Review: The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

by:  Christina Henry
published by:  Berkley
publish date:  June 18, 2019

It's not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn't look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.

I've been trying really hard to get back into reading.  It's been so hard!  My attention span just isn't what it used to be.  My new commute is about an hour so that gives me some audiobook time.  The Girl In Red is one of the few books I was able to listen to eagerly from start to finish.  

The Girl in Red is a post apocalyptic dystopian.  An airborne disease wipes out most of the population.  All that's left is quarantine camps and local militia.  Red has spent her life preparing for just such an event.  She's determined to get her and her family from their home to her grandmother's house hundreds of miles away.  I wasn't really sure why the grandmother's home was the ideal place to go, but whatever, I rolled with it.  

I liked this book, but this is also my favorite genre.  I thought it was going to be a fairytale retelling but it wasn't really like that.  Towards the end it really kinda started going in a direction that I thought was a little weird.  That didn't take away from the overall story though.  Would I recommend this book?  Yes, if you like this kinda thing.   If you don't like dystopian, I'd skip it.

Review: The Departing by Daniel Greene

Author: Daniel Greene
Publisher: October 2018
Publication Date:  Rune Publishing LLC

Steele and his followers retreat before the might of Colonel Jackson’s rogue military unit. Jackson is always two-steps ahead in their small apocalyptic war and Steele’s back is against the ropes. He must find a way to outlast his opponent while holding his loose confederation of allies and former enemies together or face certain annihilation.

Back in her small hometown of Hacklebarney, Iowa, Gwen struggles to convince her cautious neighbors to provide refuge for Steele’s haggard forces. If she doesn’t succeed, Jackson’s noose will tighten and her friends and loved ones will be crushed on the banks of the Mississippi River.

The remaining loyal United States military implements a daring plan to hold the nation’s eastern flank against the dead. Operation Homefront hinges on the successful training of the civilian population for war. Colonel Kinnick quickly finds that not everyone wants their help.

The Departing is the fourth book in the End Time Saga.  If you had told me a few months ago that I would have stuck with a post apocalyptic series for this long, I would have called you crazy.  But, here we are at book four and waiting to find out when book five will be coming out.  

Reading one of these books feels like watching an entire season of a TV show.  There is so much packed in each one with multiple perspectives.  This book picks up right after the end of the third book.  So, I can't recommend reading these out of order.  The characters go through a lot of growth over the books and their motivations may not make sense to someone coming into the series later on.  

There is a bit of a lack of undead in this installment. However, as I have said from the beginning, the books are less about the zombies and more about how the apocalypse affects the human condition. No one is safe in the series.  No spoilers, but there was one death that had me choked up.  I will miss that character..  If you like shows like The Walking Dead, then I highly recommend this series.  I really hope there is going to be a fifth book.  I want to see what is next for these characters both good and evil.

Joint Review: The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

Author: Alexandra Oliva
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date of publication: July 2016

Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense.

She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far.

It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it man-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game.

Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes.

But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing.

I actually enjoyed this book more than I thought I would.  It definitely sucked me right in.  It's told through alternating time lines between what happened on the reality show and what happened after the world went to hell.  I liked both parts, but I liked the after parts with Zoo's travels into the world beyond and into insanity the most.  I could understand her struggle to know what was real and what wasn't.  Her descent into madness was kind of frightening yet realistic.

One of the things that I also liked was how the reality show contestants were "labeled". It actually made them easier to keep track of than it would have if they had had real names.  I had read that some people didn't like that, but I found it helpful.  My only complaint was the ending.  I thought it was a bit abrupt and would have liked more of a resolution.  I do recommend this one.  It was unique idea and one worth reading.

I also really enjoyed this book.  I thought the premise was really interesting and one of a kind.  The fact that you couldn't really tell what was real or not was kind of fun.  Zoo was the narrator so as the reader we could only go on what she thought or felt.  

I'm surprised that people would be complaining about the labeling of the contestants.  That made it so much easier to keep everyone straight.  They were all kind of stereotypical of their "names".  Plus, that's pretty much what they do in real reality shows.  

I've been telling anyone that would listen about this book, so I definitely recommend this book!

The Prey by Thomas Isbell

by:  Thomas Isbell
published by:  HarperTeen
publish date:  January 20, 2016

After the Omega (the end of the end), 16 year old guys known as LTs discover their overseers are raising them not to be soldiers (lieutenants) as promised, but to be sold as bait because of their Less Than status and hunted for sport. They escape and join forces with a girls’ camp, the Sisters, who have been imprisoned and experimented on for the "good of the Republic," by a government eager to use twins in their dark research. In their plight for freedom, these heroes must find the best in themselves to fight against the worst in their enemies.

