Fiction Review: The Ferryman

With my husband's encouragement, I chose The Ferryman by Justin Cronin from my stack of Big Books in late August. It was longer than some of the other books still in my pile, but he assured me it was a quick, gripping read. And he was right! This inventive novel from the author of The Passage trilogy (and a very different (not sci fi) novel,  The Summer Guest) took me on a rollercoaster ride, with surprises around every corner.

Proctor works as a Ferryman, a very respected position, on the island of Prospera. There was some sort of global crisis out in the wider world that resulted in the creation of this hidden, remote paradise. No one dies on Prospera. Mental, physical, and emotional health is constantly monitored, and when someone's rating starts to decline (and definitely before they hit 10%), they "retire." Ferryman like Proctor guide them through this transition phase and accompany them to a ferry, where they will travel to a neighboring island known as the Nursery. There, they will be "reiterated," eventually taking the ferry back to Prospera as a new 16-year-old iteration (with no memory of their past life/lives) to start fresh. Proctor remembers his own ferry ride to Prospera at 16, meeting his adoptive parents, Cynthia and Malcolm, who were delighted at his arrival. Now, Proctor enjoys his important job--and is very good at it--but he has started to have some difficulties. First, his mother dies (actually dies) in a very unexpected and unusual way, and now he's been summoned to retire his own father. Even more disturbing, Proctor has been dreaming, which isn't supposed to happen to Prosperans, and his dreams are increasingly disturbing. He begins to see cracks and flaws in their perfect society, as he wonders what is happening to him.

That is just the broad framework of the earliest chapters in this unique novel, which is continually surprising. As Proctor's journey continues, the reader goes along for the ride. Every time you think you have something figured out or know what's coming next, there is another shocking twist you never saw coming. It's a truly unique science fiction plot that provides insights into our own humanity and society (as the best sci fi does), like this passage:

"It's been my experience that a lot of human interaction comes down to just these sorts of exchanges, less an actual conversation than a form of parallel confession--the two parties performing their interior monologues, not really listening to each other but merely taking turns. I do not mean this cynically or as a statement of personal superiority; I'm as guilty as the next guy."
 

Cronin's writing pulls the narrative along at a fast pace; this was indeed a quick read because I couldn't bear to set it down. His characters are fully fleshed-out and feel real so that you are rooting for (or booing for) them throughout the story. I love this combination in a novel: unique, gripping plot with plenty of emotional depth and thoughtful insights. The end result is truly magical and a delight to read, and the ending was perfect. I wish I could read it again for the first time, not knowing what was coming.

538 pages, Ballantine Books

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - August: Seasons, Elements, Weather
Big Book Summer Challenge

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. It sounds great, with multiple narrators.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

Fiction Review: Afterland

My husband and I both loved The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes' suspenseful, creepy novel about a time-traveling serial killer (and its fabulous TV adaptation). So, when I saw Beukes' name while book shopping for my husband last year, I picked up her novel Afterland, another action-packed sci fi thriller.

Chillingly, this dystopian and post-apocaylptic novel begins in June 2023 in a world that looks very different from our own present. In the aftermath of a new, unique pandemic that only affects those with a Y chromosome, more than 99% of the males around the globe have died. In this new post-pandemic world inhabited mainly by women, the few remaining boys and men have become much sought-after. As the novel opens, a woman named Cole escapes with her twelve-year-old son, Miles. They are on the run from the U.S. government, from their latest luxurious but stifling protected custody, and even from Cole's own sister, Billy. Everyone wants something from Miles, and Cole's instinct as a mother is to keep him safe from all of it. They got stuck in the U.S. during the pandemic when her American husband died, but now Cole desperately wants to get herself and Miles back home to South Africa, and away from the U.S. government. As they travel across the country, switching cars and hiding in various abandoned homes, Miles dresses like a girl and pretends to be Mila. In escaping from Billy's horrible scheme involving Miles, Coles is worried she may have actually killed her sister. They encounter groups of women along the way--including artists in a communal-living home in Salt Lake City and some crazy female church group all dressed in neon-colored robes in Colorado--but Cole doesn't know who she can trust. Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, Billy is reluctantly teamed up with some really rough characters chasing after Cole and Miles, to make sure Billy keeps her promise to deliver the precious boy to the highest bidder.

