Above -- Reviewed by Paige Espinosa

          Imagine being abducted from a fair with you whole town right there but no one notices you leaving. Blythe Hallowell is taken from her small town's annual Horse Thieves Picnic by the school's weird, survivalist librarian, who she learns has been planning on keeping her hidden and safe from the impending apocalypse. This is the story of Blythe's life hidden underground in an abandoned missile silo, kept by a mad man, and of how she comes to find her way back above.
     I gave this  book three and a half out of five stars because it was good, I just had a hard time really getting into it. It was definitely original and unlike most books I've read though which I really liked. I really liked how no main character was really truly likable or totally despicable. Even Dobbs- a crazy kidnapping madman- wasn't all bad. He was really just wrong in the head because his intentions were, arguably, good. Blythe starts going a little bit crazy underground and by the end she isn't anything close to the sweet sixteen year old that got kidnapped; she's a thirty-something year old woman who lost her whole childhood and had her future dreams crushed as well, which made me not even like her character's attitude and thoughts at time. I would recommend this to anyone who wanted to read a new, original dystopian novel.

Above - Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Above by Isla Morley

Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Sixteen year old Blythe is going about her average business in the small town of Eudora, Kansas; arguing with her siblings, falling for a boy named Arlo, and enjoying the town's annual picnic and just growing up a regular teenage girl, with nothing out of the ordinary. That is until the town's librarian, Dobbs Hordin, kidnaps her the night of the Horse Thieves Picnic and hids her away from her normal world, preaching the End of all as we know it. He keeps her held captive in an abandoned missile silo in the vast fields of Kansas, where he has made his survivalist home of sorts, to wait out the end, and then repopulate the vacant world as the Remnant of humankind. Blythe struggles with the idea of no one coming to her rescue, and deals with failed attempts of escape; she is stuck and no one is going to save her. She fights off and eventually succumbs to some kind of insanity, accepting that this is where she will reside until she passes from this life, but it will never be a home. She deals with many traumatic events during her time down under, until miraculously she finds escape seventeen years later. But the world she returns to is so different than the one she had previously known, will she be able to return to life above ground? Was escape really worth it in the end?

I LOVED this book, it was just as good as I had expected it to be. Starting right in the midst of the drama from the very first line, and working its way through the storyline until the very end this book keeps you on your toes. Blythe's character grows, maybe not in the happiest or most positive way, but seeing how Morley writes her changing while stuck in this hidden silo is crazy because she sticks with the initial passion to escape, but eventually settles with the fact that this is her life now, and escape will not happen. Also seeing Dobbs go from Blythe's captor who won't lay a hand on her, to a crazed man who even through all this, might have loved her all along, is just so weird. Also all the different means of escape, states of minds, and drama that Blythe endures is just mindblowing to experience as a reader. The writing style of Morley was detailed, breathtaking and enrapturing for me. The only fact that kept me from giving this book five stars is that after Blythe manages to get out of the silo, the setup of the plot just seems to be random and not as well thought through and put together. It bored me in comparison to what I had just previously read, and had me skimming the pages multiple times before i completely grasped what was going on. Overall, though, a fantastic book that I would recommend to any apocalyptic/thriller genre fans! Great book!

Above reviewed by: Portia Rockers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is about a sixteen year old named Blythe who lives a normal every day life, she goes to school and hangs out with friends. Until one day she is abducted by the schools librarian Dobbs, who is a survivalist. Dobbs believes that the End is coming and makes a shelter in an abandon missile silo. Blythe must now learn to deal with being locked under ground trying to find away to escape and dealing with insanity. But is Dobbs right about The End? Is her family still looking for her after all this time? And how will she escape with a child?

 

I liked this book a lot! The plot was of the story was really good. In the beginning it was one shock after another. There was a few spots in the book where was a bit dry and boring, but it picked right back up again. I felt really sorry for Blythe and it made me think what I would do if I were in her situation. I found Dobbs interesting as well, though he was creepy I think he loved Blythe. If you like this book you might also like The Lovely Bones, I thought there were some similar aspects in both the books. I recommend this book for some one who likes apocalyptic type books along with kidnapping and mystery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ashfall reviewed by Paige Espinosa

 

 

 

     Alex is just one of those typical, unremarkable guys in high school who likes playing World of Warcraft and wishes he could get a date. That is, until the volcano in Yellowstone National Park finally erupts and the world is buried in ash. With no electricity, no indoor plumbing and a scarcity of clean water, Alex faces a trek through multiple feet of choking ash to find his family who were on a trip while he was left home alone during this catastrophe. Along the way, of course he meets a girl who travels with him and since the world is seemingly ending and there is no one of the opposite sex for miles around, you guessed it, there's a bit of a budding romance there.
     I gave this book three and a half stars because it was a believable and original apocalyptic storyline. My biggest issue was with a few characters who were just way too ridiculous for me. For example, the recently-released-from-prison-axe-murderer that just seems to pop up everywhere! Even Alex and his friend that's a girl, Darla, seem a bit ridiculous at parts. Darla is 17-almost-18 and is giving this 15-recently-turned-16 year old boy the time of day? All I can say is gross. As a girl Darla's age, I personally want nothing to do with guys younger than me. As an adult, that age difference is nothing but as a teenager, that's like a 5-10 year age gap! Despite some of the unbelievable parts of this book, I still might read the rest of this trilogy.

Inhuman- Reviewed by Paige Espinosa

     Delaney Park McEvoy is just your average teenager growing up after a plague that wiped out the Eastern half of The United States. The giant wall separating the West from the East is a regular sight for her, she attends classes online to prevent spreading germs among other students and she dresses up to impress boys with her best friend, Annapolis. That is, she was normal until biohazard agents crashed a party she was attending and seized her to test for possible contamination with the Ferae virus.
     Ferae is a virus that has evolved over the years after the initial epidemic of plague. Now, humans living on the East side of the wall who are infected with Ferae don't just die, they mutate into feral animals, intent on mauling every other human in its path- or so the government says.
     I gave this book four out of five stars because it was well-written, a quick-read, and interesting and engaging from the first page to the last. I enjoyed how one of the boys involved in a budding love triangle acknowledged this development and decided he was out of it, there would be no love triangle. (However, later on there is still a love triangle; I wish it would have ended there and then when Rafe declared we wouldn't be a part of it.) I also had a few moments where the Ferae virus seemed so ridiculous I wished they were just zombies instead. Tiger-men and men with tusks just pushed the envelope to the brink for me and "manimals" pushed it too far. ("Manimals" are people infected with Ferae who are mutating but aren't feral yet. It also makes me think of Pillow Pets and it sounds like something that would be advertised on late night television for "just $19.95 plus shipping and handling!" The term the author used was just too comical for me at points during the book.) Despite my dislike for the ridiculously far-fetched apocalyptic premise, by the end of the book I really loved the characters and even loved a "manimal" that I couldn't stand when it first debuted in the book. Overall, it was an amazing book that I would definitely tell others to read!