A review by pwbalto
After the End by Amy Plum
3.0
Gr 6-12 -- When is an apocalypse not an apocalypse? When it’s a lie told to an isolated community living off the land. Juneau has grown up off the grid in a hunter-gatherer colony at the base of Denali Mountain in Alaska, convinced that she and her clan are the last civilized survivors of World War Three. But as she is out hunting one day, she sees a helicopter, and, returning to camp as quickly as she can, finds her entire clan, including her mentor, the powerful Whit, missing.
Juneau’s clan is notable not only for their survivalist lifestyle, but for their mystical connection with a natural force called the Yara which allows them to perceive events at a distance, the past, and even the future. Juneau is particularly gifted in her ability to access the Yara, and her efforts to locate and rescue her clan are complicated by two separate factions who are pursuing her.
Told in short chapters that alternate between Juneau’s point of view and that of the skeptical Miles, son of a pharmaceutical executive who will stop at nothing to acquire Juneau, After the End is a fast-paced adventure novel with some magic and romance - and one humdinger of a cliffhanger ending.
I mean, it's fine. It's fine - if you accept that Mt McKinley is SO remote that a community could live there for 30 years and never see an airplane pass overhead. It's fine, if you are cool with someone seeing "a mountain range" "in the distance" and then running for about an hour and getting to the mountain.
And for PETE'S SAKE, it's FINE, as long as you are ok with her first look at Anchorage: she travels by dogsled three days from McKinley towards the ocean, and comes out "on a ridge," from whence she can not only see the ocean, but also this thriving city, including people coming and going from businesses and their cars.
I'm trying to picture this, a vantage point from which you can see an entire medium-sized city. If it were a small town, ok. If it were a town at the base of a cliff, like Boulder? But still! Even Boulder's not going to creep up on you like that. You can see all of Omaha from the ridge above the stockyards, but you wouldn't be able to see PEOPLE moving around. I went on Google Earth just to see if there was some unpopulated peak or ridge outside of Anchorage and aaaaggghhh you are saying I put too much thought into this stuff but COME ONNNNN! Does none of it matter? Can you just write whatever and as long as the characters are good-looking and the story's entertaining it's ok?
Fuck it. It's Saturday night, I am up to date on my deadlines, I am shutting the laptop so I can watch Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters with my son.
Adapted from my review for Booklist online
Juneau’s clan is notable not only for their survivalist lifestyle, but for their mystical connection with a natural force called the Yara which allows them to perceive events at a distance, the past, and even the future. Juneau is particularly gifted in her ability to access the Yara, and her efforts to locate and rescue her clan are complicated by two separate factions who are pursuing her.
Told in short chapters that alternate between Juneau’s point of view and that of the skeptical Miles, son of a pharmaceutical executive who will stop at nothing to acquire Juneau, After the End is a fast-paced adventure novel with some magic and romance - and one humdinger of a cliffhanger ending.
I mean, it's fine. It's fine - if you accept that Mt McKinley is SO remote that a community could live there for 30 years and never see an airplane pass overhead. It's fine, if you are cool with someone seeing "a mountain range" "in the distance" and then running for about an hour and getting to the mountain.
And for PETE'S SAKE, it's FINE, as long as you are ok with her first look at Anchorage: she travels by dogsled three days from McKinley towards the ocean, and comes out "on a ridge," from whence she can not only see the ocean, but also this thriving city, including people coming and going from businesses and their cars.
I'm trying to picture this, a vantage point from which you can see an entire medium-sized city. If it were a small town, ok. If it were a town at the base of a cliff, like Boulder? But still! Even Boulder's not going to creep up on you like that. You can see all of Omaha from the ridge above the stockyards, but you wouldn't be able to see PEOPLE moving around. I went on Google Earth just to see if there was some unpopulated peak or ridge outside of Anchorage and aaaaggghhh you are saying I put too much thought into this stuff but COME ONNNNN! Does none of it matter? Can you just write whatever and as long as the characters are good-looking and the story's entertaining it's ok?
Fuck it. It's Saturday night, I am up to date on my deadlines, I am shutting the laptop so I can watch Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters with my son.
Adapted from my review for Booklist online