Category Archives: Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic

Review: Day Moon by Brett Armstrong

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, New Adult 18up, Sci-Fi, , , ,

Day Moon by Brett ArmstrongDay Moon
Brett Armstrong
Clean Reads
Published March 26, 2017

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About Day Moon
In A.D. 2039, a prodigious seventeen year old, Elliott, is assigned to work on a global soft-ware initiative his deceased grandfather helped found. Project Alexandria is intended to provide the entire world secure and equal access to all accumulated human knowledge. All forms of print are destroyed in good faith, to ensure everyone has equal footing, and Elliott knows he must soon part with his final treasure: a book of Shakespeare’s complete works gifted him by his grandfather.

Before it is destroyed, Elliott notices something is amiss with the book, or rather Project Alexandria. The two do not match, including an extra sonnet titled “Day Moon”. When Elliott investigates, he uncovers far more than he bargained for. There are sinister forces backing Project Alexandria who have no intention of using it for its public purpose.

Elliott soon finds himself on the run from federal authorities and facing betrayals and deceit from those closest to him. Following clues left by his grandfather, with agents close at hand, Elliott desperately hopes to find a way to stop Project Alexandria. All of history past and yet to be depend on it.

My Review
Ever since I read The Giver in probably fourth or fifth grade, dystopian stories have held a special place in my heart. I loved this premise about knowledge being stored and then used to manipulate others. It reminded me a bit of the Matched series by Ally Condie or The Great Library series by Rachel Caine.

I had kind of a love/hate relationship with the voice of Day Moon. On the one hand, Elliot works as a software engineer, and the way he talks and thinks reminds me a great deal of the way my husband, also a software engineer, communicates. So it felt really authentic. On the other hand, it also tended to be very passive and use a lot of words to say things. I think that kind of writing weighed the story down and kept me at a distance from scenes that should have been super intense.

I enjoyed the use of Shakespeare and the search for clues from Elliot’s grandfather, but sometimes the plot seemed to jump around and leave important threads hanging. For instance, near the beginning, Elliot’s superiors close in around him, demanding he produce the book his grandfather left him, the book which he lent to his friend Lara. Elliot never seems to consider whether this places Lara in danger, even as the guys looking for the book become more and more sinister. For a long stretch, it seems he forgets about the book altogether while he gets wrapped up in the search for his grandfather’s clues. I kept reading scenes thinking, okay, yeah, but where’s the book?! Who has the book?! Are the bad guys about to get it? Where is it?

I also struggled with the timeline of the story. It’s supposed to be set in 2039, which is only about 22 years from now. Elliot recalls stories from his grandfather about driverless cars and combustion engines when it seems like these would be things familiar to his parents’ generation as well. I didn’t understand why everything seemed tied to his grandfather when so little time had passed. Maybe Elliot never knew his father? I don’t recall any explanation on that in the story.

One of the cool elements in Day Moon was the way Elliot and Lara connected over a shared passion for artwork. I liked that they were students in an accelerated program, which gave some reason for them to act a little less like teens and more like college kids. On the other hand, though, I didn’t feel like they had any real teen issues at all. Neither of them lived with parents or seemed to feel close ties with immediate family members. I didn’t get the sense that they were breaking into adulthood, but more like they were experienced participants, so I don’t think I would really classify the story as young adult. It’s more like clean new adult fiction.

While this wasn’t my favorite book, readers looking for a dystopian story featuring a character with strong software talents will find it easy to identify with Elliot’s gentle, sometimes awkward character. Shakespeare fans may enjoy the way quotes and elements from Shakespeare’s works are woven into a sort of scavenger hunt. The light romance between Elliot and Lara may appeal to readers looking for a bit of summer love, too.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Not a lot of ethnic or cultural details in the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A man and woman frantically kiss on top of a hotel bed, but separate before going to sleep. Elliot feels conscious of his attraction to Lara, but also committed to Christian virtues in relationships.

Spiritual Content
Elliot prays for help in times of need. At one point, he pauses to examine his behavior and worries he isn’t being very Christ-like.

