Definitely one of my favorite books from 2019. The story is set after a world wide flood that changes life as we know it forever. Myra risks everything to find her daughter Pearl, including the life of her youngest child. How far would you go to find your child?

I found this to be a very visual and intense novel. I loved the imagery of the book and it made me think of global warming and how quickly things can change. The characters where multi-faceted and flawed which was frustrating at times since I had a hard to connecting to Myra. Overall, I loved that this story showcased the characters determination, strength and over all tenacity to survive in an environment that at times is filled with huge challenges.

It took me awhile to get through "After The Flood". Maybe I wasn't in the right head space for it. I found it very difficult to like or connect with the main character. I know a lot of folks loved this one but it just wasn't for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this free copy of the book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

Myra is used to being alone with her daughter Pearl, sailing the waters above the mountaintops after the floods that left nearly all of Earth under water. After her husband left her behind, running Away with her first daughter, Row, Myra learned to depend solely on herself. However, now she is part of a ship’s crew, trying desperately to get to where she has heard that her daughter, Row, may be living, hoping to get there in time to save her from the breeding ships, while keeping Pearl safe.

What will she sacrifice to find her first daughter? Will it be her second?

Gorgeous writing. Plus, gotta love any book that has badass pirate girls and moms! I love dystopian novels, and this one delivered in spades. Thank you for the advance copy.

It took me a long time to read this book, and it wasn't worth the effort. The world has turned bad - after multiple floods over almost 20 years, life has drastically changed. Myra tells the story from her point of view, which I think was not a good choice. After her husband leaves with their young daughter, pregnant Myra and her grandfather sail off on a homemade boat to seek a better life. After Pearl is born, Grandpap dies, and Myra decides to find her husband and first daughter Row. The saga continues, as Myra meets many people and has many adventures. The story has very little hope and positiveness. My biggest concern was the constant negative superlatives that Myra thought in her stream of consciousness tirades. It was very difficult to like Myra. Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC..

After the Flood was written by Kassandra Montag, released by Harper Collins on September 3, 2019. I received my copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A hundred years from now, the world as we know it does not exist. It basically consists of colonies separated by massive bodies of water. Myra and her daughter Pearl live on their boat, only visiting land when they need to trade for supplies. Myra has been searching for her oldest daughter Row, stolen by her father years ago. Myra learns Row has been spotted near the Arctic, and she decides that she and Pearl must risk life and limb to reach her.

This book annoyed me sooooo much. Myra is too blinded in her search for Row to care about anyone or anything else. She puts Pearl, herself, and everyone else she comes into contact with huge amounts of danger to feed her delusion that she'll be able to find her daughter. Row has been gone for 7+ years. She is blinded by a FANTASY. She deceives a multitude of people, and several of them don't make it because of her. I wanted so badly for someone to stand up to her. She's a nutjob. DO NOT LET HER TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SHIP AND YOUR LIFE. I will forever dislike the cast of this book because they were so incredibly stupid.

Overall, the book was super slow. I didn't feel pity for Myra mourning the loss of her daughter. If anything, it made me mad at her. The last hundred pages of the book is the only part that held my attention, simply because that was the only "action" spot in the book. The ending was disappointing and predictable. Yeah she deserved it, but it was so unsatisfying.

I don't think this book was made for me. If you enjoyed it, I'm so glad you did! Personally, I hated it.

🌟/5 Stars

For the last few months I’ve been expanding my horizon by exploring other genres.
The hype didn’t disappoint on this apocalyptic dystopian novel by Kassandra Montag.

"Children think we make them, but we don't. They exist somewhere else, before us, before time. They come into the world and make us. They make us by breaking us first."

There was drama from the start as Myra is abandoned by her husband who essentially kidnaps their five year old daughter Row, jumps on a boat never to be seen again while she’s pregnant alone with only her grandfather.

Seven years passed in which Myra gave birth to another little girl named Pearl. Her grandfather passed away and she has been living on the boat he built, alone fending for herself and Pearl in a world covered by water due to the 100 year flood, never forgetting the daughter that was stolen from her.

Life is a struggle, there is barely any land except a few mountain tops where most live on boats or ships. Basic necessities are hard to come by and what is salvaged or made is bartered to survive on a daily basis.

Its on one of these trips to trade fish she’s caught for supplies that she learns her daughter is alive and being transported to a breeding ship. Thats where this emotional heart wrenching story takes off.

This is a worthwhile read, the sacrifices, the betrayals, the self doubt, putting her and Pearl’s life in danger to find her other daughter is compelling.
As a “dystopian newbie” whether you like this genre or not, I say pick this one up.

Thank you #netgalley for my arc copy

A post apocalypse flood happens 100 years in the future. In this novel there are zero doubts that climate change is a reality. A woman and her daughter leave in a hand made boat in search of her other daughter. Apparently her husband took her while the waters were rising.
Those of us who live near the ocean and bay know how bad the flooding has become over our lifetime. This future seems very realistic to me. I appreciate the enlightened perspective. It was a riveting and enlightened debut although some events were not quite believable.
I would rate it a 3.75 and I thank Net Galley and the publisher for the Arc

Maybe my timing was off, but I just could not get interested in this one. I have friends who adored it, and I tried twice but who knows. Still worth a buy based on friends opinions.

2.5 stars, rounding up to 3. DNF at the 50% mark.

The premise was intriguing, although I was a little annoyed at the impossible extent of the flooding described. The world is not going to be reduced to the tops of mountains even under worst case scenarios.

I did not enjoy any of the characters and found Myra's internal conflicts constantly annoying. Couldn't deal with it.

I found this book to be so relevant to today and I am so glad I read it. It's a must read for 2019! One of my favorite movies is The Day After Tomorrow, so I found this book to be reminiscent of that, but with a strong female voice. It's a fantastic debut from the author.

This book is all over #bookstagram right now. Before the hype started, I requested the book due to the interesting cover and the description. This book is a must read heading into fall! It exceeded my expectations.

Holy moly, was this story compelling! I haven't read a post apocalyptic novel in a long time as I have found that since becoming a mother, it's harder for me to enjoy dystopian books. This could perhaps have to do with the fact that I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy when my firstborn was just a few months old and I WILL NEVER FORGET THAT EXPERIENCE - not in a good way. Despite the fact that After the Flood stares my worst fears of motherhood straight in the eye, Montag's novel has a much more action packed, empowering and, ultimately, hopeful feel than the bleakness and horror that is The Road.
Certainly, there are some harrowing moments as Myra navigates this world of violence, child slaves, pirates, gangs and the concept of breeding ships (shudder). But I felt as if these details illustrated the desperate circumstances of this new world, while also propelling the plot forward. It's impossible to imagine putting myself in her shoes and think of what I might do to survive, to protect my children. And yet Montag's beautiful writing (unsurprisingly, she is an award winning poet) resonates so strongly that I absolutely felt connected to Myra and understood her motivations. I dogeared so. many. pages. Here are a few choice quotes.

"Children think we make them, but we don't. They exist somewhere else, before us, before time. They come into the world and make us. They make us by breaking us first."

"I knew it was sometimes easier to love ghosts than the people who were around you. Ghosts could be perfect, frozen beyond time, beyond reality, the crystal form they'd never been before, good moments to surface in my memory."

"'I keep thinking grief feels like climbing a staircase while looking down,' she said. 'You won't forget where you've been, but you've got to keep rising. It all gets farther away, but it's all still there. And you've only got one way to go and you don't really want to go on rising, but you've got to. And that tightness in your chest doesn't go away, but you somehow go on breathing that thinner, higher air. It's like you grow a third lung. Like you've somehow gotten bigger when you thought you were only broken.'"

I was rooting for Myra and those aboard her ship so fiercely that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to learn their fate, and my heart was in my throat for the last fifty pages that were filled with battles, sacrifices, and surprises I didn't see coming. This was a highly satisfying read on all fronts: fast paced and compelling plot, complex and ever changing character dynamics, beautiful writing, and themes on love and hope that will stick with me for a long time. It will definitely go on my list of favorites for the year.
Many, many thanks to William Morrow for the gifted copy!

