Title: After the End
Author: Amy Plum
Series: After the End #1
Genre: YA Dystopian, Magic elements
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: May 6th 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: eARC provided from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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"I have no idea what is truth and what is fiction. I'm all I've got now. I can't trust anyone."

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.


I will be honest here and say that I had no idea what this book was about before I started reading. I wanted to read this book for the sole purpose to read something else by Amy Plum because I loved her Revenants series so much. So when I started to read I loved that I actually had no idea what was happening, but sadly I did not enjoy this book as much as I have her others.

I loved the world that Amy created for these characters. If you read any of her other books you know that she is a superstar when it comes to creating different worlds from our own. But the think I loved most about this world was that it wasn't exactly real. Juneau has lived with her Clan all her life, she has been secluded and lived in the wilderness and told that World War 3 occurred and destroyed everything. But the thing is, World War 3 never actually happened. Juneau was lied to and it is only when she meets Miles does she understand that the world around her is not what she was taught.

I loved that this book had 2 POVs because Juneau and Miles were so different and lived i different worlds therefore we got two very different views on the same thing. We watch Juneau learn the ways of the world and try to come to terms with the lie she was told, and we watch Miles try and determine who this weird girl is and what her story was. And during the book we are trying to figure out where Juneau's Clan was because they were abducted and taken somewhere, and it was that mystery that I liked the most. There was also a sprinkling of paranormal in this book that I a felt was a little out of place. I thought it was intriguing at the beginning but honestly as the book wore on, I started to question its validity.

I had a few issues with this book as well. The characters themselves were great to read but my only issue was that I did not really connect with either of them. I felt very disconnected and I think that had something to do with the chapter length, the chapters were quite short especially Miles' part, and I think if we were given more times to get to know him in his own voice I might have connected more. This connection proved difficult when the love story started to take shape. I am sucker for a good love story but for me, this one felt forced at times and really did not make any sense. I think it would have made a bigger impact if the romance was slow building and maybe did not emerge until book 2.

Overall I enjoyed this book, I read it quite fast and the writing style was just as great as her other series. But I think I needed more time to get to know the character and to connect with them. I wanted more chemistry between Mile and Juneau because I felt like their connection would have made the book even better.