Thursday, April 24, 2014

Review: After The End by Amy Plum

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13601681-after-the-end
After The End
(After the End #1)
by Amy Plum
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Publication Date: May 6th 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780062225603
Genre: Young Adult | Dystopian | Sci-Fi
Source: Edelweiss

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She’s searching for answers to her past. They’re hunting her to save their future.

World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there.

At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life.

When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie.

Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she's trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past.

“Exciting and tense! Prepare for the unexpected! You’ll stay up all night with this one!” — Sophie Jordan, NYT Bestselling author of the Firelight series. (Goodreads)
I am a big fan of Amy Plum’s Revenant series, so I couldn’t wait to get started reading After the End! The synopsis for the book is definitely intriguing, and I am happy to say that the book definitely did not disappoint!

The story is about a girl named Juneau, who lives in the Alaskan Wilderness with a select few survivors that managed to escape World War III.  That’s what she’s been told her whole life, anyways. But after returning from a hunting trip and discovering that her whole clan has vanished, it’s up to Juneau to track down the only family that she knows. But what she discovers is that everything she knows, everything that she’s ever been told, is a lie.

Juneau was such a complex character. Not only was she super smart, but she also had some psychic type powers as well that allow her to do some pretty interesting things. Having never lived in modern civilization before, she only knew how to survive in the wilderness, and this shows through her attempts at doing even the smallest things once she does venture into society. But she learns to adapt to things very quickly, which is definitely helpful in the high-tech modern world. I did find her a little hard to connect with at the beginning of the story, but I feel that this is mostly because she lived in such a secluded society. She didn’t really know how to act around people.

When her path crosses with Miles, who is destined to help her find her clan, things really start to get interesting. Miles has a very hard time believing anything that comes out of Juneau’s mouth and Juneau felt much the same way towards Miles, so it was really interesting watching the relationship grow between these two characters. I really didn’t know what to think about Miles in the first half of the book. He had his own agenda for why he was helping Juneau, one that would finally make his father proud, and he seemed set on following through with that agenda through much of the book. However, I did like his determination, and by the end of the book, he had won me over.

I really enjoyed the uniqueness of the storyline for this book. I’ve read a lot of dystopian books, and they all tend to blend together after a while. This book had a bit of a dystopian feeling beginning, but then merged into more of a science fiction about halfway through. Regardless, the book managed to stand out from the crowd with not only its unique plot, but with its characters as well. The end of the book was definitely a cliff-hanger ending, one that left me wondering what in the world is going to happen next. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book.

Overall, this book was definitely not what I expected, and I enjoyed it so much more than I intended to. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book in the series.

5 comments:

  1. I've been seeing this one a lot lately and may have to try it! I just hate cliffhanger endings so much. I have been trying to wait until an entire series is out before starting it. If the books are too spread out - I end up forgetting everything I read. Do you have that issue? And I'm not much of a re-reader. I wish there was a website that gave cliff notes versions of series books that I could do a quick refresher when this happens. Lol.

    bookjunkie54.wordpress.com

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    1. Yes, that does happen to me too if the books are too spread out! Drives me crazy. :) There is a website like what you're looking for, http://recaptains.blogspot.com/, I've used it a few times when I just couldn't remember what happened. :)

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  2. While I wasn't a big fan of her other series, I did enjoy her writing style and this is an intriguing premise. The relationship between the MCs definitely sounds like it's interesting to read about.

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  3. Wow, I am a big fan of Amy Plum. With this, I'm really excited for After the End! I liked how you described the main character. This reminds me a bit of the awesomeness of Legend by Marie Lu's MCs. Thanks for the great review!

    Precious @ Fragments of Life

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  4. wowza i've never heard of this book before, but the synopsis + your review has me sold! kind of reminds me of The Village?

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