Title: In The After
Series: Not yet, but I am hoping so
Author: Demitria Lunetta
Published: To be released June 25, 2013 - Harper Teen
Format: Ebook received from Edelweiss
They hear the most silent of footsteps.
They are faster than anything you've ever seen.
And They won't stop chasing you...until you are dead.
Amy is watching TV when it happens, when the world is attacked by Them. These vile creatures are rapidly devouring mankind. Most of the population is overtaken, but Amy manages to escape—and even rescue “Baby,” a toddler left behind in the chaos. Marooned in Amy’s house, the girls do everything they can to survive—and avoid Them at all costs.
After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope, a colony of survivors living in a former government research compound. While at first the colony seems like a dream with plenty of food, safety, and shelter, New Hope slowly reveals that it is far from ideal. And Amy soon realizes that unless things change, she’ll lose Baby—and much more.
When I got this book from Edelweiss, I thought it was going to be something different than what it actually was. At first I was a bit disappointed to find out it was aliens, but then after a chapter or two I was completely in awe. I thought, “Hell yeah! Alien Apocalypse!” I hadn’t read one yet, so I was completely on board with this by that point.
Amy is fourteen when the aliens come, and she is home alone watching tv – watching it all unfold on the news. Her mother is a scientist and a bit paranoid about their safety, she’s installed an electrified fence around their house. Her father is a bit green and installed solar panels and a rain water capture system. Even though her parents never come home after the aliens attack, they are still taking care of her, it seems. I think this is terribly lucky for Amy, but I’m glad she has the intelligence to just stay home. She lasts a month before she even has to leave.
Every venture out of the house is dangerous. These aliens are wildly attracted to noise and light, and they are brutal and savage in their attacks. Amy adapts so very well, and that is impressive in itself. On one trip out of the house she finds a toddler in the grocery store. That’s the day she meets Baby and takes her home. The girls form an easy alliance, relying on each other for everything. They become family. They even have their own modified version of sign language. This is something I find incredibly amazing and perfect. With their modified version they escape the possibility that others will know what they are saying to each other.
Eventually, after several years, Amy and Baby are picked up by rescuers and taken to a compound. This is where – ta-daaaaa – Amy meets someone from her past. While I was happy for this, and her this person played an integral part in the story, at first it seemed like it was a little “Ohhhh realllllly?” And a bit convenient. But as the story goes on you find out exactly everything you need to know about this person. It’s safe to say at this point there was never a time where I liked that person. They seemed shady to me, and didn’t really seem to care about Amy in the way that I felt she should. Their actions deemed investigation and their reactions did not feel genuine.
Throughout the story Amy meets a slew of other people. The only one I trust is Baby, but I liked some of the others (like Garrett and Kay). New Hope, the compound, is not everything it appears to be. It’s kind of like the sexy psychopath. Sure, everything looks great on the outside, but peak behind the layers and what you find is pure terror. I don’t see the twists and turns that are coming, and I like that a lot. This book definitely was full of surprises and mystery.
The book is set up in three parts. Part one is my favorite, when Baby and Amy are on the outside, fighting and surviving. Part two started to drag a bit for me, mixing present times with flash forward instances. Part three brings everything back to present…which was the flash forward instances from part two. I think I might have liked the time continuity to stay in one straight line, but I can see why it was written this way.
As far as apocalypse books go, I liked this one a lot. There is an instance where I felt it really kind of flipped in a way I didn’t see coming. I felt like the author had a very unique and awesome idea, and then changed her mind about it and made some choices I felt really distracted from the awesomeness and brought it down a few notches. But even with that, it was still really good. And even better, the ending was left open to a sequel. I did like it enough to be on the lookout for book two!
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