Violent Content
A man knocks someone unconscious with a shovel. At one point, Elliot and his allies leave a man tied up in the trunk of a car while they figure out what to do next.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press
Published September 14, 2008

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About The Hunger Games

The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment, and as a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 through a lottery system to participate in the games. The ‘tributes’ are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.

When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. She sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

My Review

My favorite thing about The Hunger Games is the balance between Katniss and Peeta. Katniss is a survivor. She’s strong and clever with traps and snares but emotions totally mystify her. Peeta’s work at the bakery affords him physical strength, but his real asset in the Games is his intuition, his understanding of others, and his strength of heart. Those two need each other if they have any hope of surviving in the arena.

While the plot moves quickly and the threat of death keeps readers on the edge of their seats, the story’s real victory is its unforgettable characters. Rue, the clever, young tribute Katniss watches in training, and Cinna, her compassionate costume designer and unexpected ally, remain my favorites.

While it’s very accessible for young readers in other ways, The Hunger Games, as you might imagine from the description, has some strong violence which may make it the wrong pick for younger or more sensitive readers. My daughter has been asking to read Divergent, which has more violence and some sexual content, which I’m not sure she’s ready for, so reading The Hunger Games was an alternative I felt more comfortable with, and which still let her into a book on the young adult spectrum. We read the book together and sometimes stopped to talk about what was happening.

The Hunger Games Movie

After reading the book, my daughter and I watched the movie together. It does have some brief, mild profanity, and of course, gives visual to the violence depicted in the scenes of the book. The movie stays pretty true to the spirit of the book, though it does streamline and minimize some things. For instance, instead of Katniss listening to hours of a tribute being tortured, she quickly ends his life in an act of mercy.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. A couple spends nights together, but usually one or other is gravely injured, and at any rate, no mention of anything sexual happening.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Strong violence. Tributes actively try to kill one another with weapons and traps. An older teen kills a younger one with a spear. A girl kills opponents with knives. Mutant wasps kill and wound others. A boy bashes another tribute’s skull in with a rock. Genetically mutated monsters which appear to be some kind of human/dog hybrid chase tributes, torturing one they catch. (Katniss describes hearing the pained sounds of the victim for hours, but can’t see what’s happening.)

Drug Content
Katniss samples wine with her dinner. Her mentor, Haymitch, abuses alcohol. He stumbles about drunk and at one point collapses into his own vomit.

Note: I purchased a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links which cost nothing to use but help support this blog. Thanks for using them to do your shopping!

Post updated 9/30/2025.

 

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Review: Perfect by Cecelia Ahern

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Perfect
Cecelia Ahern
Feiwel & Friends
Available April 4, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Summary from Goodreads
Celestine North lives in a society that demands perfection. After she was branded Flawed by a morality court, Celestine’s life has completely fractured–all her freedoms gone.

Since Judge Crevan has declared her the number one threat to the public, she has been a ghost, on the run with Carrick–the only person she can trust.

But Celestine has a secret–one that could bring the entire Flawed system crumbling to the ground. A secret that has already caused countless people to go missing.

Judge Crevan is gaining the upper hand, and time is running out for Celestine. With tensions building, Celestine must make a choice: save just herself or to risk her life to save all Flawed people.

And, most important of all, can she prove that to be human in itself is to be Flawed?

My Review
Perfect was the first book by Cecelia Ahern that I’ve read. Even though I haven’t read the first book in the series, I found it fairly easy to follow the story. I think reading the first book would have helped me understand her relationship with Carrick better and made their reunion more meaningful.

The premise was the most interesting part to me. Celestine lives in a society in which good behavior is vital to survival. One mistake can leave a person literally branded as imperfect and make them outcasts. When Celestine ignores her society’s rules about shunning those outcasts marked Flawed, she earns her own branding.

The story made me think a lot of the beginning of I Corinthians chapter 13. It starts with this list of really impressive abilities—being able to perform miracles, helping the poor, speaking in the tongues of angels, etc—but warns, “if I have not love, I am nothing.”

In Perfect, Celestine’s society has become obsessed with living this outwardly perfect life. What Celestine discovers, though, is the price to live such a “perfect” life demands giving up compassion, mercy, and empathy. She rallies others around her to stop living these cold, rule-bound lives and instead forgive each other, show mercy. She wants everyone to realize that no one is without flaw, and therefore the system is based on a lie anyway.

