Review: After the Flood

Author: Kassandra Montag
Started reading: December 26th 2019
Finished the book: January 24th 2020
Pages: 432
Genres: Dystopian, Fiction
Published: September 3rd 2019
Source: Kindle Copy
Goodreads score: 3.75
My score:

Synopsis

A little more than a century from now, our world has been utterly transformed. After years of slowly overtaking the continent, rising floodwaters have obliterated America’s great coastal cities and then its heartland, leaving nothing but an archipelago of mountaintop colonies surrounded by a deep expanse of open water.

Stubbornly independent Myra and her precocious seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, fish from their small boat, the Bird, visiting dry land only to trade for supplies and information in the few remaining outposts of civilization. For seven years, Myra has grieved the loss of her oldest daughter, Row, who was stolen by her father after a monstrous deluge overtook their home in Nebraska. Then, in a violent confrontation with a stranger, Myra suddenly discovers that Row was last seen in a far-off encampment near the Arctic Circle. Throwing aside her usual caution, Myra and Pearl embark on a perilous voyage into the icy northern seas, hoping against hope that Row will still be there.

My thoughts

Thanks to Arjen for doing this buddyread with me! I was pretty curious about this book, since I really like dystopian books. I'm always eager to see how the author changed our world in the future. While reading I found out that this wasn't really my book and I knew very early that the book would get 3 stars max. I'll explain in this review why!

Pros

• Dystopian: I love dystopian worlds that are brutal. I always like to see how people react and 9 out of 10 times, other people are the real threat. It's always fascinating to me how people turn on each other. The human nature in these books intrigues me. It shows how different people can react to precarious situations. This also reminded me a bit of, for example, The Walking Dead, where other people can be really cruel, while the world is harsh enough on its own.
• Deaths: If a world is harsh, you just need deaths in a book. This book definitely has some harsh deaths that were pretty emotional. It added more weight on the situation that the main character is in. It made this new world much more believable as well.

Cons

• Doesn't flow: No pun intended, but this story didn't flow for me. Sometimes nothing big happens and then all of a sudden a LOT happens. It just felt like it wasn't flowing like a good story should. The pacing was a bit off at certain parts.
• Main character: I didn't like the main character. She gets mad pretty at people close to her so easily. Then she confronts them about stuff that she does herself as well. It came over as a bit hypocritical. She wasn't very nice and was blaming other people a lot.
• Important details: It feels a bit weird that important details for the backstory were not revealed until 90% in the book. It came across as if these details were just slapped on it because the author needed them. It would've made much more sense for important things to be disclosed a bit earlier in the book. This like this happened a lot in this book and I felt like details were just put there because they would fit a particular scene. It felt the same with the flashbacks in this book. Again; it didn't flow like it should.

Overall

I'm aware that there were loads of people that liked this book and were very enthusiastic about it. It just wasn't my book, I didn't feel it, I didn't get the vibe. I was annoyed with so many little things that it was very hard to make up for it. Oh, well. Better luck with the next book, hopefully!

Other opinions on this book

"The searing, often brutal story of a mother's terrifying quest to find her missing daughter in a post-apocalyptic world. Haunting and shocking."

- Liv Constantine, Bestselling author

"Spellbinding and aching at every turn, After the Flood is an evocative tale of despair and fierce hope existing within a shattered future. Kassandra Montag weaves together a watery, post-apocalyptic world that will leave readers breathless."

- Lydia Kang, author of Beautiful Poison

Memorable quotes from this book

"I knew it was sometimes easier to love ghosts than the people who were around you. Ghosts could be perfect, frozen beyond time, beyond reality, the crystal form they'd never been before, the person you needed them to be."

Thanks for reading!

I'd love to talk books; please let me know what you think about this book/review.