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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 death and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Abandonment
Minor: Ableism
popgoesbitty's review
3.0
This was good! Unique, prose style writing, and the narrator did an excellent job in the audiobook. I was a little disappointed by the vague "why" behind the plot, which is honestly what kept me reading in the first place, but overall this was a solid, intriguing read.
annabong92's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
samantha709's review
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
my 7th graders love this and so do I <3
bibliobrandie's review
3.0
Survival story told in verse about a 12 year old girl who wakes up to find she is all alone. Everyone in her community has been evacuated as she slept. She must learn to survive as she tries to find out what has happened. I appreciated this as a novel in verse because you didn't get bogged down in the details of survival, but instead were moved right along the plot line. There were some moments where i was like Oh Come ON, now there's a flood?! But I think a lot of kids will like this one, especially fans of Canyon's Edge and Hatchet.
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: Xenophobia, Gun violence, and Ableism
heidischroath's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
allibug26's review
5.0
I loved the story in this novel. It was captivating and so thought provoking. I do really wish there had been more time spent on explaining why this happened and why her parents couldn’t come for her, but the rest of the story kept me hooked the whole time!