Brad Lauer Lauer itibaren El Jobo, Cuba
Meh. First off, this is part of a trilogy - information which is not made available to the reader anywhere on the book itself. The ending of this first in the series will make you want to fling the book across the room - because it is a cliffhanger ending that resolves absolutely nothing. Seriously, nothing. Secondly, the first 2/3rds of the book are a sad, dumbed down version of "The Road," with a teenage love interest (really? when the world's just basically ended as you know it, and you've almost died due to your own stupidity several times, and you killed some people - what you're concerned about now is falling in love?), and the most annoying and stupid 8, 9, or 10 year-old girl ever (I don't remember her exact age. Frankly, I didn't care because she acted like my 3 year-old.) Ack! I hung in there, because this had such good blurbs on it. The final 1/3rd of the book did become a little more interesting as Alex, our heroine, enters the town of Rule and attempts to figure out the rules (get it? get it?) in the cult-like town. However, it seems like a given anymore that YA novels simply must have a love triangle. So, of course, Alex found hers here. Bleh! So trite, so formulaic. Seriously, if you have a teen that wants an awesome post-apocalytic novel, just give them "The Road." It's not dumbed down, it speaks to life and humanity in much more real and intense way than this excuse of a story could ever hope to, they'll totally get it, and it doesn't assume that teens must have silly romance in dark situations, annoying little kid sidekicks, and books that have no reason to be trilogies turned into such in order to make a buck. Plus, any of the really good scenes, she pretty much ripped-off from "The Road" anyhow (How would you deal if your child was zombified? How would you want your loved ones to deal with you if you were zombified? What determines who "the good guys" are in the ugliest of times? - all done a zillion times better in "The Road.") All that to say, that the book is competently, if not elegantly, written, has some great action sequences, and should have been focused and edited into one great story instead a watered-down, silly trilogy stuffed with useless filler. **Note: I read this immediately after reading Yancey's "Isle of Blood," an amazing horror novel for teens that is awesome and isn't dumbed down in any way and is filled with original ideas and challenging life questions. Sooooo - maybe that excellence made this book seem suckier than it really was. Just want to give that caveat to my cranky review.