Author: Laura Bickle
Publishing Company: Graphia
Blurb: If your home was the last safe place on earth, would you let a stranger in?
Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers are free to experience non-Amish culture before officially joining the church. But before Rumspringa arrives, Katie's safe world starts to crumble. It begins with a fiery helicopter crash in the cornfields, followed by rumors of massive unrest and the disappearance of huge numbers of people all over the world. Something is out there...and it is making a killing.
Unsure why they haven't yet been attacked, the Amish Elders make a decree: No one goes outside their community, and no one is allowed in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man lying just outside the boundary of their land, she can't leave him to die. She refuses to submit to the Elders' rule and secretly brings the stranger into her community - but what else is she bringing in with him?
My Review:
I picked this one up with some pretty high hopes. The blurb sounds fantastic, it's a different culture, end of the world, fiery helicopters. Sounds awesome right? Wrong.
It's unbelievable how disappointed I was with this book. The start I was really hoping for something good. Instead I got a book where so little happened! Katie was a good character, but sometimes she was lacking something. I was in love with Elijah at the beginning, and as the book went on he just made me angrier and angrier and angrier. There was so much that I wanted from the characters, and yet they lacked it, they weren't pushed far enough, and they changed so drastically.
The evil things that destroyed the world were really not as well explained as they should have been, in my opinion. You hear biochemical warfare, zombies is what you leap to. Then they come out to be vampires. Okay. Wasn't expecting that. But these vampires aren't the normal vampires, they're cunning, evil, smart, animalistic. Great! Thank goodness it's not some flowery vampire that we always see. Then again, they weren't in it that much. How can we be excited about a bunch of vampires who aren't in the book too much.
Oh, and there's one part that's so predictable that it's unreal. I'm not going to say what it is until I get to the spoiler bit, but I really saw it coming from a mile off. It was ridiculous.
I think one of my problems with this book was how content Katie was with her life. She was dead excited for Rumspringa, but there was so much that she just took. And I get culture differences and everything, it's just...weird though.
This book made me angry more than anything, I have to say. I got angry with the characters, I got angry that the vampires weren't in it enough, I got angry at how confusing it got with everything. Some bits were overkill, and I was so annoyed that I got bored. This book looked amazing, and it turned out to be blah. More than blah.
FROM HERE ON UNTIL YOU SEE BOLD WILL BE SPOILERS PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK
Prepare for a rant. So, you know Elijah's brothers? How they went missing at the very start of the book? And then you're told that the enemy is vampires? Yeah. Just. Predictable. I was so annoyed at that because you knew it was coming from a mile off.
And what was with Elijah's constant changing mood? He was a nice guy at the start! And then he was mourning, I get that. But then...he was suddenly all like 'yep, I'm getting baptised, you should do it as well, God will save us, and I'm now a man so you should just get over it'. Gah, I just wanted to punch him (and quite a few other characters) in the face! And then at the end when he was trying to...just, he was supposed to be a good guy, and he turned into something horrible and disgusting and out of character from what he'd been set up to be at the start.
SPOILERS DONE
I'm not sure if I'll pick up the second one. I know, I've ranted about how I hated this book and I'm considering picking up the second, weird huh? But the second one seems like it could be decent, it's a chance to see more action and violence, and throw some new things at us. I may have to kindle sample it first and see what I think.
My rating:
Setting: 3 out of 5
Characters: 2 out of 5
Plot: 2 out of 5
Writing: 3 out of 5
If you read the book, I hope you enjoy(ed) it, and I'll talk to you guys later! Bye x
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