Book Review: In The After by Demitria Lunetta

As I stated in my Apocalypse discussion, I tend to really like books that fall into this genre. So, to prove my point even further, I decided to read a book within the genre that caught my interest. After all, this book was said to be similar to Legend, and I think you all know how I feel about that trilogy. I also needed to find another book within this genre to review because I was actually planning to review World After this week, but that’s beside the point (click here for why I won’t ever read that monstrosity). And…while this book did leave me slightly disappointed in some respects, I thought it was pretty good. It had some creative elements, and some really strong characters. It definitely wasn’t the masterpiece that Legend was, but I really was not expecting it to be anyway. So, from a critical perspective, does In The After crash and burn? Sit back, relax, and read on as I review In The After.

The Setup:

In a setup that has never been done before in an apocalypse book, the world ends. Gasp! On one perfectly normal day, these aliens called “Them” (please don’t question the logic; I don’t want to spoil anything, and They are referred to as “They” and “Them” for the first part of the book before Their real name is revealed) invade our planet. They are a hungry bunch, eating every human they could find, and have impeccable hearing. Their coloring is also rather peculiar, with Them being both yellow and green, their blood being black. Now that I’m really thinking about this, the setup of Them in this book is practically the same as the zombies World War Z, except They are aliens and have a different color code. You could also draw comparisons of this setup from another recently released book called The Fifth Wave, but since I haven’t read that book I can’t really do that. Moving on, we are introduced to our main character Amy, a bookish girl who lives an ideal life with her friends until They attack. Fortunately for her, her mom was a control freak and her dad was an environmentalist, so her house has an electric fence, she has a gun at her disposal, her electricity comes from solar panels, and her water comes from the rain. This is the unique part of the setup, mainly because we usually don’t see someone living a truly “normal” life after the apocalypse, within his or her home. You could argue that the entire setup was out of pure plot convenience, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t; I think it’s rather unique. It lends itself to a ton of possibilities when it comes to the characters, which I’ll get to in a moment. So, while Amy learns more about how to survive in this hostile environment, she comes across our next main character, Baby, of whom Amy takes back to her home and raises her, thus the story takes off.

The Characters:

One of the aspects that I particularly like about the characters in this book are their realistic reactions to the changing world around them, which is essential in any apocalypse book. This is no more evident than in our main character, Amy. Her character developed pretty quickly into a hardened survivor, but not to the point where it felt rushed. She started off normally enough; she had friends, a loving yet overly-careful family, good grades, and a happy life. When They attack, you genuinely feel her denial towards the end of the world gradually fade away as she adapts, becoming stronger and more careful. This development is fantastic and creative, mainly because in most apocalyptic books we only see the characters after Armageddon, but that’s not the case here. I have got to say, Amy is an extraordinarily well-written character, and one of the strongest female leads I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. Sure, she’s a little bit generic when the second half comes along, but it’s her development within the first half that makes you relate to her and want her to survive. You also get the sense that she truly cares about preserving her life, especially when she “adopts” Baby and becomes a big-sister figure to her. You rarely see these types of relationships develop within a book; when relationships do develop, it’s normally a romantic one. There is a little bit of romance within this book, though, but that’s beside the point right now. Baby, as a character, is the smartest toddler ever to be incorporated into a book, but at the same time retains the inexperienced innocence of a toddler, which is actually a lot harder to balance out than one might think. She’s a very memorable character in my opinion because of the relationship between Baby and Amy alone, along with being well-written. So, with the two main protagonists being so memorable, I was hoping that the book wouldn’t fall into the trap of not putting as much effort into writing the side characters, but it kind of does. The average character within the latter half of the story barely spends enough time with the main characters for me to truly sympathize with them. Rice, for example, is the love interest, and as far as love interests go, he’s not terrible, but was kind of bland. Granted, he wasn’t a complete jerk like most love interests are, but his dialogue reflected a stale personality that didn’t really make me interested in him. The same can be said for basically every other side character with the exception of maybe one or two, but to avoid spoilers I can’t really go into detail about any of them.

The Story:

The story of In The After is kind of generic for this genre; people survive, they find refuge in a place that remained untouched when the apocalypse struck, characters learn some dark and/or twisted secret, and so on. Pretty typical. However, the first half of this book tells the story of Amy and Baby as they live outside of a refuge, and to be perfectly honest, the book should have stayed that way! If the book were only about that, then, at least in my opinion, it would have been more enjoyable because it was more unique and would be a lot less predictable. I mean sure, you could argue, “But Legend was set up that way, and you love those books!” Well, the main difference between Legend and In The After is execution. Legend was set up to be a book about a twisted government to begin with, and it was much better at crafting mysteries that legitimately kept me guessing throughout the entire trilogy. In In The After, the mysteries are practically spelled out for me, and for the most part I could see where the story was heading, with the exception of one twist that I will not spoil. Still, even after the book goes into generic territory it was still a well-written story that kept me interested mainly because of the writing.

The Writing Style/Grammatical Errors:

The writing of this book is spectacular. It perfectly created the right tone for a book within this genre, being fast, exciting, tense, and descriptive. Though, to be perfectly fair, it does fall into generic territory when we get to the second half, with the exception of how the story is told. In the second half, the perspective alternates between “two” Amys, originally seeming to have no connection to each other, but as you read further into the book, it starts to make sense. I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling too much, but that was the most interesting part of the second half. As for grammatical errors, there were a few, but in all honestly they weren’t painful enough to stop me from reading the book. It mainly had to do with punctuation, though it really wasn’t all that common.

Final Judgment:

So, is In The After worth reading? Yes, I think it is. Its high points are definitely within the first half, where Amy and Baby get a lot of character development alongside an exciting and suspenseful story. In the second half, things fall into generic territory, but it’s not terrible, and it’s where the writing takes a unique turn to keep you interested. However, it is pretty predictable especially if you have experience with this genre, though to be perfectly honest, I don't care how predictable something is as long as it has engaging characters, and Amy and Baby were enough for me to think this book was great. Overall, I give In The After a solid 4 out of 5, and a recommendation to read it. If you like apocalypse books, you’re sure to love it, but if you’re into romance, it’s probably best if you stay away from this one. But, like always, it is up to you to decide your own opinions.
ScoreCard:

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/In-After-Demitria-Lunetta/dp/0062105450/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1388101542&sr=8-1

Further Recommendations:

The Fifth Wave

Though I haven’t read it, I must say that the setup (aliens invading Earth and taking over) is pretty similar to In The After. So, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read another alien apocalypse book.

Finding Eden

This apocalypse book is exciting, creative (albeit a little implausible), and is a great read. It isn’t a series or trilogy, which is kind of a rarity, so if you want a quick apocalypse read, check this book out.

Next week is…The 2013 Media Awards! Hurray! I will also have an anime review prepared for next week, and here’s the hint: Completely, amazingly, and brilliantly epic.

That is all.