ARC REVIEW: After the End by Amy Plum

After the End by Amy Plum

(After the End #1)

Genre: YA Fantasy

Release date: May 6th 2014

Synopsis:

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.

My Juneau and Miles:

  * 3 STARS * Review:

17-years old gifted girl hiding from aftermaths of nuclear war and determined to do anything to protect her clan, suddenly finds out that her whole life was a fabricated lie. A spoiled boy who is used to always geetting his way and now he wants to prove himself to his dad. Can these two fundamentally different people help each other to reach their goals?

I liked that main protagonists were from completely different backgrounds. Once they were together (not in romantic kind of way), story caught spark and got interesting. It was fun watching nature-oriented girl who has no idea about modern world interact with spoiled "blissfully ignorant" rich boy. Paired together, Juneau and Miles were great and entertaining! But as individual characters, they were not strong or interesting enough. And that was exactly my biggest problem with this book. I lacked real connection with narrators (dual POV) and their character growth felt unnatural and too abrupt most of the time.

Moreover, I was slightly overwhelmed with all those new information and Juneau's skills coming out of nowhere through out the whole book. There were no hints and new revelations were popping out of nowhere when it was needed and it felt too convenient... It seemed like author made things up along the way without thinking it through before and it just didn't work for me.

As you can see, I am a little bit torn when it comes to this book. It wasn't bad, I definitely don't regret reading it because I liked some of the original ideas presented in this book. But I never loved it and missed a good angst since most of the problems were resolved pretty quickly and easily. This series definitely has some potential and I will probably check next book when it comes out to see where is author taking this story.