Book Review: After the Darkness by Justin Richman

After The Darkness by Justin Richman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An action-packed post-apocalyptic tale where danger comes from every direction!

After the Darkness is a riveting new post-apocalyptic tale featuring terrifying, seemingly indestructible aliens and the desperate human survivors of a city. Society quickly collapsed with the coming of The Drifters, aliens that feasted on the human inhabitants of the planet. The handfuls of survivors huddled together in small groups to maximize their resources while they scrounged the remnants of their broken city for critical leftovers from the past and avoid detection by the predatory invaders. Izzy and her dog Shadow work together as a team, locating and retrieving useful and necessary supplies for their camp situated on the town’s outskirts. But when a roving band of lawless scavengers arrives, making the abandoned local prison their base of operations and claiming the entirety of the city as their territory, Izzy discovers the real threat to their survival may not be The Drifters but her fellow human beings.

Wow! This story is one exciting sequence of events after another from start to finish. The action kicks off on page one with Izzy’s capture by the evil leader of The Reavers, followed by an attack from the alien Drifters, and things never let up from there. The plot is tense as one threat after another presents itself, and Izzy, Shadow, her friend Matt, and a surprise benefactor work to overcome insurmountable odds. The author makes their successes believable and their losses shocking and heartbreaking. A horrifying twist is that victims of The Drifters can be infected, resurrected, and used to lead the aliens back to their former compatriots’ hiding places, where they help exterminate all those they encounter.

Izzy, the heroine of the story, is initially relegated to less vital roles in her hidden community when the head of their camp dismisses her skills and potential value. Still, she perseveres and proves herself more than capable over and over. As if the day-to-day, hand-to-mouth existence of the camp isn’t dire enough, the kidnapping of one of their members sparks a chain of events that pits them against the evil Reavers entrenched behind sturdy prison walls. Not only does this amp up the suspense, but it forces Izzy to face all the fears Hawk embodies.

This author’s writing just keeps getting better and better. The plot is well-paced, and the storylines are tight and focused. The settings are vivid and easy to visualize, putting the readers right in the scene with the characters. I highly recommend AFTER THE DARKNESS to readers who enjoy thrilling post-apocalyptic tales of action, adventure, and suspense.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.

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