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aprilb_reads's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Abandonment
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail
alexbirdreads's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
hickorynut's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
I read this in one sitting, finding that my rating was fluctuating up and down as I read. We're introduced to an immature young teen, Maddie, who is left behind by a sudden evacuation of every person in her town and surrounding towns.
The main issue I had with the plot was the idea that every single human but her had been evacuated within a 12 hour period, as logistically, in our modern world, that is simply not possible. It was hard to believe that Maddie only ever encountered out-of-town looters once, and that there were never any signs of other people. I also expected that while she would lose access to most technology within her immediate reach, she would still encounter some external signs of life like aircrafts, drones, etc.
Having her spend a full four years with only one looter encounter and no other signs of a modern human world felt like it was leading to her understanding of a major apocalyptic event in which she would have her fears confirmed that everyone was dead. But instead she is abruptly rescued by the only helicopter she has seen in those four years, that happened to be carrying her parents. It would have felt far more tense and then relieving if Maddie had had more encounters with signs of human life. Having her parents suddenly show up to rescue her, and having the only explanation for their evacuation being "a massive land grab, unprecedented fraud, elections, new government, and conditions returning to normal" felt so abrupt and confusing after four years of no hope of a continued modern society.
Overall I appreciated the journey of survival through complete isolation, so similar to the Island of Blue Dolphins as was often referenced in these pages. At times it felt like there was not enough focus on the emotional impact of her surroundings and adapted life, but it's balanced by the knowledge that survival is often so physically taxing there is no energy left for emotional processing. It felt like the animal violence by the looters, intended to make them seem more dangerous, was supposed to traumatize Maddie but instead was relayed without emotion and ended up feeling unnecessary.
The conclusion was just very disappointing. It did not make sense for the level of technology in the modern world, the timeline of evacuation, the unattended natural disasters, and the complete isolation of four years of surviving on her own. It was sort of a best-odds type happy ending which felt misaligned with the more complex and dark parts of Maddie's experience.
As someone struggling with chronic loneliness and grief, there were some passages that stuck with me.
"Staying alive isnt easy but it's a heck of a lot easier than keeping my heart hopefully and my mind focused on what's real."
"Loneliness and insanity are twin houseguests and it's hard to entertain one without inviting the other in as well."
"It's not that I don't grieve the loss of my family or feel the acute emptiness of being so alone. It's just that my grief and loneliness are no longer burdened by the hope that things will change."
"My own story just keeps unraveling with a depressing predictability."
The main issue I had with the plot was the idea that every single human but her had been evacuated within a 12 hour period, as logistically, in our modern world, that is simply not possible. It was hard to believe that Maddie only ever encountered out-of-town looters once, and that there were never any signs of other people. I also expected that while she would lose access to most technology within her immediate reach, she would still encounter some external signs of life like aircrafts, drones, etc.
Having her spend a full four years with only one looter encounter and no other signs of a modern human world felt like it was leading to her understanding of a major apocalyptic event in which she would have her fears confirmed that everyone was dead. But instead she is abruptly rescued by the only helicopter she has seen in those four years, that happened to be carrying her parents. It would have felt far more tense and then relieving if Maddie had had more encounters with signs of human life. Having her parents suddenly show up to rescue her, and having the only explanation for their evacuation being "a massive land grab, unprecedented fraud, elections, new government, and conditions returning to normal" felt so abrupt and confusing after four years of no hope of a continued modern society.
Overall I appreciated the journey of survival through complete isolation, so similar to the Island of Blue Dolphins as was often referenced in these pages. At times it felt like there was not enough focus on the emotional impact of her surroundings and adapted life, but it's balanced by the knowledge that survival is often so physically taxing there is no energy left for emotional processing. It felt like the animal violence by the looters, intended to make them seem more dangerous, was supposed to traumatize Maddie but instead was relayed without emotion and ended up feeling unnecessary.
