Image of Little Gryphon

 

Any Sign of Life


Greenwillow Books
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi/Thriller
Themes: Aliens, Apocalypse, Canids, Cross-Genre, Diversity, Girl Power, Plagues, Urban Tales
****

Description

Teenager Paige Miller thought a basketball scholarship meant her future was secure, at least as far as college. Beyond that... so many possibilities, so little time. Until one night she goes to bed early with the flu and wakes up six days later, alone in a dead world.
While she was unconcious, a virus swept the globe with terrifying speed, with a mortality rate near 100%. Her family is dead in their beds, the neighborhood thick with crows feeding on the bodies of her neighbors. At night, where she should see the glow of lights from the city of Columbus, all she sees is darkness. It's enough to make her give up, but Paige Miller doesn't do despair, and she didn't become one of the top high school basketball players in the state by giving up. Along with the neighbor's dog, she sets out in search of food, shelter, and survivors, not necessarily in that order.
But even as she begins her search, something nags at her. She may only be in high school, but she lived through the COVID lockdowns. She knows pandemics don't work like this, taking out an entire planet in a handful of days; they need months to spread, at the very least. It's almost as though it wasn't a natural virus at all, but something else... but spread by whom? Or rather, spread by what?

Review

Even before the COVID pandemic, viral apocalypses weren't new in fiction, but there seems to be a natural resurgence in the subject lately. This title makes a solid entry in the subgenre. From the moment Paige wakes up and realizes something is very, very wrong, she manages to be a fairly competent protagonist, not beyond a few mistakes but generally not head-smackingly stupid ones. She draws on years of athletic training and focus to regain her strength and push ahead in the face of unimaginably devastation and horror and fear, helped by the neighbor's Sheltie dog (who may be too small for much in the way of physical defense, but provides much-needed moral support and warnings of danger). The dangers of a suddenly-uninhabited world are many and varied, from animals going feral to gas explosions to the problem of so many unburied bodies rotting in open air... and that's before the true antagonists make their appearance. (It's not a huge spoiler, as it's implied on the cover blurb even, that there is a decidedly unnatural element to the apocalypse.) Along the way, Paige finds a few other survivors and the truth about what's going on. There are some sparks between her and Trey, the first other human she finds, but both of them are capable of tapping the brakes on any potential romance or runaway hormones until they aren't literally fleeing for their lives, the kind of restraint even grown-up books sometimes lack. This may not be the future Paige and her companions counted on, but it's the one given to them, and be damned if they're going to throw it away without fighting for it. Things wobble occasionally, particularly toward the climax, and it feels like it almost wants to set up a sequel. Overall, though, it's a good apocalyptic thriller with sci-fi overtones.

 

Return to Top of Page

 

Walk the Earth a Stranger

The Gold Seer series, Book 1

Greenwillow Books
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Themes: Country Tales, Cross-Genre, Diversity, Girl Power, Magic Workers
****

Description

Leah Westfall has worked her whole life helping her parents on their Georgia land claim, her ability to sense gold helping them scrape a living even as the local mines run dry. Word of a strike in California has many in town buzzing, but Leah has no plans to follow... until her parents are murdered, their stash stolen, and a greedy uncle takes over the land. He knows her secret, and has "plans" for her - plans she wants no part of, especially not when she realizes he pulled the trigger. Dressing as a boy, she heads out after a friend who set off for the Californian gold fields. It's a harrowing journey by land and river... and, though she'll be crossing the whole continent, she may not be running far enough to escape Uncle Hiram's reach.

Review

Walk the Earth a Stranger, the start of a trilogy, establishes a strong yet imperfect heroine in an era of both promise and despair, the decade before the Civil War; though her family doesn't keep slaves, she's surrounded by those who think nothing of owning a human being, reinforcing an underlying theme about personal freedoms and how far one must go to secure them. Carson brings the long journey to life with many details, some of them unpleasant, yet part of the pioneer experience. Leah (who travels as "Lee" for much of the book) faces all manner of challenges, but persists, even as she struggles to keep her gold sense hidden. It's a minor enough quirk that it almost could've been written out of the book with little change, though her abilities do come into play at a few key points. Through the whole journey, Leah learns how to trust, finding family and friends where she least expects them. It's a decent tale, occasionally unpredictable, and the characters are real enough to care about, if not always particularly deep. The ending feels a little flat and rushed, though; part of me wonders if this wasn't originally intended to be a standalone, and the conclusion had to be rewritten to accommodate sequels. Even if it's not a 24-karat story, Walk the Earth a Stranger has a nice glitter about it, making for a good read.

 

Return to Top of Page