Review: After The End (After The End #1) by Amy Plum

Conspiracy, secrets and two worlds collide

Title: After The End
Series: After The End
Author: Amy Plum
Publisher: Harper Collins, US
My ratings: 4 out of 5 stars
Released: 6th May, 2014
I picked up After The End during a particularly bad reading phunk I was going through. I had never read Amy Plum’s work before but I had heard enough about her Revenants Series that I was confident that her skills would be at par in entertaining me. And that, my friends, she did.

Don’t be fooled by it’s blurb or it’s cover. It is not a dystopian. It starts off like one, the main characters believe it but she has been living a lie. Juneau has grown up in a tribe in Alaska, away from any contact with anyone but her tribesmen believe that they are the survivors of World War 3 which wiped out the world. It is only their connection with Yara. Juneau’s connection to the Yara is the strongest but one day when she returns home after hunting everyone in her tribe is gone. It is clear that they have been taken away and as she starts off to find her tribe it is clear that the same people were looking for her too. Along the way she meets Miles, who reluctantly agrees to help her but everybody has their secrets and so does Miles.

I really enjoyed this book as it had what I’d expect from a heart racing thriller. It was well written and I could easily imagine it being made into a movie. There were alternative POVs which some people find disconcerting but they were well written I breezed through them. I particularly loved the interaction between Juneau and Miles as even if they were of a similar age, personality wise they couldn’t have been further apart. While Juneau was a survivalist, a hunter, and born wild, Miles was born from the source of capitalism, a spilt only child who wanted to prove a point to his Dad.

Miles thought Juneau was absolutely nuts Juneau thought that he was a liability.

“I'm lying here in a tent, pretending to be asleep but actually fearing for my life as I watch a bunny murderer have a conversation with our campfire.”

It was hilarious and it brought a sense of lightness to the already grave situation they were in, with many parties looking for them. But even amongst the chaos I could see and feel the simmer attraction they had for each other and I lapped every bit of it.

I do have to point out that at some places I felt the story dragged and some events felt very ‘convenient’ for the plot. I’m not sure how I felt about the cliff hanger as I have a love hate relationship with them.

Overall, After The End is a fresh approach to a story which is rife with conspiracy, secrets and what happens when two completely different world collapse into each other. After The End will either intrigue you enough to keep reading in the wee hours of the nigh or make you lose interest and stop reading it. Either way it is something that I enjoyed taking a risk on and got more than enough back to make it worth my time.