The suspense never lets up here, as Cole and Miles/Mila travel across the U.S., trying to stay safe, keep Miles' real identity a secret, and make it to the East Coast so they can find a ship to take them back home. Beukes' world-building here is creative and immersive in this post-apocalyptic all-female world that is still new and unstable.  With Billy and her criminal handlers hot on the trail, the danger to Cole and Miles is very real and imminent, keeping the narrative moving at a fast pace and the tension high. It's a pulse-pounding, action-packed thriller set against a fascinating, unique backdrop. I very much enjoyed the ride.

404 pages, Mulholland Books

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Utah

Big Book Summer Challenge

 

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. It sounds like a great audio production.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    
  

Fiction Review: The Last Policeman

I had heard recommendations for The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters from several different sources, including the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast and author Jason Rekulak at Booktopia 2017 ... and it won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 2013. Since my husband loves mysteries and suspense, I gave it to him as a gift, and he liked it so much that I also gave him the second book in the trilogy, Countdown City, which he also enjoyed. Now, I finally had a chance to read this unique pre-apocalyptic detective story for myself.

Hank Palace has only recently been promoted to detective for the Concord, NH, police department, but he's completely committed to this job he's wanted all his life. So committed, in fact, that he's still working even though the world will end in six months. There's a giant asteroid headed for Earth, and at this point, there is nothing that scientists or governments can do about it. It's so big that no matter where it hits (everyone is waiting for the estimate), it will cause catastrophic changes all over the world, and life will never be the same. Life is already completely different, as people everywhere leave their jobs to chase their dreams. Hank is called out early one cold March morning to a local McDonald's (which, like all chains, is now a pirated shop) to the scene of an apparent hanging in the men's room. Suicides have become horribly common in this new world, and for some reason, hanging seems to be the method of choice in their town. The officer on the scene and the assistant attorney general who arrives both immediately write it off as yet another suicide, but Hank isn't so sure. There are tiny details at the crime scene that give him pause, so he sends the body to the medical examiner, amid his colleagues' teasing. Hank continues to investigate this seeming-suicide as a suspicious death, and the more he learns, the more complicated things seem. Could this possibly be a murder or is Hank wasting time investigating one of many suicides happening everywhere?

This classic detective novel is set in such a unique and surreal world that it makes for some very compelling reading. While Hank is following clues and interviewing people of interest, the reader gradually gets a fuller picture of what is happening in this small town--and all over the world--as the human race faces an apocalypse. The details are fascinating and lend themselves to many what-if questions. The mystery at the center of the novel is a good one: twisty and intriguing. Hank brings the reader right along with him, wondering what happened to this guy and becoming a bit obsessed with finding out. And, of course, at the heart of the novel is the question, Why does it matter? I enjoyed going along with Hank as he solved this case, and I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.

318 pages, Quirk Books

Brilliance Audio

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif Challenge - murder or magic?

2022 Literary Escapes - New Hampshire

R.I.P. Challenge

Fall Into Reading Challenge - science fiction

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    

 

Or you can order The Last Policeman from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Teen/YA Review: The Final Six

I was looking for a quick audiobook for the week before the #BigBookSummer Challenge began, something I could listen to and enjoy in the short time before I switched to Big Books for the summer. The Final Six by Alexandra Monir, a YA science fiction novel, was the perfect fit!

This novel takes place in a near future, where the climate crisis on Earth has passed the point of no return. Sea levels have risen--and continue to rise--so that entire regions have disappeared, and it is too late for humans to stop the disaster from continuing. International leaders have agreed to a plan: to send six teenagers to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons that experts think can sustain human life, to set up a colony. To accomplish this, they choose 24 of the best and the brightest teens from around the world, each with different skills and talents. The 24 teens will go through a two-week space camp to train and be evaluated, and then the final six will be chosen. Two teens in particular are the focus of this novel. Leo lives in Rome, Italy, and has lost his entire family in the climate disaster. As the novel opens, he has decided he has nothing left to live for. Getting chosen as one of the 24 literally saves his life, and Leo wants to be a part of this project. Leo's extraordinary talents are swimming, diving, and holding his breath underwater, all of which will be essential for the Europa mission. Naomi is one of two teens chosen from the United States. She is brilliant in science and computers, but has no interest in leaving Earth, probably forever. Unlike Leo, Naomi does have a family, including a little brother with a heart defect. Her mission in life is to find a cure for her brother's condition, and even as a teen, she has already made inroads into genetic therapy. The other teen candidate from the U.S. is an excellent swimmer, like Leo, and happens to be the nephew of the President. Leo and Naomi and the other candidates train and compete for the six positions, while things begin to go wrong, even as they are safely ensconced at NASA.

