The world is about to end. Again.
Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned bookstore in suburban New Jersey where she used to work, trading books for supplies with the few remaining survivors. It’s the one place left that feels safe to her.
Until she learns that another earth-shattering Storm is coming . . . and everything changes.
Enter Maeve, a prickly and potentially dangerous out-of-towner who breaks into the bookstore looking for shelter one night. Though the two girls are immediately at odds, Maeve has what Liz needs—the skills to repair the dilapidated store before the next climate disaster strikes—and Liz reluctantly agrees to let her stay.
As the girls grow closer and undeniable feelings spring up between them, they realize that they face greater threats than the impending Storm. And when Maeve’s secrets and Liz’s inner demons come back to haunt them both, they find themselves fighting for their lives as their world crumbles around them.
Man, did I love this book!! I loved the way it made me feel! It made me gasp out loud. It made my heart drop. It made me yell out loud at the fictional characters. I love the books that make my family question my sanity 😅
Sometimes flashbacks are confusing, and sometimes, but not this time. I liked the way Lily Braun-Arnold wrote these flashbacks because they told bits of the story about who Liz is and why, and the puzzle doesn’t completely fit together until the very last flashback.
This story made me think about the dystopian books we read and the actions we would actually take if we were in that situation for real. This might be the adult in me…or it may be the over imaginative reader, but with the way the world is today, I feel like dystopian stories prepare us for the very near future 😬. Maybe we should be in better shape to be able to do physically hard things. Maybe we should take stock of the things that matter to us so we know what to fight hardest for. Maybe I’m getting a little too deep after reading a dystopian teen book. Who knows.
Either way, if the world ends, I would want to end up in a bookstore, no matter how impractical it may be. A smarter place might be a hardware store or a grocery store….but I would 100% head for the bookstore.
Where are you heading if the world ends? Is this one on your tbr?
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