u/Icy-Sloth3268

I mean like he was alive during colonial times but he I feel like he gave complexities to characters like Shylock and Caliban even though they were like villians, even though Shakespeare gives them like stereotypical qualities. And Othello was a moor and the tragic hero. Like the british were very racist at that time (highlighted by how the other characters treat these characters), so was Shakespeare kind of like progressive for that time?

I read this middle-grade/YA dystopian book as a kid from my primary school library, but I can't remember the title at all.

It was published like from 1960s–2000s. The setting was kind of post-apocalyptic/after climate change in a dry desert type world and I think it was meant to be the near future (like the 2020s to 2050s). I’m Australian, so maybe it was set in Australia, but it also could have been America.

There were two main characters:

A teenage girl who lives on the surface with her parents in an isolated house. Humanity has mostly disappeared because of war, climate change ect but her family survives by being self sufficient. I remember her mum had a big sewing room and made clothes for the family.

A teenage boy who lives underground in a kind of underground civilisation (they were humans who moved underground because of climate change and stff). The underground gov spread propaganda that the surface is toxic and deadly, but in reality its actually pretty safe now. The boy somehow ends up on the surface and is so scared, but the girl’s family helps him.

I don't think it there was romance but if there was it was very minor maybe like a little crush or smth

For some reason I remember that the underground people all wear rough grey clothes and when the boy gets to the surface the girl’s mother gives him a T shirt and jeans and he’s like wow the shirt is so soft and comfortable but the jeans uncomfortable. But later, when he has to go back underground, he's like the jeans aren't that bad.

I don’t remember the exact climax, but I think there was some kind of flood cuz of plumbing or leaky pipes or smth in the underground city. The boy, his friends, the girl and her family help somehow, and eventually the underground city is destroyed or abandoned. The underground people come to the surface and the mum is like we have so much stuff to help them. At the end there's rain and the underground people were so shocked and/or emotional because they're like wow waters falling from the sky.

Wow I wrote so much but any help is appreciated! esp because I feel like it's such a niche book.