After the End

Starred review from March 3, 2014
Seventeen-year-old Juneau has grown up isolated in the postapocalyptic Alaskan wilderness, a pristine landscape of “crystalline fields veined with frozen streams.” When her clan is kidnapped, she discovers that the nuclear war they supposedly fled never took place. Struggling to disentangle truth from lies, Juneau plunges into an unfamiliar world to rescue her clan, aided by her connection to the Yara, a mystical nature-force. In this series opener, Plum (the Die for Me books) introduces a resilient, crossbow-wielding, part-Chinese heroine, then forces this driven survivor to cooperate with a spoiled rich kid. Miles Blackwell seeks to redeem himself in the eyes of his CEO father by capturing Juneau, but he’s instead pulled into her attempt to find her people. Misunderstandings and betrayals abound as Juneau and Miles set off on a road trip through the West, coming to appreciate each other in a slow-moving, believable romance. Alternating first-person narrators let readers get to know intense Juneau from inside and out, while offering a window into Miles’s gradual maturation. Ages 13–up. Agent: Stacey Glick, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

April 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-Raised to believe she was one of the few survivors of a nuclear war, 17-year-old Juneau is part of a tiny community of refugees in Alaska, isolated from the rest of the world. Juneau is training to be the next Sage and strengthening her mystical abilities. When her entire clan is kidnapped, she sets out to find them. She soon learns that men are searching for her, and she struggles to stay one step ahead of them while acclimating to modern civilization for the first time. In a parallel narrative, Miles, the son of one of Juneau's pursuers, decides to track her himself, hoping to impress his father. The fast-paced plot, rife with mystery, successfully moves the story forward. The initial setting of Juneau's camp is fully realized and portrayed in vivid detail. She is a tough, loyal, and smart protagonist and thoroughly developed while Miles is more two-dimensional. A romance develops between them, but some teens may question Juneau's interest in Miles, who is egocentric and has few redeeming qualities. Some plot devices feel contrived, straining readers' abilities to suspend disbelief, and the number of conveniently fortuitous coincidences may raise an eyebrow or two. Ultimately, however, the unique premise, strong protagonist, and action-packed story redeem the work. Fans of postapocalyptic fiction will enjoy this unusual not-quite-dystopian novel with a dose of corporate espionage. And the cliff-hanger ending will leave them eager for future installments.-Julie Hanson, Chicago Public Library

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2014
Plum serves up another paranormal-suspense series opener. Seventeen-year-old Juneau lives in the wilds of post-apocalyptic Alaska, where elder Whit is teaching her to become clan Sage, to connect her mind with the Yara. This mystical energy enables her to Read distant events and people's motivations and to Conjure, allowing her to manipulate objects remotely and even to become briefly invisible. Returning from a hunting expedition, Juneau discovers that helicopters have attacked her village and carried off everyone in it. She begins to track them down, then discovers that the story she had been told all her life is a lie: She and her clan are not survivors of World War III, supposedly fought in 1984. Instead of devastation, she finds the vibrant contemporary city of Anchorage. Going undercover in a modern world she doesn't understand, Juneau begins to lose her paranormal powers. Meeting Miles, the son of the powerful man behind the underlying plot, she partners uneasily with him in a trek across the west in search of her clan. The story morphs from paranormal exploration to a chase thriller as Juneau narrowly eludes her pursuers. Miles and Juneau trade narration duties, their present-tense voices nicely distinct; Juneau speaks formally, with a slightly archaic accent, while Miles uses a pleasantly normal contemporary vernacular. Attractive characters and the fresh, present-day setting should hook genre fans. (Paranormal suspense. 12-18)

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May 1, 2014
Grades 8-11 Juneau has grown up off the grid in a hunter-gatherer colony at the base of Denali in Alaska, convinced that she and her clan are the last civilized survivors of World War III. As she is out hunting one day, she sees a helicopter and returns to camp as quickly as she can. But upon her arrival, she finds her entire clan missing, including her powerful mentor, Whit. Juneau's clan is notable not only for their methodical survivalist lifestyle but also for their mystical connection with a natural force called the Yara, which grants them superior powers of perception across space and time. Juneau is particularly gifted with powers of perception, but her efforts to locate and rescue her clan are complicated by two separate factions in hot pursuit. Told in short chapters alternating between Juneau's point of view and that of the skeptical Miles, who will stop at nothing to find her, this fast-paced adventure novel from the author of If I Should Die (2013) pulses with magic, romance, and one humdinger of a cliff-hanger.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)