Book Review - After the End

After the End by Amy Plum
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is pretty much one very long chase scene, with a couple of breaks for the main characters to catch their breath, and an unsatisfying ending intended to force you into reading the next book in the series (a trick that notoriously backfires with me - wrap things up in the main plot line, even if you leave the overarching storyline in suspense if you want me to read on!).

Juneau is an interesting character, as the female lead in the story. She grew up in an isolated community in Alaska, where all of the new generation of inhabitants believed their parents moved there post nuclear apocalypse in the 1980's. Except, of course, that apocalypse never happened, which causes her to lose faith in everything else she was taught growing up.

So you have a bit of a coming-of-age story and a bit of a romance, when you throw in her relationship with Miles, son of a drug company tycoon who is part and parcel of the chase she's subject to, and a bit of suspense, as of course as I mentioned above, the whole book is one long chase scene.

I often don't like magic and sorcery in books as it stretches my credulity a bit far at times, but it's well-placed here and I like the history and sources of "magic" here. It adds a fantasy element to the story as well, which makes this book hard to categorize.

If it weren't for the trick-playing ending I probably would have rated this as a four star book, but I really dislike authors playing those kinds of games with readers.

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