Today I’ll rave about a book called In The After, by Demitria Lunetta! I’ve read this book twice, as it a required OBOB book, and the story was so good, I couldn’t help myself! I loved everything about In The After, from the suspense and drama to the meaning of friendship and family. So many things happened in this book, and they all meshed together perfectly! I’ve got to give a million points to the author for making this story work, and work beautifully at that.

In The After is based on the life after aliens arrive at Earth, after most of human population is eliminated. The main character, named Amy, is a teenage girl surviving the rough life of the After. She is alone for a time, until she finds a young toddler whom Amy immediately creates a loving bond with. Living is a challenge everyday, but now it gets better with a human companion by Amy’s side. The child, called Baby, seems to know the ways of the After, how to stay silent and listen carefully, providing the teenager with help rather than a burden. They live together for a long time, until a young woman enters the picture. Amber is looking for a safe shelter after being abandoned by her brother, but she doesn’t understand what she has to do to survive. After she makes a mistake that outrages Amy, Amber disappears into the night, much to the sadness of Baby. The woman turns out to have had a reason to run, and soon returns with her brother and his gang to steal Amy’s house for themselves. A place with running water and an electric fence, provided by her government working mom and environment saving dad, is practically gold in the After. Forced to live out in the open, Amy and Baby don’t know where to go. There is shelter, but they know they need to find a more permanent reside. So when the two get rescued, relief is finally theirs. In addition, there is a whole community living in the After, in a city called New Hope. Run by Amy’s mom, who is surprisingly not dead, the place offers normal living situations, keeping the aliens out with sound emitting technology. But New Hope is not what it seems. And as Amy insists on digging deeper, has to keep uncovering secrets about aliens, something isn’t clicking. Something isn’t right. These aliens… there’s more to them than Amy had ever thought. She wants desperately to know the answer, and won’t stop until she finds it.

Demitria Lunetta crafts a thrilling story of trust and secrets, love and enemies, Earth and other worlds… it’s everything a sci-fi lover could possibly want!