PJV Quickie: My first thoughts when picking up this book for review, were, “this sounds like a snowy ‘Blood Red Road.’ I enjoyed ‘Blood Red Road’ so why not?” Wasn’t one of my genius moments. The narration style and poorly flushed out plot sent this one to the DNF pile.
Author: S.D. Crockett
Series: Stand-alone
Type: Young Adult, Dystopian
Published March 27th 2012 by Feiwel & Friends
ARC Review, copy provided by Amazon Vine
Rating:
Rating: 
Review
I should have learned my lesson the first ten or so times I’ve read a book because it “sounded like” another one. Everything else by comparison always leaves me lacking and ‘After the Snow’ joined the ranks of bitter disappointment.
The story is basically the tale of a young boy who returns to his camp of survivors to find out that there is no one left. The family had been getting by in a dystopian environment, barely holding on to life and suddenly they all vanish while Willo is out hunting. Willo is left to survive on his own and hopefully find his family and of course, along the way he has to help a girl.
The first thing that got under my skin was S.D. Crockett’s narrative voice. The narrative voice of a very uneducated, English, young boy. I usually have no problem with narrative voice, even if they employ a ton of slang or rambling, but there was something about this kid–oh yeah, he was a little bit crazy on top of the uneducated part. He wore a dog skull on his head and tried to evoke the dog’s spirit by doing things a certain way. This little bit of crazy also made him seem removed from the landscape, like he himself was above every thing. I wasn’t concerned about his plight or problems because I had little concern for the kid and because it was a narrative, he wasn’t describing his setting as much as I would like, which led me to not really care about the character or the setting and in general the book.
Pair this with a flip-flop of events and I was utterly lost. The book actually starts with the disappearance of the family, but has Willo “remembering” in flashback after flashback. I do believe, in these flashback the author was trying to employ a connection with the kid, show that he was actually a character worth pulling for, instead of the odd, dog boy that I was dealing with now. It failed to work and I was literally shaking my head in confusion so many times that I closed the book and have yet to pick it up again. I think this is also because of the fact that it was a female author writing as a preteen boy, which I do believe is hard to invoke well, even for male authors.
Recommendations:
I recommend this for a boy of about twelve who likes dystopian. The narrative voice might work better with a child the same age as the main character. Fans of the genre will probably be disappointed though, since it really doesn’t hold true to anything else in the area. For those comparing this to ‘The Hunger Games’ I declare shenanigans.
Other Young Adult Dystopian Titles You Might Enjoy:
Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Enclave by Ann Aguirre
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I stopped reading this book because of the voice and I didn’t connect to anyone. I wanted to like this one but sadly I didn’t.
Me too…it seems to be the growing opinion.
Yah, this is about how I felt. The whole dog skull thingy freaked me out. And like.. the whole book is about NOTHING! WEll except snow. A lot of freaking snow. … yup.
Yup. A lot of snow and a weird kid…LOL
I really didn’t like this one. I skimmed through the last half of it and still felt nothing towards the main character. AND I couldn’t get past the voice of the narrator — it was confusing and frustrating at times.
I have a copy of Blood Red Road, so I might have to give that one a try!
I enjoyed Blood Red Road, but it has the same narrative style. I just thought the plot line was compelling and there was a flow to the story.
I didn’t like this book either. Didn’t like the narrator. I felt like it was trying to copycat The Knife of Never Letting Go.
I didn’t even think of Chaos books, you are right, they are very similar, that uneducated boy voice. At least that one had motion to it though…even though the uneducated young adult does drive me crazy…
This sounds terrible. Wearing a dog skull around to evoke its spirit? That is just so terribly wrong.
It was just bizarre. I could imagine this little dirty kid trudging through the snow with a dog skull on his head… *shivers*
The same thing happens to me whenever I pick up a book because it looks like another one I love. It never works out! It’s a shame because the cover looks pretty nice!
Juli @ Universe in Words
I know, it was a different cover too…
Oh look, I’m the only wierdo that DID like this one
but I can see why others wouldn’t. Strangely, you’re about the third person I’ve seen that loved Blood Red Road, whereas I DNF’ed that within 50 pages.
Maybe on the inside I’m a 12 year old boy – which is kinda scary….
You are not a weirdo LMAO – and I think this is the deal with these narrative styles, either you like the character or not. If you do like the character, you identify with them and enjoy the book. If you don’t like them — boom, DNF. Obviously you identity more with the 12 year old boys… that made me laugh.
I’m not sure I want to read this book; it’s been a few reviews with similar thoughts on it, and it makes me think it wouldn’t be a book for me. Maybe I’ll borrow it instead!
Library!!!
I read this book a few months back and I wasn’t a huge fan either!
Oy. I was really hoping this book would be good. That kid does indeed sound crazy! But then again, maybe I would be, too, in a dystopian setting.
Meh. Maybe I’ll borrow this from the library, just because it’s been on my Wish List so long. LOL.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts <3
I actually DNF’d this as well. Usually I don’t mind weird narrative voices, but this one was weird and confusing which just killed the enjoyment for me. Plus the story was weirdly boring, for all that it should have been interesting/exciting.
I’m not normally a reader of YA fiction (I’m a 37-year-old man), but a friend’s teenage son was so enthusiastic about this book that I borrowed and read it. I don’t think YA existed as a genre when I was a “young adult” – I can remember suddenly moving on from Roald Dahl to J. D. Salinger round about the age of 13 or 14 – but I was genuinely surprised at how much sex and violence there is in After The Snow.
Even so, I found the book intriguing, and I think that the narrator’s peculiar way of expressing himself is actually a minor impediment to enjoying the story once you’ve got into it. I will say, though, that it takes a while to get used to it, and the book does get off to a rather slow start because of this. Still, you should persevere because I actually think the book is remarkable and might even prove to be a classic.
Another reviewer on another site made comparisons with Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye and A Clockwork Orange. I can also see strong resemblances to post-apocalyptic novels such as John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids.
The book might not prove to be a success with its target audience (since it’s probably a bit too literary and its theme too adult), but I can see it becoming a cult book among university students. Given the right sort of adaptation it would make an amazingly compelling film.