In The After by Demitria Lunetta | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

They hear the most silent of footsteps.
They are faster than anything you've ever seen.
And They won't stop chasing you...until you are dead.

Amy is watching TV when it happens, when the world is attacked by Them. These vile creatures are rapidly devouring mankind. Most of the population is overtaken, but Amy manages to escape—and even rescue “Baby,” a toddler left behind in the chaos. Marooned in Amy’s house, the girls do everything they can to survive—and avoid Them at all costs.

After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope, a colony of survivors living in a former government research compound. While at first the colony seems like a dream with plenty of food, safety, and shelter, New Hope slowly reveals that it is far from ideal. And Amy soon realizes that unless things change, she’ll lose Baby—and much more.

Rebellious, courageous, and tender, this unforgettable duo will have you on the edge of your seat as you tear through the pulse-pounding narrow escapes and horrifying twists of fate in this thrilling debut from author Demitria Lunetta.

I can’t remember the last book to give me heart palpitations and nightmares, at least, the last book before In The After by Demitria Lunetta. Friends, I had the most brilliant idea in the entire world to read this book before bed and oh my goodness, you know how when a book is scary and you can’t put it down but you really want to close your eyes or just skip really fast through the scary parts? That’s how I felt with this book. I mean, In The After was such a compelling and hard to set down book, but also personally really scary to me. You see, I was really impressionable as a kid and would read Weekly World News and was so convinced that aliens were going to take over, also at one point I ended up watching like 20 minutes of Independence Day while also being really young and impressionable. So, like, one of my fears has always been alien invasions. Not so much anymore, BUT In The After totally brought me back to that phase of OMG I WOULD NEVER SURVIVE THIS.

Before, life was essentially the way it is now. Teenagers used the internet. People watched TV. People wandered around in the daytime with no fears or worries. Unfortunately for Amy, THEY have come. THEY being these very pale, bioluminescent aliens who have an insatiable hunger for humans. Luckily for Amy, she was in her home when it happened. Her home has this excellent security system and is surrounded by an electrified fence, so THEY can’t get in. Amy spends her days sleeping and her nights venturing beyond her house to forage. She finds that in her brave new world, other people are often not to be trusted. Amy is alone until one day she comes across a preternaturally quiet toddler with these amazing survival instincts at the local grocery store. Reluctantly, Amy takes the toddler back with her and the two communicate through sign language, because you have to be silent otherwise THEY will find you and eat you in the most gorey, bloodthirsty way possible. In The After is pretty much told in two parts – the first being Amy and Baby surviving the outside world and the second being Amy and Baby surviving at what they believe to be the last remaining safe city/compound. Overall, In The After by Demitria Lunetta is a high octane story and I have always wanted to say something is high octane. This book has provided me with that opportunity.

Okay, so the other day I was driving and listening to Sirius XM the 00s channel and the song Survivor by Destiny’s Child came on and immediately, well like 2 minutes into the song when I wasn’t belting the lyrics, I thought of main character Amy. She is a total survivor. She’s learned to forage. She’s learned to be smart. She’s learned the best and worst time to go out. She has learned to entertain herself so she doesn’t go crazy. Really, Amy is awesome and I can’t help but respect the heck out of her.

ALSO YOU GUYS for the first time in my entire reading career there has been a small child in a survival book that I have not wanted to get eaten by zombies, bears, aliens, what have you. Baby is the least annoying toddler and eventual small child that I have ever met. I mean, okay, I imagine that one day I will get some maternal instincts but for now, for me personally, I dread it when I read a book and there’s a small child involved because I don’t really care about small children, they basically put all the characters in more danger and just trip the story and the romance up. Baby, though, she’s good people and definitely the best that I have ever come across. So, thank you Demitria Lunetta for writing a small child that is not terrible and that does not fuck the whole storyline up.

Now, the world building in this book is scary and had me on pins and needles. Like, we understand the world as Amy understands it. We see the news as Amy is seeing the news. We see her hopes for humanity wink out. We see how hard it is for Amy that her parents did not survive. We see how scary something as simple as going to the grocery store is. Really, the suspense and heightened AHHHH SHOCK factor in this book is comparable to The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey, which I also loved.

Finally, if you’re looking at this book and thinking oh gross, a 470 page behemoth, knock it off. Lunetta’s In The After is a book that I seriously read in like 1.5 days. It’s a suspenseful, fast read with short chapters and so much action. Like, it’s one of those books where so much is happening and it’s actually interesting relevant, move the story and the pages along things, that it goes much faster than say a 300 page book where it feels like NOTHING is happening. Pretty much, I can tell you right now that I’ll be back for the sequel, In The End.

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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