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bookstobarbells's review against another edition
3.0
I was really hoping to love this more, but as it moved on I found myself getting bored.
The book opens with a strong premise: massive volcanic eruption will change life as we know it, so humans must evacuate. However, once on the ship, this felt like a snooze fest. I wanted to feel the tension and the rush inside of the story, but it fizzled out fast.
The characters were interesting and you can see the "Lord of the Flies" relation, but it just felt like a million things were thrown into the plot just to make it interesting.
I wish I had more to review, but I was so detached from the reading that I don't have a lot to say. This had so much potential and fell really short for me.
The book opens with a strong premise: massive volcanic eruption will change life as we know it, so humans must evacuate. However, once on the ship, this felt like a snooze fest. I wanted to feel the tension and the rush inside of the story, but it fizzled out fast.
The characters were interesting and you can see the "Lord of the Flies" relation, but it just felt like a million things were thrown into the plot just to make it interesting.
I wish I had more to review, but I was so detached from the reading that I don't have a lot to say. This had so much potential and fell really short for me.
zu_reviews's review against another edition
5.0
This one kept me turning pages and on the edge of my seat! A brilliant thoughtful sci-fi story that we need more of.
100pagesaday's review against another edition
4.0
It's the year 2072 and the world knows that in the near future there will be a massive volcanic eruption that will mean the end of life on Earth. A global plan is in place to build rockets to send some people to the nearest inhabitable planet. When an eruption happens months too early, 53 of the kids whose parents are working on the rocket prototypes are the only survivors. They boarded the prototype Lazarus that they were there to tour and launched into space on a journey of over 1000 years. Luckily, Eli, the pilot's daughter, is onboard along with Leigh Chen, First Daughter of the US President. Leigh is well trained as a politician, to say the right thing at the right time, to give answers that aren't really answers and calm everyone's nerves. Eli, who has never had friends her own age, relishes her position of power and becomes the de facto leader of the group of kids from around the world. Leigh is appointed Chief of Staff, a voice to Eli's one-sided decisions based solely on survival. However, as tensions rise within the group over everything from time in the VR simulator to food to turning around to rescue an astronaut that may still be aboard a space station, Leigh begins to question her decisions and find a voice of her own.
Alone Out Here is a suspenseful and realistic young adult science fiction story of survival. I loved the premise of Earth's political leaders being woefully underprepared for a climate catastrophe and unable to come to consensus on how to solve it without greed and corruption taking hold. A bunch of teens and pre-teens aboard a spaceship alone goes about as well as anyone would expect as they try to survive with limited resources, constant power struggles, differences in opinion and trying to manage the grief and disbelief of their planet and everyone on it being destroyed. The characters were a very diverse group since they were children of Lazurus' engineers, scientists, pilots and World Leaders. Leigh and Eli's characters were focused on the most as their seemingly similar personalities diverged as they discovered who they truly were aboard the Lazarus. I enjoyed watching Leigh develop from a people pleaser into a person who could still help others while being true to herself. Her relationship with Anis was also well done, helping her realize her potential while not overtaking the story. Eli's character is interesting, at first it seems like she is the only one willing to make difficult decisions and have a plan, but as she becomes more powerful, her decisions seem more and more self-serving. While being set in space in a not-so-distant future, Alone Out Here still deals with very real teen issues such as depression, addiction, friendship and romance in thoughtful ways. With a thrilling and unexpected ending, Alone Out Here is an exciting young adult science fiction drama.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
Alone Out Here is a suspenseful and realistic young adult science fiction story of survival. I loved the premise of Earth's political leaders being woefully underprepared for a climate catastrophe and unable to come to consensus on how to solve it without greed and corruption taking hold. A bunch of teens and pre-teens aboard a spaceship alone goes about as well as anyone would expect as they try to survive with limited resources, constant power struggles, differences in opinion and trying to manage the grief and disbelief of their planet and everyone on it being destroyed. The characters were a very diverse group since they were children of Lazurus' engineers, scientists, pilots and World Leaders. Leigh and Eli's characters were focused on the most as their seemingly similar personalities diverged as they discovered who they truly were aboard the Lazarus. I enjoyed watching Leigh develop from a people pleaser into a person who could still help others while being true to herself. Her relationship with Anis was also well done, helping her realize her potential while not overtaking the story. Eli's character is interesting, at first it seems like she is the only one willing to make difficult decisions and have a plan, but as she becomes more powerful, her decisions seem more and more self-serving. While being set in space in a not-so-distant future, Alone Out Here still deals with very real teen issues such as depression, addiction, friendship and romance in thoughtful ways. With a thrilling and unexpected ending, Alone Out Here is an exciting young adult science fiction drama.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
katemarieshorts's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
ohemgeebooks's review against another edition
2.0
Space. The final frontier.
I’ll admit to a certain keen interest to YA Science Fiction which comes from a literary-realized fear of being alone in space. It gets the heart bump-a-thumping and even though I’m not generally a thrill seeker, I can’t help, but get extremely excited when I come across a new book like this.
Pitched as a sci-fi Lord of the Flies, the premise promises an apocalyptic escape into space gone awry. When a volcanic eruption threatens the world as we know it, political leaders and scientists from across the globe work to build a fleet to travel a select population into the unknown, seeking a new world. When teens are brought in to a weekend field trip, chaos erupts early leaving only the teens to flee in an unfinished prototype.
The first few chapters were outstanding—all of the heart racing thrills you’d expect from catastrophe of epic proportions. Unfortunately as the Earth gets left behind, the tension unwinds and it becomes what you’d expect from a group of teens on board a ship, especially when one is the president’s daughter and the others all have their own opinions. Politics aside, do the teens have the wherewithal to overcome certain obstacles in order to begin again? It was difficult to stay awake long enough to find out.
I predicted this book to either explore that idea, teens attempting to figure things out with a nod to hope for the future or go all out FantasticLand with a desperate fight for survival, but the ending took a surprising abrupt twist that left me feeling disappointed I took the time to read it at all. Two takeaways—teens sometimes don’t make the best decisions and they get acne without soap.
As far as rated reviews go, I may be alone out here, but for me this book proved to be an apocalyptic disaster.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.
I’ll admit to a certain keen interest to YA Science Fiction which comes from a literary-realized fear of being alone in space. It gets the heart bump-a-thumping and even though I’m not generally a thrill seeker, I can’t help, but get extremely excited when I come across a new book like this.
Pitched as a sci-fi Lord of the Flies, the premise promises an apocalyptic escape into space gone awry. When a volcanic eruption threatens the world as we know it, political leaders and scientists from across the globe work to build a fleet to travel a select population into the unknown, seeking a new world. When teens are brought in to a weekend field trip, chaos erupts early leaving only the teens to flee in an unfinished prototype.
The first few chapters were outstanding—all of the heart racing thrills you’d expect from catastrophe of epic proportions. Unfortunately as the Earth gets left behind, the tension unwinds and it becomes what you’d expect from a group of teens on board a ship, especially when one is the president’s daughter and the others all have their own opinions. Politics aside, do the teens have the wherewithal to overcome certain obstacles in order to begin again? It was difficult to stay awake long enough to find out.
I predicted this book to either explore that idea, teens attempting to figure things out with a nod to hope for the future or go all out FantasticLand with a desperate fight for survival, but the ending took a surprising abrupt twist that left me feeling disappointed I took the time to read it at all. Two takeaways—teens sometimes don’t make the best decisions and they get acne without soap.
As far as rated reviews go, I may be alone out here, but for me this book proved to be an apocalyptic disaster.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.
abarroner's review against another edition
3.0
Well that was... Something... Very predictable! But something!
emireads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0