The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn

Title: The Sky So Heavy
Author: Claire Zorn
 

Release Date: 24th July 2013

My Rating: 5/5
 

Blurb:

For Fin, it's just like any other day - racing for the school bus, bluffing his way through class, and trying to remain cool in front of the most sophisticated girl in his universe, Lucy. Only it's not like any other day because, on the other side of the world, nuclear missiles are being detonated.

From an exciting new voice in Australian YA literature, Claire Zorn, comes a haunting novel, The Sky So Heavy - a mesmerising story inspired by the continued debate over Australia's treatment of asylum-seekers and how a line through a map can determine your fate.

In A Nutshell:

This gripping story of utter desperation and survival is full of suspense as our characters face a near apocalyptic future. Faced with situations no one, let along children, should have to endure, they question where to draw the line when fighting for survival and how far you would go to protect the ones you love. Claire Zorn and her debut novel, The Sky So Heavy, are exciting new additions to the Aussie YA community.

My Review:

The Sky So Heavy is the debut novel by Australian author Claire Zorn. Zorn has created a chilling story of survival set in Australia’s Blue Mountains after another country ‘tests’ nuclear missiles and essentially sends the world back into the dark ages.

Our main character is seventeen year old Fin. Along with his younger brother Max, the boys battle the freezing cold and dwindling supplies after their dad disappears on the first night. As the months go by, they come to the realisation that those not from the city (Sydney), or who do not possess ‘valuable’ skills (such as doctors) are being left to die. The brothers, forced to fend for themselves to survive, team up with new friend Noll and Fin’s school friend Lucy, and attempt to make their way towards the city in search of Fin and Max’s mother. But staying alive and getting into the barricaded city will be harder than any of them expected.

As Fin tries to hold it all together and stay positive for their little group, their new reality means hypothermia, dehydration and starvation become very real possibilities. And if those don't kill them, someone will probably try. The kindness of strangers often surprises them when at the same time, people they have known their whole lives try to kill them for supplies. With the population becoming more desperate and violence escalating in correlation to how hungry people are, Fin, Noll and Lucy question what is right and wrong. Who do they trust? And where do they draw the line in order to survive and protect the ones they love?

This gripping story of utter desperation and survival is full of suspense as our characters face a near apocalyptic future. Yet throughout their struggle, Fin, Max, Noll and Lucy continue to hold on to hope that they will find somewhere they can rebuild their lives.

Claire Zorn and her first novel, The Sky So Heavy, are exciting new additions to the Aussie YA community.

Released by Megan Duncan

Title: Released
Series: Agents of Evil #1
Author: Megan Duncan

Release Date: 1st April 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:
After a demon apocalypse kills their parents and everyone they know, 17-year old Abby Phillips, her brother, Carter, and friend, Max flee their home to travel through what has become the wastelands of America. When radio transmissions of a resistance offering shelter and safety cease, Abby is tempted to give up. Struggling to overcome life-threatening obstacles in their dangerous journey, Abby and her companions quickly discover there are much worse things lurking in the dark than they could have ever imagined.

In A Nutshell:
A kick-butt girl, a post-apocalyptic America and a hot boy who will make you swoon and sweat. Released has plenty of action, suspense, demons and death, with a little romance thrown in as well. Can't wait for the sequel!

My Review:
Released was a novel that got my attention straight away as I love reading books about girls that kick butt and post-apocalyptic-fight-to-survive type stories.

Strange demons have taken over the world and Abby, Carter and Max decide the time has come to set off across America and find other survivors and a place of refuge. As they travel from Washington to New Mexico using whatever means necessary to survive, they each have their roles to play; Carter, the brains and the one his sister and best mate turn to for ideas, and Abby and Max, the ‘brawn’, with their unspoken agreement to watch out for Carter who is less skilled in the self-defence/fighting department. The developing relationship between Abby and Max is sweet and a ray of light in the grim reality of what awaits them around every corner.

As the trio get closer to New Mexico, they stumble upon other survivors and take in the distraught Taya who joins them on their journey and turns out to be more capable than originally thought. They also come across what appears to be a well-organised refuge, although something about the relationship between the leader and those who live there doesn’t fit right with Abby, Carter and Max. When they try to help, they are thrown into a whole unexpected bout of trouble other than the demons. Fighting for their survival suddenly got a lot more complicated than they thought it would and Abby has to question which lines she will cross, and how far she will go, to protect the ones she loves.

Released has plenty of action, suspense, demons and death, with a little romance thrown in as well. Our characters have managed to hold on to their humour despite their dire circumstances and they are smart and tough teenagers who readers will become attached to. There are no boring bits and I can’t wait to read the sequel, Chaos, when it is released early 2012.