This was an intriguing premise: sort of like a competitive reality show with real-life stakes, with the state of the Earth a chilling, all-too-real situation. Leo and Naomi were the central characters here, though the author also introduces readers to many of the other teens as well. This story was loaded with tension and suspense, with multiple ways that this mission--and the training camp--can go wrong. I enjoyed it on audio, narrated by both the author and James Fouhey (as Naomi and Leo, respectively) and was engrossed from beginning to end. The novel ends with the final six being chosen, and there is a sequel, The Life Below, about what happens once the teens leave on the mission.

320 pages, HarperTeen

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Alphabet Soup Challenge - F

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Texas

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

 

Or you can order The Final Six from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

Fiction Review: A Children's Bible

The novel, A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet, has an unusual name, but I asked for it as a gift because I'd read good reviews of it--I probably initially heard about it from another book blogger! I also noticed it was nominated for the 2020 National Book Award for fiction and that the author was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Since it's a short novel, I was able to fit it in during the last, hectic week of the year, and I'm so glad I did. It's a unique novel (to match its unique title), but it was engrossing, funny, and thought-provoking.

Evie, a teen girl, and her little brother, Jack (who is about ten), are stuck hanging out with a bunch of strangers for the summer. Their parents have gotten together with their old college friends, renting a big house on a lake together, so all the kids and teens also have to spend the summer together, all sleeping in a large attic room. The two groups mostly stay away from each other, with the parents drinking heavily every day, beginning with their morning Bloody Marys and moving onto beers with lunch until it is finally 4 pm, "drinking and talking time." The teens have no desire to be in any way connected with their parents, so they decide to play a game for the summer, trying to keep their parents' identities secret from the other kids. This actually works pretty easily, since their parents mostly ignore them all summer. The kids hang out in the lake and up in the cool treehouses in the surrounding woods. They even spend a few days camping on the nearby beach, reached by taking canoes across the lake and down a stream to the ocean. There are hints that disaster is coming, though, as in this passage from Evie:

"At that time in my personal life, I was coming to grips with the end of the world. The familiar world, anyway. Many of us were.

Scientists said it was ending now, philosophers said it had always been ending.

Historians said there'd been dark ages before. It all came out in the wash, because eventually, if you were patient, enlightenment arrived and then a wide array of Apple devices.

Politicians claimed everything would be fine. Adjustments were being made. Much as our human ingenuity had got us into this fine mess, so would it neatly get us out. Maybe more cars would switch to electric.

That was how we could tell it was serious. Because they were obviously lying.

We knew who was responsible, of course: it had been a done deal before we were born."

During that summer at the lake house, disaster finally does strike. As might be expected, the parents are completely useless in a crisis. Worse, really, because they don't actually do anything, except drink more and start taking drugs to escape. So, the kids leave the house, which has been badly damaged and flooded in the devastating storm. They take some of their parents' cars and head out to find safety. A man named Burl--the sole adult in their party--was the caretaker of the property, so he comes with them and guides them to a farm in rural Pennsylvania when their first plan fails. There, they create a safe haven for themselves, though they still have plenty of challenges ahead.

The writing style in this novel is somewhat unique. Evie is the narrator, but she often speaks as "we" and "our," representing the whole group of young people (listen to the audio sample below to hear the writing style). The book is sometimes quite funny (I love that line about Apple devices in the above passage), but it turns serious. Though I wrote a fairly detailed plot summary here, that's still only about the first half of the book: so much more happens after the disaster, which turns out to be truly apocalyptic, with services out, supplies unavailable, and looting and violence rampant. Parts of the novel are even suspenseful, as the kids tackle one crisis after another. Underlying this engaging story, of course, is a cautionary tale, but it never felt preachy. In fact, it was quite entertaining and even amusing at times. This is a completely original and thought-provoking novel that I think will stay with me, as I am still thinking about Evie and Jack and the other kids, five days after finishing the book. I can see why it was a finalist for the National Book Award.

