Book Review: In The After by Demitria Lunetta + Giveaway

In The After 
In The After #1
Author: Demitria Lunetta
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Dystopian
Release Date: June 25th 2013
Review Source: Harper Teen
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) They hear the most silent of footsteps.
They are faster than anything you've ever seen.
And They won't stop chasing you...until you are dead.

Amy is watching TV when it happens, when the world is attacked by Them. These vile creatures are rapidly devouring mankind. Most of the population is overtaken, but Amy manages to escape—and even rescue “Baby,” a toddler left behind in the chaos. Marooned in Amy’s house, the girls do everything they can to survive—and avoid Them at all costs.

After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope, a colony of survivors living in a former government research compound. While at first the colony seems like a dream with plenty of food, safety, and shelter, New Hope slowly reveals that it is far from ideal. And Amy soon realizes that unless things change, she’ll lose Baby—and much more.

Rebellious, courageous, and tender, this unforgettable duo will have you on the edge of your seat as you tear through the pulse-pounding narrow escapes and horrifying twists of fate in this thrilling debut from author Demitria Lunetta.

I'm not usually the biggest Science Fiction reader. I usually feel out of the loop and lost. But with In the After, I felt right at home. Well as at home as you can feel when you're reading about a girl who watches out her window as Western Civilization as we know it comes to an end. Amy, our stories main character is at home when They arrive. Life wasn't always sunshine and daisies for Amy before They arrived. She was a normal teenage girl with everyday mundane teenage problems. She had a hippie, green, peace loving Father and a Mother who worked for the Government and was gone a lot. Amy wanted for nothing except for maybe junk food because her father didn't believe in having artificial food around the house. But then They arrived and the world went quickly silent.

Who are They and why did they come here? What do they want from us? They are greenish chlorophyll colored Alien beings. They only come out in the daylight. In the dark, you could be face to face with one and as long as you don't move or make noise, they would walk right past you. They are fast, they move in the blink of an eye and they don't just kill or maim their victims; they consume them.

Lucky for Amy, her mother was paranoid Before. She had an electric fence installed around their property. Her father installed solar panels over their entire house and they were able to self sustain without the use of outside electricity. She is pretty much perfectly set up to live her life in the After except that she is completely alone. She's learned to live life without talking and has to eventually venture outside her secure compound to find new clothes, food, and other sundry items. One day while raiding a grocery store, she comes across Baby. Baby is the name Amy gives this young girl who is eerily quiet for a toddler but Amy can't just leave the poor thing behind to fend for herself. So they quickly become a duo living in this post apocalyptic world.

Resources are running out and they have to start venturing out further and further from their home to find supplies. They learn to travel by foot without shoes, their feet become callused to adapt to live in the After. They run across very few other people as the years pass by. Now, three years after They showed up, Amy and Baby are found and taken to a facility called New Hope where they have the chance to live in the After without ever having to worry about Them again, but is New Hope too good to be true and will two girls who learned to live in the After be able to fit in?

I really enjoyed this story. It was intense to say the least. It quickly got into the action and keeps up its fast pace throughout the story. I especially enjoyed the chapters after Amy and Baby arrive at New Hope. There is not a lot of character development, which after reading most books I would say is a bad thing, but in this story, character development would have just been out of place. We get to learn about the characters as they strive to adapt to their post apocalyptic world. I can't say much else without spoiling the whole story for you but I can say that when I finished reading, I gasped and then mentioned to my husband that I hoped this wasn't a stand alone book because it ended with one heck of a cliffhanger. I am extremely happy to see that this is the first in a series, I don't know how many books there will be but I look forward to reading where about the future of Amy, Baby and the rest of those alive In the After.

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