Fantastic Fiction: In the After by Demitria Lunetta

Bibliographic Data

Lunetta, Demitria. In the After. New York: HarperTeen, 2013. Print.

Summary

Amy is a happy 14 year old girl, enjoying her Saturday at home watching tv, when the world is attacked by Them. These deadly creatures wipe out almost the entire population using their fast speed and thirst for any mammal, human or animal, it can find. Will Amy be able to survive in the After, or will she be another victim to Them?

Critical Analysis

In the After is a post-apocalyptic book that grips you in the opening scenes of the story, and doesn't let you go until you turn the last page. We see what happens that create the apocalypse, but the focus is what happens after, three years later. Broken into three sections, After, New Hope: Four Months Later, and Guardians, the reader gets a glimpse into Amy's life and how she was able to survive the attack of Them, as well as how she is able to reenter a society filled with people. The action and constant worry she and Baby will be heard and attacked pulls the reader further and further into the story to find out if they are able to survive, and if the aliens ever are destroyed.

One weakness I found with the book is the characters aren’t developed very well. I wanted to know more about Rice, Kay, but all we get is the surface understanding of who they are. Another weakness is it seems to just drop off where there should be some more chapters. The story does come to a conclusion, but not necessarily one readers are looking for. Readers will have to read the next book in the series in order to (hopefully) get that satisfying ending readers are looking for.

Creative Activity

Students can research how to survive in the wild, and determine if they would be able to survive with the Floraes. They can have a discussion or write about why they would or wouldn't be able to survive. Maybe they're good hunters but they talk loudly, or they aren't good runners, or they are good at sneaking around.

Another activity is they can read a variety of different apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic books and compare and contrast the different worlds that have been created, characters, ways characters have stayed alive, and reasons for the apocalypse.

Related Resources

Matched is similar to In the After when Amy reaches New Hope. Just like how the Director and Dr. Reynolds are in charge in In the After, in Matched, the Society decide who you love, where you work, even when you die. 

Condie, Ally. Matched. New York: Dutton, 2010. Print.

The Giver is a classic dystopian novel that has won many awards including the Newbery Award in 1994, The Regina Medal in 1994, the William Allen White Award in 1996, and has been on many top lists for best book of the year and editor's choice book.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.

Published Review

Lukoff, Kyle. "In The After." School Library Journal 59.8 (2013): 113. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 5 July 2016.