224 pages, W.W. Norton & Company

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, a passage from the beginning of the book describing the house, the kids, and their neglectful parents, and/or download it from Audible. The audio sounds great!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  

Or you can order A Children's Bible from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

Fiction Review: After the Flood

I listened to another Big Book on audio this month, After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, a post-apocalyptic novel with a unique premise that kept me riveted.

 

It takes place more than a hundred years from now, when rising sea levels have not only covered the coasts but also the interior heartland of North America. All that's left are individual colonies on the tops of mountains, surrounded by vast oceans. Myra and her seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, live on the water on a boat. Myra's grandfather taught her to fish (and built the boat), so they trade their catches for other necessities but are barely scraping by. Seven years ago, as the flood waters neared their home in Kansas, Myra's husband kidnapped their older daughter, Row, and Myra has been unable to find them. But now, during a resupply stop, she finally gets a lead as to Row's whereabouts, in an area near the Arctic Circle, and is determined to go find her long-lost daughter. They meet a group of people in a larger boat, but can they trust them? This is a dangerous world they live in (apocalypses never seem to bring out the good in people, do they?), filled with pirates and other perils.

 

The novel was gripping and suspenseful from the very first chapter. I liked Myra and especially Pearl, as well as some of the other characters (there are still some good people left in this world!), and I could relate to Myra’s desperation to find Row. It’s a fast-paced story, with almost non-stop action, as they and their new companions make the treacherous journey north. It is dark at times, but hope is woven throughout and is a major theme. In fact, I liked this quote so much that I paused my audio to write it down:

 

“Hope would never come knocking on your door. You had to claw your way toward it, rip it out of the cracks of your loss, where it poked out like some weed, and cling to it.”

 

I think that one sentence expresses both the darkness and the theme of hope in the novel. It was very compelling and kept me interested from start to finish, with an excellent audio production.

432 pages, Harper Collins

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!
    
    

Or you can order After the Flood from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: A Beginning at the End

I absolutely loved Mike Chen's first novel, Here and Now and Then, when I read and reviewed it for Shelf Awareness last year. That was a time travel novel that focused in on characters and their relationships. His second novel, A Beginning at the End, takes a similar approach with a sci fi plot but a narrative focus on the people. Except that the sci plot in this novel is about a global pandemic. Yeah. Not feeling so sci-fi-ish anymore, is it? The novel is different, though, and I enjoyed listening to it on audio, during our own stay-at-home orders.

The pandemic in A Beginning at the End is far more deadly than our own with COVID-19. In the novel, the global pandemic (also a virus) killed most of the planet's population, leaving pockets of humanity in quarantine communities, gangs, and communes. The novel begins six years after the pandemic hit, though, so the remaining people are attempting to define their new normal (sorry, I know everyone is sick of that term now but it's accurate here!) and rebuild trashed infrastructure. Certain cities have survived and re-taken their communities back from gangs; these are referred to Metropolitan Zones or Metros, including the San Francisco Metro, where this novel takes place. The narrative is split between several key characters. When the pandemic hit, Moira was a teen superstar known as MoJo, complete with elaborate costumes and face paint. She had grown to hate that life, though, numb from the influence of alcohol and drugs and under the controlling thumb of her manager/father, so she uses the crisis as an opportunity to disappear and become an ordinary person. As Moira, she is working in the SF Metro and planning to marry her boyfriend. She's been planning her wedding with Krista, a wedding and events planner who sometimes moonlights as a "reunion agent." Krista has her own dark history, featuring an alcoholic mother. Moira works in the same news agency as Rob, an IT specialist, and at the start of the novel, Rob and Krista get stuck in an elevator together, so Rob confides in her his worries about his beloved daughter, Sunny, who's struggled since her mother died.Those four characters, almost strangers when the novel opens, get pulled together by evolving events. Besides Moira's upcoming wedding and Rob's problems with Sunny, news reports of the virus re-emerging in a mutated form throw all of society into chaos again.

