Stevie‘s review of Amy’s Gift (The Doomsday Kids, Book 4) by Karyn Langhorne Folan
Young Adult Dystopian Science Fiction published by K Squared Books 17 Apr 15
Don’t be fooled by the Young Adult tag: this series is not easy reading. I’ve read dystopian fiction aimed at over-18s that are less grim and have far fewer deaths. On the other hand, the author has created a very believable post-apocalyptic world in which everyone is trying to survive, and while individuals will cooperate with each other, few of these loose collectives are prepared to compromise with other groups they come into contact with.
Amy was a cheerleader before the bomb went off that wiped out most of the population and infrastructure of the United States. She and Rod were the school’s golden couple and had little contact with the other kids before circumstances forced them all together. Now Rod is dead and Amy has health worries of her own.
The kids have been hiding out at a mountain retreat, but food stocks are running low and they keep hearing rumours of a government camp hundreds of miles away. Amy knows she has to move on soon, but daren’t articulate her full reasons to the others. At last the decision to move is forced on them when their home is invaded by some of Amy’s former friends who want her to join their new world order, but have brutal plans for the male members of her group.
The kids set off, fighting the weather, the terrain, their injuries and other issues, fully aware that other groups out there are even more dangerous than the women they just escaped from.
This is very much a series novel. There’s no happy ending yet, and I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll ever get one, but the kids’ stories are compelling. Like the two previous instalments in the series (though not as far as I can remember the first one), this could have done with an additional copyediting pass (I bought books 2 and 3 so I can’t even make allowances for having received an advance copy of book 4). If you can cope with that issue, then there’s a lot to be said for giving these kids a chance.
Grade: B
Summary:
Amy Yamamoto was never exactly the “friendly” sort. Driven to be the best—the prettiest, the most popular and the most envied girl in school—Amy has lost everything she loved and believed in since the end of the world she once knew: her family, her friends and her connection to the people who understood her.
And now, after all of those other losses, she faces the end of the Doomsday Kids’ life at the Mountain Place as they embark on a journey of nearly a thousand miles in the hopes of reaching a survivors’ camp on the Gulf of Mexico. Can they reach it before their supplies run out? Can they avoid the evil bands roaring through deserted towns and cities and reach safety before it’s too late? And most of all, can Amy learn to trust the others enough to reveal her deepest secret? In a world full of death and destruction, is there a place for hope, new life and love?
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Other books in this series:
