Ally Condie

In complete honesty I hadn’t considered picking up another novel by Condie as the last two-thirds of her [Matched] trilogy remains, to this day, two of the worst books I’ve read. But I came across this title on the popular tab of the KCLS page, and decided to take a little leap. Young adult literature is often a little more palatable than works of adult fiction, and I wanted something light and easy after dragging myself through a few translated works.

The title of the book is the premise: July, a girl clearly struggling in her relationships and sense of self, is suddenly all alone. One second, everything is normal, and the next, every single person and animal in the town has disappeared. The book follows her as she tries to figure out how to get her family and friends back, while also paralleling her current journey with chapters detailing her past and what could have led to the disappearances, and sessions with her therapist.

The novel grows progressively heavier, touching on the bond between pet and owner as July is forced to face her past. Condie misleads the reader in a crafty way; from early on she has the reader believing in an outcome that feels real and substantial, only to flip the book on its head and surprise the reader with a twist that makes sense, but also feels a little unfair, and a little unfinished. She took a book shaping up to be a thriller and turned it into commentary on social and emotional health at the last second.

I rated the book as two stars for that reason, because the conclusion lacked, leaving me a bit unsettled and still wondering about July’s progression. Condie’s writing is sound, though, and the book was engaging; I got through it in just a few hours. It was what I expected it to be, an easy read with an interesting story arc, though I will always prefer her exploration into the dystopian genre with [Matched].… (mer)

The premise of this book is great. July wakes up to an empty town - everyone has disappeared and she believes it is something she has done. Then she sees a cryptic note on the school bulletin board " GET TH3M BACK" and manages to wish her cat back into existence. As she remembers what has happened in the past few months, she tries to work out the clues to what has happened and whether there is someone else in the empty town with her.
BUT! The ending left me for dead ....the author can't have it both ways ...it can't pretend to be a supernatural thriller and then turn out to be something entirely different - that is ripping off the readers! Oh well, apart from that it is very well written and the characters are believable and likeable but I just felt cheated when it ended.… (mer)