BOOK REVIEW – After the flood by Kassandra Montag #BookReview #ProvidedForReview #5*Read #AfterTheFlood @kassandra_m7 @BoroughPress

It is only very recently that I have come across the genre of climate fiction (Cli-fi) and it is a genre I am now on the lookout for. If you have any cli-fi recommendations I would love to have them?!?

So I was delighted to see After the Flood by Kassandra Montag pop up on NetGalley. And after the title caught my eye the blurb had me itching to pick up the book.

Book Blurb:

The world is mostly water when Pearl is born. The floods have left America a cluster of small islands with roving trade ships and raiders.

Pearl knows little of her father Jacob and elder sister Row, who left her mother Myra when she was pregnant with her. Between them they make do, with Myra fishing and trading to make ends meet, travelling from island to island on Bird, the boat Myra’s grandfather made before he died.

Whilst their life is a tranquil one, Myra still aches for the daughter she once lost. When a chance encounter reveals that Row might still be alive, Myra packs up six-year-old Pearl and together they begin a dangerous voyage to The Valley, where rumours of violence and breeding ships run rampant.

Along the way they encounter death and strangers, finally finding solace on board Sedna – full to the brim with supplies and an able crew – where Myra feels like she might be closer to finding Row than she has ever been. But to get to Row she will have to deceive everyone around her, betraying the trust of those she’s come to love, and ask herself if she’s willing to sacrifice everything and everyone for what might be nothing at all.

After the flood by Kassandra Montag is set after THE flood that wiped out nearly all the land, people and resources of our planet. It was a bleak portrayal of the future and it was an interesting setting for a tale of survival. But very much a future I hope remains only in fiction.

“Before the Six Year Flood, earthquakes erupted and tsunamis struck constantly. The ground itself seemed heavy with energy. I’d hold out my hand and feel the heat in the air like the pulse of an invisible animal. On the radio we heard rumors that the seafloor had split, water from within the earth seeping into the ocean. But we never knew for certain what happened, only that the water rose around us as if to swallow us up in a watery grave.”

After the flood started off with a rather upsetting scene, I was intrigued but I wondered if my heart could take the heartache. Right at the very beginning a mother loses her child. One of the most painful things I could ever imagine happening and I almost put the book down and marked it – Not for me. And that would have been a shame because After the flood wasn’t just a sad story, it was certainly a little heart wrenching in places but it was a story of survival and of love. I liked it. I liked it a lot.

The writing was great – I will be reading whatever Kassandra Montag writes next. And I thought the pacing was spot on, it was a little slow in places but that suited the story. It suited the nature of the character’s journey across the perilous open waters to find somewhere to call home. But having said that the story contains plenty of thrilling action scenes.

Although Myra was the main character, she wasn’t my favourite. I fell in love with Pearl, she was born after the flood and she was clever, resourceful and special. I loved almost all the characters, the family that Myra built in a world where the moral compass was often skewed. Great characters mean great writing for me.

After the flood was a post-apocalyptic story unlike any I have read before. A conversation starter. It was suspenseful, deep, chilling, and completely gripping – it was a full five star read for me. And I would highly recommend it.

And the cover design was something special.

After the flood by Kassandra Montag will be published on the 19th September 2019.

I received a copy of the book to read from the publisher via NetGalley – Thank you!