I've had this book on my To Read list for quite awhile.  It finally hit my library's audiobooks and I went ahead and snapped it up.  So, of course, this is the start to a trilogy.  It's YA, of course it is...will this trend EVER STOP??  Anyway...

So, there's been some kind of "event", nuclear in nature, because many of the kids have birth defects.  They are forced to live in camps.  The camps are ranked based on the abilities of the kids.  The kids that are living in Camps Freedom/Liberty are being used for bait and medical experiments.  These are the kids that have birth defects, the orphans, the children of political dissidents, and twins.   Eventually, they figure out what their fate is and decide to escape.   However, their escape is far more difficult than expected in a post-apocalyptic landscape.  

I ended up quite liking this book.  I really enjoyed the characters.  I also really liked the fact that even though there was chemistry between the two main characters, and you knew they would end up together eventually, there was no insta-love.  While, there was a bit of jealousy between two boys, it wasn't really a love triangle either.  It was kinda like normal teenage stuff.    

I would recommend this one for the post-apocalyptic fans and the action/adventure readers.  

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

by:  M. R. Carey
published by:  Orbit
publish date:   June 19, 2014

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad. 

From that description, I really didn't know what to expect.  I thought it was going to be some kind of horror novel.  Maybe like a creepy kid psychological thriller.  Nope.  Post-apocalyptic zombie book.  Really?  Really.

I was a little bit aggravated that the book ended up being that kind...yet again.  Seriously, we're not done with that yet?  I really like those kinds of books and I'm burnt out on them, I felt a little betrayed to be blindsided with one.  Melanie is a captured zombie that has  the ability to learn, but she's elite among these types of zombies, she's a genius.  That makes her the focus of the work being done at the military base they're all staying at.  Of course, things go wrong and their happy haven is at risk.  

Begrudgingly, I ended up liking this book.  It was a good storyline and the characters were likable in the end.  This book did have a unique idea for how the zombie virus was spread and in the end Melanie's actions  with the zombie virus was surprising.  I would recommend this book for people that enjoy these types of books

Positive by David Wellington

by:  David Wellington
published by:  Harper Voyager
publish date:  April 21, 2015

Years after a plague killed 99 percent of the population, turning them into infectious zombies, Finnegan and his family live in a barricaded New York City. But Finn's sheltered life fractures when his unsuspecting mother falls sick with the zombie disease—latent inside her since before her son's birth.

Finn, too, can be infected. If he remains healthy for the last two years of the potential incubation period, he'll be cleared. Until then, he must be moved to a special facility for positives, segregated to keep the healthy population safe.

Tattooed with a plus sign on his hand that marks him as a positive, Finn is exiled from the city. But when marauders kill the escort sent to transport him, Finn must learn how to survive alone in an eerie, disintegrated landscape. And though the zombies are everywhere, Finn discovers that the real danger is his fellow humans. 

This book takes place about 20 or so years after a zombie apocalypse.  The human population is slowly starting to develop back into areas of civilization with governing bodies and rules.  Finn lives in one of these areas.  When it is determined he might possibly have the zombie virus, he is sent away to live in a special camp for Positives.  However, he never makes contact with his escort and has to set out to find the camp on his own.  He doesn't understand that he must travel through many states to get to where he is going, he was born after the plague and his concept of how huge the United States is distorted by lack of education.

When Finn sets out from New York City, he thinks he's going out on a short hike to Ohio.  It obviously take him a very long time.  He has to learn what life is like outside his protected life in New York City.  This is a long journey for him and it takes him a long time to get to the camp.  Once he gets to the camp it's nothing like he expected.

This was a pretty good book overall.  Even though I'm kind of burnt out of zombies and apocalypses, this book held my interest very well.  That is to say, it held my interest for about 3/4 of the book.  Then it just got way too long.  I don't mind a long book, but this one took forever to get through and I kind of skipped and skimmed my way through the last little bit just to see how it ended.  It could have done with some heavy editing to get it down some.  

I would recommend this book to the zombie lovers, the post-ap lovers.  It was well written and and a good addition to the genre.

The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy

by:  Benjamin Percy
published by:  Grand Central Publishing
publish date:  April 14, 2015

A post-apocalyptic re-imagining of the Lewis and Clark saga, a super flu and nuclear fallout have made a husk of the world we know. A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary-the remains of St. Louis-a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders. 