The conclusion was just very disappointing. It did not make sense for the level of technology in the modern world, the timeline of evacuation, the unattended natural disasters, and the complete isolation of four years of surviving on her own. It was sort of a best-odds type happy ending which felt misaligned with the more complex and dark parts of Maddie's experience.
As someone struggling with chronic loneliness and grief, there were some passages that stuck with me.
"Staying alive isnt easy but it's a heck of a lot easier than keeping my heart hopefully and my mind focused on what's real."
"Loneliness and insanity are twin houseguests and it's hard to entertain one without inviting the other in as well."
"It's not that I don't grieve the loss of my family or feel the acute emptiness of being so alone. It's just that my grief and loneliness are no longer burdened by the hope that things will change."
"My own story just keeps unraveling with a depressing predictability."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Abandonment and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism
bibliomich's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
It's been a long, long time since I gave a book a two-star rating. I want to establish this before writing my review, because I want everyone reading this to understand that I don't assign ratings this low very often (or without a lot of thought before doing so).
Generally when I give a book a low rating, I say that the book just "wasn't for me." But this book...I genuinely regret bringing this book to my students' attention (prior to reading it). There are *so many* better books that I think students would benefit from reading. This book wasn't for me. But I don't really want to give this book to anyone, especially children.
What I found frustrating (where do I even begin):
- Content warning: unnecessary, graphic animal abuse. This added nothing to the story and was gratuitous and upsetting, particularly in a book meant for middle grade readers.
- The ending. Towards the end of the book, the narrator reflects on her frustrations with fiction. She explains, "I'm losing patience with fiction. / The challenges and triumphs of / fictional characters only make me / feel worse about myself. / Novels end nicely and neatly / with all obstacles overcome. / Loose ends tied up." AND THEN THIS AUTHOR DOES EXACTLY THAT. And she does it in the span of a few pages. The resolution is so outrageously anticlimactic and tied up SO neatly. I don't even know what to say.
- The protagonist. I found the protagonist (and narrator) to be fairly unlikeable, and not in the fun "unlikeable protagonist" way where they experience growth over the course of the book. We see so little growth in Maddie throughout this book, and considering the book is 401 pages that basically follow this one character, that's shocking.
- The pacing. The pacing was all over the place. The author skips huge chunks of time, but doesn't really bother to explain how anything has changed in those several months that she skips. Sometimes there will be long, boring stretches of nothingness, followed by a random, extremely "tense" event that the protagonist has to survive. The ups and downs of the pacing made these events feel totally unrealistic, like they were thrown in specifically to give the protagonist an obstacle to overcome.
- Lack of research? This book seemed to suffer from a lack of research. I really wish the author had researched, at the very least, the effects of isolation on mental health and allowed that to inform her writing. Simply saying repeatedly that the protagonist is "lonely" doesn't help the reader feel that loneliness.
- Some questionable word choices. At the beginning of the book, Maddie introduces her younger siblings and explains, "Plus the fact that James [her little brother] is deaf / makes me feel awkward. / Even after all this time. / I know it's not cool / to say that, but there it is. / I said it anyway." Umm...what? So the author is choosing to include this example of casual ableism that she then never returns to?? She never reflects on this, never grows from it. The fact that the author chose to include this detail and Maddie's ableist discomfort (for no apparent reason at all) is so icky to me.
- Oh, and another questionable word choice. So at no point in the book does Maddie know what the "threat" to her safety actually is. Towards the end of the book, she makes an assumption (based on absolutely no previously established information): "If [these helicopters] aren't looters / this could mean rescue. / This could be the chance / I've been waiting for / all these lonely months / and years. / But they could also be invaders / from another country. / The imminent threat? / Maybe they are the reason for the whole evacuation / in the first place." The implicit xenophobia in this stanza--the fact that the narrator automatically assumes that a threat is coming "from another country" is, once again, a seriously unfortunate choice on the part of the author. Had she taken the time to establish what the threat was, or given some reason for Maddie to believe that it was a foreign threat, then...okay, I guess? But the fact that she jumps straight to that conclusion is irritating.
