Author: Amy Plum
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Paranormal Fantasy
Release Date: 6 May, 2014
Source: HarperTeen via Edelweiss
Goodreads | The Reading Room
She’s searching for answers to her past. They’re hunting her to save their future.Review by Nara
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.
What do I think about the plot? Meh.
What do I think about the characters? Meh.
What do I think about the romance? Meh.
What do I think about the writing? Meh.
What do I think of the book overall? Yep, you guessed it. Meh.
After the End is honestly just a very mediocre book. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to read such a book, but I found that there weren't really any engaging aspects. The actual story seems really unrealistic and convenient, the romance was pretty crappy and despite there being two POV characters, the chapters were annoyingly short.
Everything was ridiculously convenient. For example, at the start of the book, love interest Miles is attempting to find Juneau in Seattle. Lo and behold, just as he's about to give up on the search, there she is. Right in front of him. WTF. Later on, Juneau gets a series of hints about where she has to go to find the rest of her clan, and she works out these clues so easily. One person coincidentally mentions a place and Juneau goes "ah, of course! It's there!" Miles throws a book of maps down on the floor and it coincidentally opens to the page which has the town Juneau needs to go to. One look at it, and she's like "of course!" YEAH NO.
ALSO WHY THE EFF ARE THE CHAPTERS SO SHORT. I'm okay with short chapters if there's only one point of view. I am NOT okay with short chapters if there's switching between multiple points of view. Dammit, I want to spend adequate time with each character before changing to the other. Some chapters were literally half a page long. THAT IS NOT OKAY. Another issue I had with the dual POV: the narrative voices sounded exactly the same. WHY?!
Some positives that I'm not really going to expand on because there's not really anything to expand on
- Juneau's link with the "Yara" i.e. the paranormal fantasy aspect of the novel was quite well done, although I'm not particularly convinced about the "scientific" background of the origins of her powers
- The premise is pretty awesome- how Juneau thinks that she lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but actually no. There has been no WWIII.
- *struggletown trying to think of more positives*
Okay, clearly, this is a book that I didn't particularly enjoy. Probably won't even be reading the sequel because I'm rather uninterested in the characters and the story.
In summary: meh.
It was okay
Ratings
Overall: 5/10
Plot: 2/5
Writing: 3/5
Romance: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 4/5