Then a rider comes from the wasteland beyond its walls. She reports on the outside world: west of the Cascades, rain falls, crops grow, civilization thrives. But there is danger too: the rising power of an army that pillages and enslaves every community they happen upon. 

Against the wishes of the Sanctuary, a small group sets out in secrecy. Led by Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark, they hope to expand their infant nation, and to reunite the States. But the Sanctuary will not allow them to escape without a fight.

I liked this book for the most part.  But I like these types of book in general.   It was a post apocalyptic journey across the country type book and there are a bunch of them.  The Dead Lands ranked pretty high in the group.

In this book a super flu has wiped out the country.  Nuclear bombs were used to stop the spread of the flu so the landscape and survivors are dealing with the after effects of radiation.  The country is a horrible, unrecognizable place.  The survivors in St. Louis live in the Sanctuary under tight rule and with little water.  A rider from Northwest comes promising rain and plenty of food, but the small group that goes with her go against the wishes of the Sanctuary.  They struggle against harsh deserts and armies of survivors that are looking for slaves.  

This was a well written book.  It was a good story.  It was just familiar I guess.  There are so many book out there like this one.  Add vampires or zombies and you'll be like "OMG this book is just like..."  I guess I was a little disappointed by that aspect, but what else can possibly be added to this sort of genre?  Anyway, if you like this kind of book, you'll like it.

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.

The 100 by Kass Morgan

by:   Kass Morgan
published by:  Little Brown Books for Young Readers
publish date:  September 3, 2013

In the future, humans live in city-like spaceships orbiting far above Earth's toxic atmosphere. No one knows when, or even if, the long-abandoned planet will be habitable again. But faced with dwindling resources and a growing populace, government leaders know they must reclaim their homeland... before it's too late.  Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents are being sent on a high-stakes mission to recolonize Earth.

It's been 300 years since anyone has been to Earth.  Humans have been living in spaceships, but the time has come to risk the trip back down to the planet.  The government decides to use a group of 100 juvenile prisoners as guinea pigs.  The 100 face threats they could never have imagined.   Not from the planet that turns out to be beautiful, but from within.

I really liked the story, however, I didn't like they way it was told.  The 100 was told in a non-linear format.  The chronology was all over the place.  It was hard to keep track of the story at times.  I also didn't care for the fact that these kids were like 17 years old and were acting far beyond their years.  However, who's to say how 17 year olds 300 years in the future are going to act right?  I did like the idea of repopulating the Earth.  I liked the idea that the Earth was a beautiful place and not the toxic waste filled dump that they all thought it was for hundreds of years.  

This book will appeal to the sci-fi, dystopian, post apocalyptic readers.  It's got a little bit of everything in there.   It's a good beach read for those of us that like our reading a little on the dark side.

Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston

by:  Melissa de la Cruz  and Michael Johnston
published by:  Putnam Juvenile
publish date:  September 17, 2013

Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice. Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature—freezing. But some things never change. The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.  At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out. Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called “the Blue.” They say it’s a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise. More importantly, it’s a place where Nat won’t be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.

This was one of those books that I kept going back and forth about.  For about the first 15-20 mins or so I wasn't too sure I was going to be into this book, but I stuck with it and got into it.  I decided I really like it.  The idea of the whole world being a frozen wasteland was intriguing.  I could get behind all the adjustments everyone had to make to survive the cold.  All those things were pretty cool.  

However, the parts that I didn't like were the magical parts.  Nat herself had magical powers, they encountered magical creatures, "the Blue" was supposed to be a magical place.  I felt like the whole book was on a nice high level, but then when the magical elements were brought in, it plummeted the book down into an amatuerish??/immaturish?? level.   It seemed like there were two different books struggling to be one book.  This might be because there were two authors.  Usually it works, but maybe this time it doesn't.  

It could just be me, I'm not a big fantasy reader.   There wasn't anything racy in this book so it would be safe for all YA readers.

Reboot by Amy Tintera

by:  Amy Tintera
published by:  HarperTeen
publish date:  May 7, 2013

Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Kari had this book as one of her DNF books for December.  However, I was still interested in this book and gave it a go.  I'm glad I did because I liked this book.  One of Kari's issue with this book was Number/Name thing.  The Reboots are often called by their number, but I didn't find it too hard to keep them straight.