I'm sure I could say more things, but I'm tired of ranting. After writing all of this, I kind of want to knock another star off my rating, but I finished the book, so I guess it gets two stars for that?
Generally when I give a book a low rating, I say that the book just "wasn't for me." But this book...I genuinely regret bringing this book to my students' attention (prior to reading it). There are *so many* better books that I think students would benefit from reading. This book wasn't for me. But I don't really want to give this book to anyone, especially children.
What I found frustrating (where do I even begin):
- Content warning: unnecessary, graphic animal abuse. This added nothing to the story and was gratuitous and upsetting, particularly in a book meant for middle grade readers.
- The ending. Towards the end of the book, the narrator reflects on her frustrations with fiction. She explains, "I'm losing patience with fiction. / The challenges and triumphs of / fictional characters only make me / feel worse about myself. / Novels end nicely and neatly / with all obstacles overcome. / Loose ends tied up." AND THEN THIS AUTHOR DOES EXACTLY THAT. And she does it in the span of a few pages. The resolution is so outrageously anticlimactic and tied up SO neatly. I don't even know what to say.
- The protagonist. I found the protagonist (and narrator) to be fairly unlikeable, and not in the fun "unlikeable protagonist" way where they experience growth over the course of the book. We see so little growth in Maddie throughout this book, and considering the book is 401 pages that basically follow this one character, that's shocking.
- The pacing. The pacing was all over the place. The author skips huge chunks of time, but doesn't really bother to explain how anything has changed in those several months that she skips. Sometimes there will be long, boring stretches of nothingness, followed by a random, extremely "tense" event that the protagonist has to survive. The ups and downs of the pacing made these events feel totally unrealistic, like they were thrown in specifically to give the protagonist an obstacle to overcome.
- Lack of research? This book seemed to suffer from a lack of research. I really wish the author had researched, at the very least, the effects of isolation on mental health and allowed that to inform her writing. Simply saying repeatedly that the protagonist is "lonely" doesn't help the reader feel that loneliness.
- Some questionable word choices. At the beginning of the book, Maddie introduces her younger siblings and explains, "Plus the fact that James [her little brother] is deaf / makes me feel awkward. / Even after all this time. / I know it's not cool / to say that, but there it is. / I said it anyway." Umm...what? So the author is choosing to include this example of casual ableism that she then never returns to?? She never reflects on this, never grows from it. The fact that the author chose to include this detail and Maddie's ableist discomfort (for no apparent reason at all) is so icky to me.
- Oh, and another questionable word choice. So at no point in the book does Maddie know what the "threat" to her safety actually is. Towards the end of the book, she makes an assumption (based on absolutely no previously established information): "If [these helicopters] aren't looters / this could mean rescue. / This could be the chance / I've been waiting for / all these lonely months / and years. / But they could also be invaders / from another country. / The imminent threat? / Maybe they are the reason for the whole evacuation / in the first place." The implicit xenophobia in this stanza--the fact that the narrator automatically assumes that a threat is coming "from another country" is, once again, a seriously unfortunate choice on the part of the author. Had she taken the time to establish what the threat was, or given some reason for Maddie to believe that it was a foreign threat, then...okay, I guess? But the fact that she jumps straight to that conclusion is irritating.
I'm sure I could say more things, but I'm tired of ranting. After writing all of this, I kind of want to knock another star off my rating, but I finished the book, so I guess it gets two stars for that?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, and Xenophobia
brulereads's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
2.75
Verse made me read this very quickly. I enjoyed the set up & the MC's initial survival. Yet, as the narrative went on, it became more meandering & lacked a solid explanation of the societal collapse.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Injury/Injury detail
greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
anne_reader's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
jkneebone's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Alone is a first-person novel in verse that follows Maddie over the course of several years (ages 12 to 15) after she is left alone during an evacuation. She had schemed with friends to have a parent-less sleepover, and told both of her divorced parents she was staying with the other; when the friends bail, Maddie decides on a solo sleepover, but in the middle of the night there's a rushed emergency evacuation. She wakes up to the news warning of a mysterious imminent threat, but has no way of reaching her family and friends. Soon, radio and power to her town are cut off. Alone except for a dog named George, Maddie must figure out how to survive - stockpiling water, biking around town to collect food, and moving between her parents' houses based on the season. As time passes by, Maddie faces increasing outside challenge such as natural disasters, and also cycles through various stages of hope and desperation about if she will ever be rescued or see her parents again.
