The world is about to end. Again.Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned bookstore in suburban New Jersey where she used to work, trading books for supplies with the few remaining survivors. It’s the one place left that feels safe to her. Until she learns that another earth-shattering Storm is coming . . . and everything changes.
Enter Maeve, a prickly and potentially dangerous out-of-towner who breaks into the bookstore looking for shelter one night. Though the two girls are immediately at odds, Maeve has what Liz needs—the skills to repair the dilapidated store before the next climate disaster strikes—and Liz reluctantly agrees to let her stay.
As the girls grow closer and undeniable feelings spring up between them, they realize that they face greater threats than the impending Storm. And when Maeve’s secrets and Liz’s inner demons come back to haunt them both, they find themselves fighting for their lives as their world crumbles around them.
Review:
Okay, I’m a sucker for books about books. I’m also potentially concerningly into books set after societal collapse and apocalypse-events. And of course sapphic romance has me in a chokehold. Mix them all? Chefs kiss, recipe for one of my favourite things ever.
I devoured the whole thing in one sitting - this book was so easy to read. The air of mystique, that unexplainable mixture of hope and hopelessness that you find after the end of the world, a vivid and visceral world of devastation and beauty that made it enchanting from the start. For the most part, the writing felt intimate, cosy, quiet.
The first few lines felt just like a normal conversation with a young girl, until we look around and see where we are. Liz was fresh, witty, sharp. Still warm and kind while trying to find her place in this new, fragile society, making friends with a strange man in a peacoat who likes books, reading, trading and waiting to see if the world ends again. Now, we have to bare in mind that these are literally teenagers but at times they felt so naïve that I didn't understand how they'd survived, and seriously questioned the motivations behind our main characters a few times, finding them a little lackadaisical and contradictory with their actions in a couple of moments.
Told between the now, her memories before the storm, and interspersed with beautiful torn out pages, accounts of the first storm, we get a terrifying picture of life — then when Maeve crashes into the picture, it’s a journey of two girls fighting to survive and discovering human connection all over again in such a beautiful way. Without relying on tropes, they were very enemies to lovers, but more like potential burglar/post-apocalyptic bookstore trader, to friends, to something else. I desperately wanted something more from this book, finding all these beautiful moments and ideas that really left me feeling a bit cold when they're skated by, pieces feeling slightly unfinished or forgotten but overall, I still had such a fun time reading.
The romantic element of the story was a subtle thread, not taking over the story but adding something wonderful. A fresh take on society after the end of the world and a beautiful testament to what makes us human.
⭐⭐⭐
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