The story is about Wren 178.  The longer a reboot is out the more deadly they are when they come back.  So Wren is the toughest of the tough.  Her job is to train new recruits and she always chooses new recruits with the highest numbers until Callum 22 shows up and convinces her to become his trainer.  Callum is hopeless and Wren feels like a failure for the first time in her Reboot life.  When Callum's life is on the line and Wren sees a way out of their Reboot lives, she takes it.

I found this book to be exciting and different than most YAs.  It was a little sci-fi, it was a little post-apocalyptic, it was a little dystopian, but it never really went too overboard on any of those genres.  It was an age appropriate YA as well.  I definitely recommend this one.

The Wall by Marlene Haushofer

by:  Marlene Haushofer (english translation Shaun Whiteside)
published by:  Cleis Press
publish date:  1999 (originally 1962)

First published to acclaim in Germany, The Wall chronicles the life of the last surviving human on earth, an ordinary middle-aged woman who awakens one morning to find that everyone else has vanished. Assuming her isolation to be the result of a military experiment gone awry, she begins the terrifying work of survival and self-renewal.

The main character of the book is a middle aged woman alone in a hunting lodge.  The reader never learns her name.  She awakes to find that she is alone, a dog named Lynx is her only companion when she finds that she is cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible barrier she calls The Wall.  On the other side of The Wall she discovers that humans have turned to stone.  From the safety of her side of The Wall, she starts to build a life for herself.  

This book is remarkably similar to Stephen King's Under the Dome, however, there's no trying to get out or in and there's not much drama.  It made me wonder if that's where he got the idea for Under the Dome.  Unlike UTD, The Wall is simply an accounting of one woman's struggle to survive.  I was really amazed at how 50 years later this book could stand up next to any other dystopian being published today and it would be just as good.

Fans of dystopian or post-apocalyptic, adult or YA would probably enjoy this book.   The audiobook was excellent, I would definitely recommend it if you're into that.  I've seen a lot of criticism about this book being boring and I could understand that, but for me, I guess I got really into.  I adored it.  Whenever she was happy, I was happy, whenever she was sad, I was really sad.  I guess it depends how much you can identify with the main character.  

Ashfall Trilogy by Mike Mullin

I got a copy at Ashfall at the ALA Convention in New Orleans in 2011.  My daughter and I met Mike Mullin and I have to say he's a terrific guy.  He spent time talking with my daughter talking about her softball team, because she had just come from a tournament and he signed her copy of the book especially for her.  It was really nice.

I kept putting off reading the book until just recently and now I'm a little mad at myself for taking so long.  It was an awesome book.  Very well written and intensely engaging.  I read the whole thing in a day and a half.  I couldn't put it down.

On the day the Yellowstone caldera erupts Alex is home alone for the weekend while his family goes to visit his uncle.  He's alone when his house catches on fire and goes to a neighbor's house to ride out the first couple of days.  Things get bad FAST.   He decides he has to go find his family even if he has to walk the entire way. 

Ashfall tells the story of his journey to his uncle's house and the people he meets along the way.  He meets Darla a girl who saves his life.  She decides to go with him when she has no reason to stay in her home any longer.

When I finished Ashfall I knew I needed to find the second book stat!  I did and it was just as good.  The second book Ashen Winter picks up with Alex and Darla at the Uncle's house.  Alex's parents have set out for home looking for Alex so he decides that he must back track and find them and bring them back to the relative calm of his Uncle's farm.

Ashen Winter was quite good, not as good as Ashfall in my opinion, but second books in a trilogy are rarely as good as the first.  I didn't feel quite as connected to the characters because Darla wasn't as present in Ashen Winter and Alex was like a crazy person trying to find her.  Also, when Alex finds his parents, they are really creepy in my opinion.  I don't know if that was the intent, but it seemed like they went way off the deep end.  The book is definitely worth the read to keep up with the series and keep people watching shows like Doomsday Preppers.

Looks like the third book Sunrise is due to come out some time in 2014.  That's a bit of a bummer.  I don't like having to wait so long to tie up a story!

Audiobook: One Second After by William Forstchen

by:  William Forstchen
published by:  Forge Books
publish date:  March 17, 2009

A story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

The book tells the story of retired army Colonel John Matherson.  He's widowed and living with his two daughters in a small town in North Carolina where he teaches military history at the local college.  Before the EMP his biggest problems are dealing with his youngest daughter's diabetes and his oldest daughter dating.

