“I am not the shards of a broken glass, but the water let loose from it. The uncontainable thing that will not shatter and stay broken.”

Synopsis: Set in the future where water has covered most of the continental land across the world, Myra and her daughter Pearl are living on their boat. They sail from port to port selling fish for other goods. Myra dreams of finding land and a solid home but neither feel like it will become a reality.

After running into an enemy, Myra learns about the whereabouts of her other daughter, the one her husband run away with before Pearl was born.

Struggling with her internal demons and her maternal desire to protect both of her daughters, Myra and Pearl set out on a quest to find Row. With the help of unlikely friends, a few disasters and trials, Myra begins to see the possibility of finding her daughter and building a new life together. But with raiders lurking in the waters, storms brewing on the sea, and an epidemic on the coast, Myra wonders if she will make it to her daughter in time to save her from an ill fate.

Review: This book came out in September of 2019 and I do not think it is getting the hype it deserves! I absolutely love this book. I had found it on the shelves at the library on a whim a while back and wasn’t able to read it before I needed to return it. Disheartened, I knew that I would get the chance soon and sure enough, my school library ponied it in from a different school and I got to bring it home for my spring break!

First off, I love the dystopian, apocalyptic setting that Kassandra Montag was able to create. She did an excellent job of weaving in the history and allowing the reader to feel the tension in the air. We could see the transitions from our normal lives to life on sea.

The setting was not the only thing she did well. The characters in this novel were very complex with secrets that drove them to make the decisions they did. Nobody was flat, but rather every character we came in contact with had a backstory filled with grief, hope, and desire.

Kassandra Montag’s use of imagery was very powerful in her ability to create such a well rounded story. She described scenes so vividly that you felt like you were there, drowning in the dreams of others. I fell in love with her flashbacks and character anecdotes and it filled all the little gaps. There were many times where I felt like I could cry with the characters or was filled with fear as danger encroached.

For a dystopian novel, this one was not super far fetched and I liked that aspect of it. It didn’t feel so outlandish that I needed to be transported to a different galaxy all together. That realistic element also made the novel a little bit creepier. The fear of the novel amid the virus that is spreading around the globe, were all too creepy to be read and experienced at the same time.

Regardless, this was a 5 star read and I hope you give it a chance! If you have, leave a comment and let me know what you thought!

Happy reading.

Amazon Link: After The Flood