I'm not a huge fan of survival stories, but this was still a very compelling read. Freeman does a skillful job of bringing you inside Maddie's thought process, and because it is told in verse, there is a good amount of information about her day-to-day survival concerns and how she manages without the story feeling bogged down. The last third of the book or so started to drag a bit for me; although obviously the basis for the story is somewhat fantastical, it felt unrealistic that this one town would face so many extreme weather situations/disasters in a relatively short amount of time.I started to wonder if the 'imminent threat' was in some way related to climate change, but that turned out not to be the case. The ending was somewhat unsatisfying to me also. In some ways I liked where Freeman chose to end things; I didn't need to know what happens to Maddie after her parents find her, since that is the culmination of all she's been waiting for, but I did have more questions about why the evacuation happened in the first place. A full explanation probably wouldn't have fit, but I would have liked a bit more information scattered in (e.g. from the looters' conversations) or at the end so that the reader could put together a bit more of their own idea of what happened.
I would definitely recommend this book to a middle grade reader who is looking for something high-drama and high-stakes, especially for fans of survival stories. Although Maddie is in some dangerous situations, nothing that is described is very graphic, so you get the suspense and intensity without the ick that some survival stories have. Very readable.
I'm not a huge fan of survival stories, but this was still a very compelling read. Freeman does a skillful job of bringing you inside Maddie's thought process, and because it is told in verse, there is a good amount of information about her day-to-day survival concerns and how she manages without the story feeling bogged down. The last third of the book or so started to drag a bit for me; although obviously the basis for the story is somewhat fantastical, it felt unrealistic that this one town would face so many extreme weather situations/disasters in a relatively short amount of time.
I would definitely recommend this book to a middle grade reader who is looking for something high-drama and high-stakes, especially for fans of survival stories. Although Maddie is in some dangerous situations, nothing that is described is very graphic, so you get the suspense and intensity without the ick that some survival stories have. Very readable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
content warning: floodoldandnewbooksmell's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Trigger Warnings: food and water scarcity, injury, animal death, mentions of dead animal bodies
After plans fall through for her secret sleepover with her best friends, Maddie still stays over at her grandparents’ empty apartment - but she wakes to a nightmare. Maddie’s alone. Everyone in Millerville, Colorado has been evacuated and the town has been completely abandoned.
With her only companion being a Rottweiler named George, Maddie slowly learns how to survive on her own with no power, no running water, no phone or internet access, and a town deserted. As months pass, Maddie and George survive natural disasters, ruthless looters, wild animals, and the elements of nature with stride. It’s the loneliness that is slowly getting to Maddie. Can her will to survive continue to get her through the most frightening experience of her life?
I love novels in verse stories as well as post-apocalyptic novels, and this has been a story I’ve been wanting to read for the longest time and I finally picked it up at my library. I read all of this in one setting. It was that captivating. The language is gorgeous and the breaking up of the verses really showcase and capture Maddie’s loneliness, heartache, and still - hope.
I also loved George and the companionship he provided for Maddie there were TWO TIMES I thought George had passed away and BOTH TIMES I was ready to throw the book across the room in sorrow . Plus, you need to have a furry sidekick during the apocalypse, and a big Rottweiler named George is one of the best.
I can see audiences of middle grade readers and up enjoying this. Though, I will say there is a scene of animal cruelty specifically the death of a kitten that I do think should be taken into consideration for a younger reader. Otherwise, this was such a wonderful and captivating read (again, I read all 400+ pages in one setting). I am for sure keeping an eye out to purchase my own copy and will be giving this title out on plenty of recommendations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
_ren's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Toxic relationship and Death of parent