After the End

by Amy Plum

Series: Book #1 After the End Series
ISBN: 9780062225603
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: May 6th 2014
Number of Pages: 322

Source: Local Library

Goodreads Summary: 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 Rating:  

I loved this book! I went in with an idea of what this was going to be about and the book flipped me upside down! We start out thinking this is a dystopian world (and to Juneau, it kinda of is..) but BAMN - just kidding, the world is still turning without you and your group of "survivors."

The story is told through two perspectives - Juneau (one of the "survivors of WWIII" living out in the Alaskan wilderness) and Miles (the son of the CEO of Blackwell Pharmaceutical, who just got kicked out of his HS). This way of narrative really works for me, as we have two story-lines running parallel to each other and when they do meet, we get each person's thoughts.

Juneau seems kooky to Miles because of what he calls "magic." Juneau has grown up with the Yara (the life force that runs through everything) and has been training to take over her clan as kind of the head spiritual adviser, so this is all natural to her.

"The concept behind Reading is that everything in nature is alive in a certain fashion. So everything has its own version of what it sees or experiences: either past memories, what is happening in the present, or, since we think time is flexible, a 'memory' of what will have happened in the future. Every living thing is connected through the Yara. So Reading is just reaching out to the right element in nature that can give you the information you want to know." After the End, 220

These two meet up because Juneau's clan disappears on her (kidnapped of course) and it looks like Mile's father is the one behind it all. But things aren't what they seem, as Juneau's mentor, Whit, looks to have joined the other side and the fact that there are two sets of people chasing her (Miles himself could be a third).


I loved the relationship between Juneau and Miles and the way it developed throughout the book. Another aspect of this book that I liked was science and "magic." The whole intrigue surround Juneau and her clan and what could possibly make her valuable is well-written. The questions you think of are pretty much answered in the book, but we do come to a shocking ending - where we must now wait for the next installment in what looks like a series.

This book is full of adventure, mystery & intrigue, science fiction and the occult, and a little tinny bit of romance thrown in for good measure. Highly recommend :)

*UDPATE* - Book #2, Until the Beginning is due out May 2015!!