The four characters band together on their own personal quest, so the novel moves into a more action-packed, thriller-like story toward the end. Still, though, the author's focus is always on the people and their relationships (to each other and to others), zeroing in on the human side of the medical crisis and their own personal issues. Given that, I wasn't bothered by reading about a pandemic during our own pandemic, since the focus is on the characters, and the virus in this novel was clearly apocalyptic, destroying society for 6+ years. It also helps that the story centers on a time after the crisis is passed, though the re-emergence of a mutated virus was unsettling (in this case, scientists quickly got to work on a modified treatment and vaccine). I liked all of the characters and found myself pulled into their world, which was both similar to and different from the one we have been living in since March. I kept thinking about the author writing this book and then seeing real-life events unfold similarly just after the book was released: that must have been truly surreal for him! The audiobook was well-done and immersive, and I enjoyed escaping into this parallel universe and getting to know the characters.

400 pages, MIRA

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, the opening scene from MoJo's concert when the pandemic breaks out six years earlier, and/or download it from Audible at the link.

You can purchase A Beginning at the End from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

You can also buy through indie bookstores using Bookshop.

Or you can order A Beginning at the End from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: The Last One

I'm always looking for ideas of great thrillers to give my husband as gifts, especially by authors he hasn't read yet, so when I heard my favorite books podcast, Books on the Nightstand (now retired but archived episodes still available), recommend The Last One by Alexandra Oliva, I added it to my list! My husband enjoyed this unique thriller about a survival reality TV show gone wrong, and it was perfect for me this spring, with so much distraction around. This fast-paced novel grabbed my attention and never let me go until the last page.

The reader knows immediately--right from the first line of the prologue--that a horrible pandemic hits (no, I didn't realize this before I started the book!), but of course, none of the characters in the novel know what is coming. Twelve people have signed up for a survival reality show that claims to be unlike anything that has been done before. They are given nicknames for the show, like the Hispanic cowboy known as Rancher, the fit military guy called Air Force, and the gorgeous but unprepared Waitress. The novel mostly focuses on Zoo, a strong but petite woman whose background in zoology and job working with animals earns her the nickname. The first few episodes of the show start pretty much as expected, with a combination of both Solo and Team Challenges, getting to know the contestants, ever-present cameras, and a highly produced final product. One of the unique things about this show is that it begins to air within days of production, so it truly is happening as viewers watch. A few days in, though, during a Solo Challenge, Zoo notices a big change. She can no longer see the cameramen, she truly feels as if she is alone, and the clues she's supposed to follow are no longer obvious. But they've been told that they will be alone for days at a time, and that many of the cameras are hidden, so she fully believes she is still being filmed and is still in the contest. The reader knows, from page 1, that a horrible pandemic has very quickly killed off most of the population (though we don't know any details about it), but as Zoo hikes further and further east, she just thinks that the size of this production is way bigger than she imagined and that with the fake dead bodies and deserted homes and towns, they must have a huge production budget. The narration moves back and forth between the start of the reality show and Zoo's current never-ending slog eastward, so the details are gradually filled in as the two timelines come together.

A big part of the tension here is in the reader knowing what has happened, and Zoo--in her exhausted and hungry state (oh, and she broke her glasses)--just not getting it. As she gives herself pep talks not to get psyched out by the special effects, the reader is freaking out a bit inside thinking, "Zoo, wake up! The dead bodies are real!" The suspense is stupendous as she hikes through both forests and devastated areas; this is a super gripping novel that I stayed up much too late reading each night. The pandemic aspect wasn't too disturbing since it is so different from what we've been dealing with in the real world. In the novel, the unnamed pandemic happens fast--within days, most people are dead-- and out of sight. The reader just sees the aftermath (mostly empty towns and houses) through Zoo's eyes. The focus is always on what Zoo is seeing and experiencing and thinking. I absolutely loved every minute of this novel, and it kept me captivated from beginning to end, which was just what I needed!

290 pages, Ballantine Books

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, with multiple narrators, and/or download it from Audible.

You can purchase The Last One from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

You can also buy through indie bookstores using Bookshop.

Or you can order The Last One from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Teen/YA Review: The Infinite Sea

Last year during my Big Book Summer Challenge, I read - and loved - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, and earlier this month, I finally read the second book in the series, The Infinite Sea, which continues the post-apocalyptic adventure of a group of kids and teens. It was action-packed and suspenseful - now I can't wait to tread the third and final book in the trilogy!

