Review: After the End by Amy Plum

Title: After the End
Author: Amy Plum
Series: Book One in the After the End Series
Published By: Harper Teen (May 6, 2014)
Source: ARC Copy Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: YA 
My rating: 3 Stars

Book Description:
She’s searching for answers to her past. They’re hunting her to save their future.

World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there.

At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life.

When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie.

Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she's trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past.

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Believe it or not this is my very first Amy Plum novel and I think that was a good thing because I had nothing else to compare it to and I have to say, I did like this one. It didn't wow me but I liked it. 

I know that first paragraph is a little forward but let me explain. At first I thought this was going to be somewhat of a dystopian, turns out it isn't...not at all. So that threw me a little and if I am even being fair, may have contributed to my disappointment with it just a little bit. It is hard going into something expecting one thing and then getting something entirely different in the end.

There was a lot going on. Some weird things going on. A paranormal almost sci fi feel to Juneau's people and what they could do. A side that while I loved also left me scratching my head a little bit. Was it all real? Just something else? A product of being raised to believe in something so much that it becomes real? I don't know and even after finishing this, I still don't know. But I think that will be okay because if the ending has anything to say about it, I am guessing a sequel is on the horizon, which is good. Those questions need answers. 

This was a good solid read. Juneau was an interesting character. She grew up believing the world was in ruins after World War III only to find out she had been lied to and that she knew virtually nothing about it. She was strong and she was able but other than those qualities, I felt her character lacked something. Some depth to her that really needed to be there. Without it I found myself not really caring about her so much as I was curious about her instead. And while curiosity is good in a book, it just doesn't give it that umph it needs to really make it a stand out read. 

Even the romance was slight. A barely here and there thing that didn't over power the book or really even draw you in one way or the other. It was just there is all its quietness just waiting for a little something extra to make it stand out. 

The good news is that what this lacked in character depth, it excelled in creativity. And despite the flaws mentioned,  was still something worth reading and looking into. Still something that just may turn into something great in the end.

*All thoughts and opinions are my own and were not influenced by the author or publisher. I was not compensated for this review.*