After the End

TITLE: After the End
AUTHOR: Amy Plum
RELEASE DATE: May 2014
PUBLISHER: Harper Collins Publisher
PAGES: 341 pages 
SERIES: Book #1 in the After The End series (book #2: Until the Beginning)
GENRE: Science Fiction
OVERALL RATING: 3/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 8-12

SUMMARY: Juneau lives with her clan in the Alaskan wilderness, some of the last survivors of World War III. Returning from a hunting trip, she finds her entire clan gone, all of the sled dogs shot. Completely alone, she must search beyond the protected borders to find her family. Leaving the boundaries, she discovers the rest of world is unchanged, there never was a World War III, and her entire life has been a lie. 

WHAT I LIKED: I really liked the character, Juneau. She is brave, smart, and fearless. She sets out on her own in a world she doesn't know to find the only family she has left. Once past the boundaries of her home, she accepts all of the new things she comes across (technology, automobiles, pretty much anything created in the last thirty years). 

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: I really did not like the character of Miles. So he gets in trouble at school: drugs, alcohol, cheating, etc. He happens to overhear a phone conversation by his dad and just decides, "Hmm... I have a three day weekend without supervision, why don't I drive 19 hours from LA to Seattle to find a girl that has only been described as long dark hair and a starburst in her eye." Who does that?! Then, of course, after he gets to Seattle, he just happens to run right into her? What are the chances? 

READALIKES: Across the Universe by Beth Revis, The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

BOOK TRAILER: This is a video by the author, Amy Plum, introducing her book. ::SPOILER ALERT::