I changed my mind on my rating again...

When I swiped to the last page of Kassandra Montag's book After the Flood, my initial thought was, "Man that is just a 4 star read for me." My main reasoning was I found it hard to connect to Myra as a character. But, that shouldn't stop me from rating a book what it truly deserves.

I found it difficult to relate to Myra because of her overwhelming need to get her daughter back. I am a 24 year old childless adult. There is NO WAY I CAN RELATE TO THAT FEELING. But, then I thought about it a little bit more....

I am the eldest of 5 children. I have one younger brother (22) and 3 younger sisters (19, 15, and 13). While they are all older than Pearl who is 7, Row would have been 12 in the book. So then I thought about Abby (the 13 year old), possibly alone near the Arctic Circle, about to board a breeding ship for the rest of her life, and needing me to save her. Well, that completely changed how I looked at Myra's character.

Myra is a strong, independent mother of two, trying to do the best she can to raise her daughter in extreme circumstances while trying to rescue the other. Talk about a power character. While the story does show us some of Myra's stress and inability to let her guard down I cannot even imagine being in her shoes.

Now I want to talk about Pearl really quick. Keep in mind that she is 7 years old and has basically spent her entire life aboard a ship and on water.

She is a badass child. And I mean, considering how much of a bad ass Myra is it is only fitting that Pearl be the same. Without giving too much away...

CAN YOU IMAGINE A 7 YEAR OLD CHILD WITH VIPERS?!?! (and other less threatening snakes)

You can't. It's not normal

Unless you've read After the Flood

Because for Pearl, snakes are her life. To me that is both amazing and terrifying at the same time. She is a 7 year old bad ass. You will NOT find me holding unknown quantities of snakes even in post-apocalyptic water filled life as we know it.

Then there is Daniel and Abran. Myra's two..."love" interests if you will 😂

I just want to say that I am #teamDaniel and a day 1 Daniel fan. He is tough and sweet and gentle and caring. Man. I need me a Daniel.

Abran seemed to be all of those wonderful things at first but, he is really just a whiny alcoholic and.....

**SPOILER ALERT**

...I'm glad he's dead.

I am a BIG fan of dystopian, apocalyptic, and post-apocalyptic storylines.

But, I tend to find they are all kind of the same.

Not, After the Flood.

It is as refreshing as writing about the human race on its last limb as it can get.

I haven't read a dystopian novel that is set mainly at sea ever. Actually, I don't think I read many novels set at sea period.

It took awhile for me to get use to some of the lingo, but that did not take away from the story for me at all.

I loved when they stopped at trading posts and we got to see what kind of life people have built on what land is left.

I found myself getting nervous and anxious right along with Pearl when I storm would crash over the boat. I kept thinking, "What will they do if they sink?"

The suspense of trying to get to the Valley, staying afloat, and the possibility of being overthrown by raiders really drove the plot onward.

I felt things for the characters like they were real people. I mourned the loss of a finger, crew-mates, and a daughter we never met.

After the Flood is a great tale of human perseverance and hope and possibly one of my favorite books of the year.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow books for this electronic advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

Hey, my new nickname is FOUCAULT PENDELUM after finishing this book because when it came to give the stars, I started swing back and forth between THREE AND FOUR, THREE AND FOUR… Oh, this churning in my stomach would have killed me! I should have eaten something strong! Best choice was meeting in the middle. THREE POINT FIVE! Rounded up or down? UP OR DOWN! So you may call me SEESAW now! Okay, I gave my decision before throwing up: ROUNDED UP FOUR STARS…TA…TA…

I am personally addicted to the post-apocalyptic thriller/sci-fi books. The one and only King’s “The Stand”, Max Brooks’ “World War Z” , Cormac McCarthy’s “Road”, Robert McCammon’s “Swan Song” , P.D. James’ “The Children of Men”, Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven” kind of masterpieces gave me more reason to believe the miracles could be seen on genius authors’ creative minds.