I liked that message a lot. Readers who enjoyed Lauren Oliver’s Delirium or Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies will probably enjoy this book.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. They have sex. The scene describes some lead-in, but not the actual event. Guard corral a group of women into a barn and force them to change into skimpy outfits to shame them.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Celestine remembers a terrible incident in which Judge Crevan brands her without anesthesia. Soldiers believe Celestine hides underneath a pile of kindling and demand that her family light it.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Denton Little’s Still Not Dead by Lance Rubin

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Denton Little’s Still Not Dead
Lance Rubin
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published February 7, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Denton Little is supposed to be dead. Mandatory testing that accurately predicts date of death set his deathdate as the same day as his senior prom, only instead of dying, Denton broke out in a bizarre purple and red rash and, um, didn’t actually die. Turns out, Denton might be the key to ending the stranglehold the DIA (Death Intelligence Agency) has on everyone. A rebel group led by someone Denton thought he’d never see again seems to have answers he desperately wants, but they also have a poorly concealed agenda that Denton doesn’t trust. What he really wants is to find out why he lived and use that information to save his best friend Paolo, whose deathdate is less than a month away.

I heard of this series in Charleston at YALLFest last November when I went to an author panel and heard Lance Rubin speak. He’s pretty much hilarious, and I felt like, okay, if his book is half as funny as he is, I definitely want to read it. Truth? It’s more than half as funny. Denton’s voice is fantastic—feels like spending an afternoon with a goofy, awkward kid in all the most amazing ways. Also, I loved Paolo. I think you’d have to be actually dead not to like him. He’s kind of the unfettered heart of the story and the loyal best friend. I loved him.

I wished there wasn’t so much profanity and other content in the story because that’s a thing for me and because I know it’s a thing for some of the people who I think would otherwise totally love this book. I also kept forgetting that Denton was a high school senior and thinking he was younger—which I think is just me.

The friendship and humor made this book a super fun read. The suspense elements blended pretty well with the humor (does that seem weird? I guess it does, but I thought it worked.) and gave it a cross-genre feel that I liked. I definitely recommend this to readers looking for a laugh-out-loud book or a less serious dystopian tale. If you liked Away We Go by Emil Ostrovski but want something lighter, this is probably the right speed for you.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Denton’s best friend Paolo and his sister are Hispanic. (Did I mention I love Paolo?)

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently. Some crude language.

Romance/Sexual Content
Denton slept with his best friend’s sister before this book begins and mentions it without giving details other than that he was not sober and they both thought was about to die. He has a couple of sexual experiences described in moderate detail. One instance leaves behind some physical evidence that’s discussed a bit by Denton. There are several instances of boy/girl kissing and one boy/boy kissing.

Spiritual Content
At first Denton wonders if he really did die and is having a really strange experience in heaven (totally not the kind of heaven he was expecting).

Violent Content
Denton’s on the run from a governmental agency pretty determined to capture him and rumored to plan on torturing or killing him. Some brief chase scenes, bad guys with guns, that sort of thing.

Drug Content
Denton’s brother provides him with a fake ID that allows him to buy alcohol. Denton and his friends drink on more than one occasion. Paolo and Denton smoke pot. Paolo buys it from a kid at his school. It seems like maybe it began as a thing to do because they were going to die soon, so why not? But they do smoke more often than that.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Review: City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Middle Grade 8-12,

City of Ember
Jeanne DuPrau
Yearling Books
Published in 2003

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Lina has only known life in the City of Ember, a settlement built and stocked with all the supplies its citizens might need hundreds of years earlier. Now the shelves of the storehouses grow increasingly bare, and power outages plague everyone. When Lina and her best friend Doon discover a damaged document, Lina wonders if it could be from the Builders themselves. She and Doon work to decipher the message and save Ember before the city’s power supply fails for the last time.

I picked up this book because a friend recommended it, and I’m so glad I did. Actually, I wish I’d found it sooner, because it’s definitely the kind of story my daughter and I would have enjoyed reading together when she was a little younger. City of Ember would make an excellent family read. If there’s an audiobook version, I’d recommend it for a family road trip.