This might be a very short review because I don't want to give away any spoilers of book 1, The 5th Wave (you can read my no-spoilers review of that book at the link). The second novel continues to follow teenager Cassie and her little brother, Sammy, in this frightening post-apocalyptic world. Circumstances have become even worse since the first book, with fewer people left, worsening conditions, scarcity of food, and the fear of being discovered. The two siblings are hiding in an abandoned, broken-down hotel (much like the rest of their surroundings) with a small group of other children and teens from the first book. Ben, Cassie's high school crush pre-apocalypse, is still a part of the story, as is Evan, whom Cassie is still not sure she can trust. The group, like all remaining humans, are being hunted by the human-looking aliens.

That's the set-up at the beginning of the book (leaving out spoilerish details). From there, the rest of the novel is non-stop action, as the group of kids fights to survive against all odds. In fact, at first, the story seemed a bit too full of action and violence for my tastes (though my son says that's why he liked book 2 even more than book 1!). The intriguing and complex plot that grabbed my attention in the first book continues here, though, and I was soon engrossed in the suspenseful thriller. By the time I came to the end of the book, I was eager to read book 3, The Last Year.

300 pages, SPEAK (an imprint of Penguin Random House)

My husband, son and I all want to see the movie adaptation of The 5th Wave, too! Here's the trailer:

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sampleof the audio book here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from the very creepy prologue of the novel. It sounds very good on audio!

You can purchase The Infinite Sea from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

Or you can order The Infinite Sea from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: Only Human

I recently read - and loved - Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel, the third book in The Themis Files trilogy, a unique sci fi thriller series about alien interaction with humans on Earth. This is a tricky one to review because I can't even say much about book 1 without giving away spoilers, but I will do my best to tiptoe around those plot points because I hate spoilers myself. If you haven't read any of this series yet, I recommend you click over to my review of book 1 and get yourself a copy (and avoid reading the synopsis and cover of book 2 because it contains spoilers). Only Human was a wonderful and satisfying conclusion to an excellent trilogy that my husband and I have both enjoyed immensely.

The story begins in book 1, Sleeping Giants, when a young girl named Rose Franklin is riding her bike in South Dakota's Black Hills, falls in a huge hole, and discovers a giant robot hand buried there. Rose grows up to be a scientist on the team investigating the hand, and it is clear from the beginning that they are not dealing with anything that originated on Earth. In book 2, Waking Gods, things on Earth go from bad to worse in relation to Rose's discovery and the events following it, as more is learned about this technology from another world. This final book, Only Human, begins with a first contact situation on another planet with Rose and her colleagues. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the situation has rapidly deteriorated in a post-apocalyptic world, as fear rules over logic and certain nations attempt to control as many countries as possible. The book - and the trilogy - ends with the perfect way to stop humans from destroying each other (if only).

Sorry, that's all the detail you're getting! It's a completely original plot with lots of surprising twists and turns that keep you guessing and gasping from beginning to end. As with the first two books, Only Human is an epistolary novel, here told through journal entries, voice recordings, interviews, and an occasional news report, with entries from the years spent on another planet interspersed with entries from the present back on Earth so that the full story slowly comes together. In this way, the reader gets the perspectives of many different characters. Part of the fun of this third book is in learning about the alien planet, people, and culture. In that way, it reminded me a bit of the lighter sections of The Sparrow (without the horrific violence, though this planet has its own problems). Neuvel has an amazing imagination, on display through all three books, that make the series huge fun to read. At the same time, he frames this unique aliens-from-outer-space story around the real-life problems and issues on Earth today so that these are also very thought-provoking novels, making you think, "What if...?" I always enjoy books that make me think. All in all, my husband and I both enjoyed this third novel and the entire trilogy very much. These were Sylvain Neuvel's first novels, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

334 pages, Del Rey
 Random House Audio

NOTE: Movie rights to Sleeping Giants were sold even BEFORE the book was sold to a publisher, in 2014! This trilogy would make some great movies, but it doesn't sound like film development is very far along yet - hurry up, Hollywood!

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Listen to a sample of the audio book of Only Human, from the start of the book, BUT ONLY IF YOU'VE ALREADY READ BOOKS 1 AND 2! Spoiler alert, since book 3 begins with Rose recapping previous events.

If you haven't read any of the series yet, try this audio sample from the beginning of book 1, Sleeping Giants.

You can purchase Only Human from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

 

Or start with Book 1, Sleeping Giants:

Or you can order Only Human from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.