SURVIVAL
From the After series, volume 2
by J. Taylor
A teenage girl and her friend find new companions and encounter unexpected dangers in Taylor’s YA SF sequel.
Charlotte and her friend Anna, Nova Scotian teenagers who lost family members in the ENO.9 worldwide pandemic, are seeking shelter and safety. After Charlotte’s father Glen and older brother Samuel disappeared while on a supply-gathering trip, a man named Dave Steveston appeared at Charlotte’s family homestead. Steveston threatened their lives; the girls escaped from the homestead and began a search for new lodgings and supplies. They find another homestead which appears to be abandoned; however, they soon locate the bodies of 13 people, all victims of the virus. Despite the grim discovery, the girls decide to stay on the property. When a teenage boy named Luke returns to the homestead to discover he’s lost his entire family, the girls find an unlikely but steadfast ally, and Charlotte experiences her first crush. Despite the respite from the dangers caused by the virus, concerns about Charlotte’s father and brother linger for both girls, and Anna decides to return to Charlotte’s homestead to see if they have returned. The simple plan soon becomes a fight for survival when a natural disaster and severe injury put Charlotte and Luke in grave danger. The second installment of Taylor’s The After series improves upon its predecessor by expanding the worldbuilding and deepening the friendship of its main characters. The author moves the primary setting from Charlotte’s homestead to Luke’s, giving Charlotte (and readers) insight into the ways the virus has affected other families. The expanded setting comes with the introduction of an intriguing new character: Luke, a 17-year-old whose tentative romance with Charlotte provides some of the novel’s most poignant moments and demonstrates how love can engender a sense of hope even in the midst of tragedy. The friendship between Anna and Charlotte forms the emotional center of the narrative as a relationship that began as transactional (“I needed you and what you had much more than you needed me, Char”) becomes a sisterly bond.
A skillfully crafted tale of survival and the power of hope and connection.