Reading the chapters, I felt like I could see the city underground. The characters are confused by references to things outside their experience that are commonplace for us. This definitely gave the story that closed-in feel while letting the readers have a bit of a laugh at the joke.

I loved Lina and her family, Doon, and especially Doon’s father, who always encouraged him to think more deeply and critically about the world around him, even when it was an unpopular thing to do.

If you liked The Giver or The Diary of Anne Frank you want to check this one out. Sorry, I know those are both classics… this story definitely has the same kind of feel to me, and has won many awards as well.

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Cultural Elements
There weren’t many cultural details given about the characters, but most appeared to be white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Long ago, Builders built the city and left Instructions for the people to follow. Citizens still keep the instructions as sacred, but not in a worshipped sense.

Violent Content
At one point, guards chase Lina and threaten her with confinement.

Drug Content
None.

 

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Review: The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

The Wolf Road
Beth Lewis
Crown
Available July 5, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A reward poster reveals to seventeen-year-old Elka that the man who raised her for the last seven years is not the father she’s hoped for him to be. The poster unlocks details of memories Elka kept suppressed, and she knows she can no longer deny the truth of the monster he is. With a vengeful law officer hot on the trail, Elka knows she can’t return home. Her only choice is to push north, toward the place she keeps locked in her heart, the place her mama talked about in her last letter. The journey spans hundreds of miles of unforgiving wilderness, and Elka will need all her skills to survive everything nature can throw at her. But the deadliest enemy hunting Elka isn’t a beast, but the very man she once hoped loved her.

This novel is a bit darker than the books I usually read. What drew me to it was the psychological elements of the story: Elka’s suppressed memories and the real reasons her adopted father tracks her through her quest. I loved that the story didn’t follow a straight shot from the revelation that the man was a serial killer to his capture.

The Wolf Road wasn’t so much about the violence but about its effect on Elka and how she viewed the world. She didn’t realize how much her views were skewed until she broadened her community to include others. I think that’s an important message—that we need others in our lives to sort of check and balance us. There’s never a moment in the story where the author says, okay, here’s the real message, but it came through loud and clear, which I definitely appreciated, and certainly isn’t an easy feat.

The violence was a difficult hurdle for me, since I’m super sensitive to that. I liked that Elka feels consistently horrified by those moments. If you know me at all, you know I really struggle with stories that seem to revel in a killer’s cruelty or insanity. I can’t handle that. But this story didn’t do that, which made the scenes easier.

Elka’s character definitely felt real and three-dimensional to me. Sometimes I forgot that she was seventeen, but I feel like even that was appropriate. I feel like the incredibly sheltered life she’d lived would have matured her in some ways and left her stunted in others—and that definitely came through on the pages of the story.

This novel is probably not for the faint of heart, but if you like intense stories and wilderness survival, it’s probably right up your alley. See below for more specific content information.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Elka meets a black man and his son in her travels. She becomes close friends with him and his sister. There are hints at romance between Elka’s companion and the man.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content – TRIGGER WARNING
A man tries to rape Elka. She fights back, but it’s clearly traumatizing. Elka and a friend find themselves sold by a human trafficker. It’s unclear what Elka’s companion has had to endure before Elka finds her, but she knows how to use her body to manipulate men.

Spiritual Content
The story takes place following what might have been a world war that some refer to as the Rapture. Elka takes more of her grandmother’s view of it, referring to it as a big stupid event.

At one point, she’s captured by a man who intends to perform some kind of spiritual ritual sacrifice which he believes will ensure a mild winter.

Violent Content
The Wolf Road contains intense violence. Elka hides from her adopted father, who tracks her like an animal. It’s unclear whether he intends to kill her, but she knows he’s killed others. At one point he says some pretty creepy stuff to her, like about how her skin would make a nice pair of boots. Elka hunts and kills/prepares meat for her dinner. A man captures Elka for a ritual sacrifice. Elka stabs a man more than once in self-defense.

As the story unfolds, Elka remembers more and more about her life with the man who adopted her. Some of the details are pretty grisly. The man murdered and dismembered his victims—usually women and sometimes children—sometimes eating them.

Drug Content
A man drugs Elka without her knowledge.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.