate justice movement, which, in 2021, had them joining the effort to block the construction of a proposed mountain valley gas pipeline in Appalachia. By the time Nalamalapu became a part of the movement, local citizens had spent a decade trying to halt its construction. The author of this graphic memoir profiles six activists whose work preceded her involvement in the movement, including Indigenous seed keeper Desirée Shelley, nurse Karolyn Givens, photographer Paula Mann, single mother Crystal Mello, and high school science teacher Becky Crabtree. Her science class, Crabtree says, “is my quiet resistance to those people who put money above everything.” In the end, Nalamalapu and their peers lose the fight, and the sight of the pipeline scarring her beloved mountains puts the author into a depression that leaves them bedridden for weeks. The author writes, “It was impossible to see a path forward. And yet…what choice did I have? To give up on the soft mountain breeze and warm, worn hands of a place and people who have come to define a part of me?” Full of heart, this beautifully illustrated book tells a devastating story.

A poignant portrait of an Appalachian environmental movement.