The Young World by Chris Weitz

by:  Chris Weitz
published by:  Little Brown Books for Young Readers
publish date:  July 29, 2014

After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he's secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind.

The Young World is probably one of my favorite YA Post-Apocalyptic books I've read in a long time.  That's weirdly specific but there is a ton of YA Post-Ap out there, and I've read a lot of it.

There are a few things that I liked about this book that I thought kind of set it apart.  First, it takes place about 10 years out from the plague that wiped out all the adults and babies.  So while the survivors were young when it happened, they're all now old enough to remember what they lost.  Secondly, I liked how the tribes were formed.  It seemed to me a likely way that kids would congregate.  Lastly, this book was kind of dark and a lot grittier than I had expected and I appreciated that.  It made it seem a lot more realistic.

This is a series and I'm definitely curious to see where it's going to go.  The ending was such a cliffhanger.  Even now thinking back on it, I have so many questions about this book and none of them really make any sense or could be answered now knowing how the book ended.  So, I will have to read the next book in the series.  Looks like that book is coming out in July 2015.