In the End by Demitria Lunetta

You can read my review of the first book in this series, In the After, here.

There are some spoilers for In the After, so proceed with caution.

The first book was about a world ravaged by aliens. The aliens have super hearing and they eat people. Amy survived in her family's hippie compound house, scavenging the neighborhood and being very quiet. During one of her trips, she found a toddler who she called Baby. They became like sister, developing a crude sign language to communicate without alerting the aliens. The pair eventually trusted the wrong person and the house was taking. They ended up at a government compound where Amy finds out that her mom is still alive, and that the aliens are actually people. They turned into giant green flesh-eating monsters as a result of an experiment with plant DNA. This is why the aliens, called Floraes, are more active in the daytime and they are green because of chlorophyll. Also, when they bite people the person is infected and turned into a florae. Amy helps when a group of floraes are let into the compound, then she leaves to be on her own because there are people in the compound who want to kill her.

Now, Amy has been living on her own again. She still has some tech from New Hope: a scanner to repel florae, lightweight bodysuit so they can't bite her, and a headset for communication. One night she receives a message that the evil doctor took Baby. Baby, real name Hannah, had been bitten as part of the experiments. She never changed, so she is an important part of finding a cure. Amy immediately leaves her safe haven for Fort Black, the prison where she will find the man with information on Baby's whereabouts.

The fun thing that isn't fun about the prison is that it's being run by guards and inmates- horrible, rapey inmates. Amy no sooner enters the prison when she is almost raped. She is saved by a nice, non-rapey guy named Jacks (Short for Jackson). The second fun thing that isn't fun is that the women are treated terribly. In order to not be raped, women need to belong to a man and get a tattoo of the man's name on their arm. Of course, Amy isn't into that, but Jacks helps her out by pretending to be with her.

Things go from terrible to even worse at Fort Black. Amy's rapey nemesis targets her, planning to rape and murder her. As usual, Amy also uncovers some bad stuff going on behind the scenes that makes her a target, and lots of people end up dead. In the end, she has to return to New Hope to save Baby, a place where half the people want her dead.

In the End definitely made me angry. Fort Black and its misogynistic, rapey culture had me enraged. I like Amy because she is a strong and self sufficient female character, and she doesn't disappoint here. Jacks was the only decent male in Fort Black, and you can't help but hope that things work out with those two. The second book really deals more with the monsters that are post-disaster people rather than the actual monsters. I liked the first one more, but In the End was a pretty good conclusion to the series.

I received my copy of In the End from Edelweiss, courtesy of HarperTeen. It's available for purchase now.

In the After by Demitria Lunetta

   "This is how I think of time: the past is Before, and the present is the After. Before was reality; the After, a nightmare..."

In the After is another entry in what seems to be the year of the alien invasion. Thankfully, it is also an awesome and riveting book.

The invasion started with spaceships, then came the arrival of Them. They are green and vaguely similar to humans in shape, but with sharp teeth. These teeth are used to tear humans apart limb for limb, eating them alive while they are still screaming.

Amy is a teenage girl who was in her house during the arrival. Her father was a hippie and her mother worker for the government. Therefore, Amy's house is equipped with solar panels and a rooftop garden, as well as a gun and impenetrable electric fence.

The aliens have very sensitive hearing, but poor eyesight at night. Amy sneaks out at night to get food and other necessities. One night, she finds a young girl in the store she names Baby. Amy and Baby develop a form of sign language to communicate without attracting the aliens. They become as close as sisters, forming routines to help them survive.

Eventually, they have to leave the house (It would probably be a pretty boring book otherwise). It seems like in every zombie/alien/dystopian book, there is a point where the main character(s) are taken to a safe place. They think that they can finally rest...but it's not as it seems. The safety is just an illusion. So it is in this book, not to give too much away. I am a little embarrassed that it took me this long to recognize the pattern.

In conclusion, In the After was a very good read. It's narrative flows really well, so much that I was compelled to keep flipping the pages. It was also full of suspense and a pleasing amount of gore from the aliens. I am definitely excited to read the next book in this series.

I received my copy of In the After from Edelweiss, courtesy of HarperTeen. It's available for purchase now.