When the EMP hits their lives turn upside down.  He has to figure out how to get his daughter the medicine she will need.  How to take care of his father in law with terminal cancer?  How is he going to feed his daughters and mother in law?  Add to the fact that the entire town is looking to him for answers.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book.  It was pretty well done.  Not my favorite, but decent.  I read a lot of pretty harsh reviews as to the grammatical errors in this book, as I listened to the audiobook, it's pretty hard to pick up on those kinds of things.  Also, there were some comments about the structure of the book.  How a lot of the action took place "off screen", through recollection, not direct observance.  I think it kind of made sense in a way.  The main character wasn't a 20 something soldier.  He was an older man that had to be out of the way in order to help run the town.  It made sense to learn things second hand.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good book.  It got a little bit preachy at times.  It was enlightening though.  With the popularity of shows like Doomsday Preppers I think this book will probably see a resurgence in interest.

Review: The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

by:  S.A. Bodeen
published by: Feiwal and Friends
publish date: April 2008

Eli and his family have lived in the underground Compound for six years. The world they knew is gone, and they've become accustomed to their new life. Accustomed, but not happy.

Eli's father is a computer and business genius.  This has made him billions of dollars.  He built a sprawling underground complex for his family to live in when a nuclear attack happens, because he feels one is imminent.  When Eli is 6 years old it seems like his father's predictions have come true.  There's a huge explosion when they were on vacation.  The family makes it to the bunker in the allotted 45 minutes only to find that Eli's twin brother and his grandmother didn't make it into the bunker before the door was sealed.  Once the door is sealed it won't open for 15 years.

6 years in the food situation has gotten dire, his dad has gotten bizarre and Eli thinks it's time to open the bunker and see what's going on in the outside world.  However, overriding the system is going to be far harder than he imagines.

I had this book on my shelf for a couple of years.  I finally picked it up after watching an episode of Doomsday Preppers.  The Compound was a really fascinating read.  I read it cover to cover in just a couple of hours.  I will say that it definitely put me off wanting to build any kind of underground bunker.

While I was kinda wishy-washy on my feelings about The Raft, also by SA Bodeen, that came out earlier this year, I thought this book was pretty solid.  The writing was solid, the pacing was good.  There were some things that I wasn't totally clear on, but that's probably a good thing.  It's probably a better left up to the imagination kinda thing.  So, I would definitely recommend this one to the YA Doomsday crowd out there.  I think most would like it.

The Last Survivors Trilogy by Susan Beth Pfeffer

If you haven't read this YA Post-Apocalyptic trilogy by Susan Beth  Pfeffer, you should.  The books are a few years old now, but there's nothing in them that makes them dated. 

The first book in the trilogy is Life As We Knew It (2006, Harcourt Children's).  It tells the story of teenager Miranda living with her single mother and two brothers in Pennsylvania.  A meteor hits the moon knockings it's orbit closer to earth.  This sets off a series of events that are catastrophic.  Tsunamis wipe out coastal cities, earthquakes shake the entire planet and volcanoes long dormant start to erupt.  All of this seismic activity brings about major climactic change.  Life As We Knew It chronicles Miranda's daily struggle to survive when everyone around her is dying.

The Dead and the Gone (2008, Harcourt Children's) is the second book in the trilogy.  Instead of continuing Miranda's story, it tells the story of Alex Morales, living in New York city with his two sisters.  His father was in Puerto Rico the day of the meteor strike and his mother was at work and never heard from again.  As the oldest Alex has to make tough decisions to take care of his two sisters.  Alex lived in an apartment building that his father was the manager of.  His unwillingness to break into other apartments annoyed me.  I understood that he was proud and didn't want to damage his father's building, but seriously, I would have been ripping open walls if the doors couldn't be broken down.  That aside, I liked this contrast of surviving in the city versus Miranda's suburban story.

The third book, This World We Live In (2010, Harcourt Children's) ties the two stories together.  In the first book Miranda's father stops by to tell his children that he is going to try to go out west with his new wife.  The third book has Miranda's father coming back with Alex and one of his sisters and another traveling companion that they met while on the road.  They met Alex when he had gone looking for other relatives for his sister to stay with while he looked for work.  Finding neither, Alex decided to stick with Miranda's dad while he traveled back to the Northeast.   While Miranda is happy to have her father back, it puts a strain on everyone because the food is scarce and the weather is getting worse.  This book was really emotional.  Pfeffer really put the screws to her characters in this one.

I've been calling this a trilogy, but I decided to do a little poking around about this series.  Turns out, there might be a book 4.  Shade of the Moon is tentatively scheduled for release in the fall of 2013.  I promise I'll be all over that when it comes out.