Review: 'After'

Title and author: After by Ellen Datlow

Pages: 384

Date: October 9, 2012

Publisher: Hyperion

ISBN: 9781423146193

Source: NetGalley

Summary (from Goodreads):

If the melt-down, flood, plague, the third World War, new Ice Age, Rapture, alien invasion, clamp-down, meteor, or something else entirely hit today, what would tomorrow look like? Some of the biggest names in YA and adult literature answer that very question in this short story anthology, each story exploring the lives of teen protagonists raised in catastrophe’s wake—whether set in the days after the change, or decades far in the future.

New York Times bestselling authors Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Carrie Ryan, Beth Revis, and Jane Yolen are among the many popular and award-winning storytellers lending their talents to this original and spellbinding anthology.

Table of Contents – I thought this would be helpful to you

The Segment by Genevieve Valentine
After the Cure by Carrie Ryan
Valedictorian by N.K. Jemisin
Visiting Nelson by Katherine Langrish
All I Know of Freedom by Carol Emshwiller
The Other Elder by Beth Revis
The Great Game at the End of the World by Matthew Kressel
Reunion by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Faint Heart by Sarah Rees Brennan
Blood Drive by Jeffrey Ford
Reality Girl by Richard Bowes
Hw th’Irth Wint Wrong by Hapless Joey @ homeskool.guv by Gregory Maguire
Rust With Wings by Steven Gould
The Easthound by Nalo Hopkinson
Gray by Jane Yolen
Before by Carolyn Dunn
Fake Plastic Trees by Caitlin R. Kiernan
You Won’t Feel a Thing by Garth Nix
The Marker by Cecil Castellucci

My Thoughts:

The end of the world in a nice anthology of short stories, and a poem. This book has it all for even the most avid dystopian junkie.

This is almost a survival guide for readers because there is a plethora of topics covered. It's like a buffet for the most avid doomer. Vampires take over the world? Check. Bugs coming for us? Check. Aliens? Oh my! And let me not forget the Cult. This is not even a small test of what the authors have given us.

The one thing I love about this anthology is that I did not have to read it cover to cover, and that is something that many of our teens will find appealing, especially our reluctant readers. These would also be ideal for those of you who read aloud to your students as many of these are short, fast reads.

I enjoyed the variety of scenarios, and I loved to see some of my favorite YA authors take on this task. I cannot pick a favorite from the stories because I really enjoyed all of them. I will warn you: some of them are intense. I found myself not too sure where the author was going to take me and then…cliffhanger ending. 

Yes, that is correct. Most of these ended with a cliffhanger. While that originally drove me a little crazy, I enjoyed it because I like the possibility of deciding the ending for myself. It was quite clever, and in many cases, the level of ananxiety I felt helped bring me into the next story.

After is a must-have for the dystopian reader, but it is also a great introduction into the genre. I feel that this would make a great hook into novels like The Hunger Games fans.

Have you read this novel? What were your thoughts? What kind of reader(s) would you recommend it to?

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Happy reading all!