Early Review – Any Sign of Life by Rae Carson (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic/Science Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release Date: October 12, 2021
ASIN: B08SMH6J7S
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley through NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Paige Miller is determined to take her basketball team to the state championship, maybe even beyond. But as March Madness heats up, Paige falls deathly ill. Days later, she wakes up attached to an IV and learns that the whole world has perished. Everyone she loves, and all of her dreams for the future—they’re gone.
But Paige is a warrior. She pushes through her fear and her grief and gets through each day scrounging for food, for shelter, for safety. As she struggles with her new reality, Paige learns that the apocalypse did not happen by accident. And that there are worse things than being alone.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone novel. I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review. Previous to this I read and really enjoyed Carson’s “Fire and Thorns” series and her “Gold Seer” trilogy.
Thoughts: This was a quick enough read and I finished it. I didn’t really love it though. We start with Paige waking up in her bedroom with an IV in her hand, very weak and confused, and go from there. The majority of the beginning of the story is Paige on her own but we do have some other characters join as the book continues.
All of the characters felt a bit shallow to me and like they were fairly unaffected by all the death around them. The book itself also feels a bit unfinished since it was made pretty clear that the actions the characters take at the end will help the situation but not really solve it. Alsoc, the whole reason for humanity’s situation is pretty unexplained and feels like it wasn’t fleshed out well.
There are some very forced discussions around racism; these sections feel like they were almost developed separately and then plopped into the book. All of these discussions felt very out of place considering what our characters are dealing with. I just felt like maybe they had bigger issues to discuss? Like food, shelter and staying alive?
My Summary (3/5): Overall, in the end I finished this and it was a quick read so I didn’t mind reading it. However, I doubt I will ever even so much as think about this book again after writing this review. It was just very forgettable and very mediocre. It wasn’t nearly as epic and amazing as Carson’s other series. I am not sure if there will be additional books in this series, but if there are I will most likely skip them.