When they got harsher, more vulgar, darker, more realistic, heart throbbing, your addiction grew more and more and you wanted to flip the pages faster before your mind was completely blown!

But on this book: There is no darkness. No harshness. There is no heart throbbing, nail biter, arm eater, brain cell fryer kind of mind bending elements in this book. So before starting to read it, consider this one as a mother’s emotional journey to find her lost child story takes place at the post-apocalyptic world book. It has more a biblical perspective of the worst case of the world’s ending scenarios. But the action scenes are gripping and giving you some part of thrills you craved for. But not so much if you expect something like Zombie invasion!

It hooked me from the first page as Myra abandoned by her husband who was leaving her pregnant wife and taking their five years old daughter with him, jumping on a boat and hit the water not to come back no more no more no more. Yes what a mother f…..and definitely he deserved my slaps at the first chapter. This is a record for me to start hating a character!

So seven years passed. Myra gave birth to little Pearl. The world is decimated by intense water level rising force the last survivors live in the boats or ships, trying to survive by fishing, bartering their stuffs as Myra does to keep herself and daughter safe and alive.

As Myra learns her other daughter was taken from her is alive, she sets off her dangerous, long journey to find and bring her back.

This book starts slow paced and I honestly left it behind a few days to flirt with my other books. But the beginning of the story haunted me and my heart didn’t allow me to put it on my dnf list. So I grabbed it back, after passing a few chapters, its pace getting faster. This is not shaking you to core kind of book but it hurts your heart. It makes you feel like your emotions are all over the place.

Being a mother is not about only responsibility, it is about putting a child in front of your own needs and not only feeding her or raising her, it is also teaching her the real life and protecting her against the dangers, vagueness of the world. It’s about to be their spiritual guardian. The hardest thing about the motherhood job, you can never quit or be sacked, or retired, you gotta be ready to do your obligations till you leave this earth.

This book makes you think what a real mother should do when her child is lost and out somewhere.

Maybe I didn’t get the horrifying post-apocalyptic story I expected but I got amazing emotional story and well rounded, memorable characters and smart, realistic, gripping words of the writer so I’m happy not to give up on this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for sharing this heart-wrecking, emotional ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

After The Flood by Kassandra Montag

It is one of my favorite genres that I seem to find so interesting and that is the dystopian era.

This story takes place a little over a 100 years from now in 2130. Due to the 100 year flood and massive other flooding, there is barely any land except a few mountaintops that exist. Everyone lives on boats or ships. Drinking water and food is hard to come by and the world as we knew it is no longer evident. What has been salvaged or made; is now bartered for goods or basic necessities just to survive.

Myra now alone, abandoned by her husband who also took off with their only child while she was pregnant, must now fend for herself and her new baby after the only person she had left passes away. She struggles to stay alive and provide and raise her little girl, never forgetting the daughter that was stolen from her.

Along the way, there are many lessons learned, hard work exchanged in order to keep their needs met and some wonderful and not so wonderful people they meet along the way.

While I enjoyed the book, I did have to question myself if I would make some of the same decisions that Myra had. Morally I don’t know if I could have done it. Chasing after her older daughter seems to be on the forefront of everything she wants and is willing to risk everything to get her; even her younger daughter and the lives of people that are providing her help. That’s when it was difficult for me to read. I guess because things are much more difficult to accomplish on water as they would have been on land, makes me impatient and unwilling as Myra is willing.

It is a great book with a bunch of mystery and terror as well. If you want a realistic dystopian novel. This would be a good pick.

#AfterTheFlood #NetGalley

With After the Flood, Kassandra Montag parents an action packed compelling look at our world after climate change. In this world, the land forms and countries we know are no more. The entire world has flooded, and the only land forms left are small communities built on the highest peaks of mountains. Life revolves around boats. Our main character grew up as the world was flooding, but has adjusted to this new way of life.

The book starts off with an urgent scene, as our narrators child is kidnapped by her father. She then spends the next many years searching for her daughter in this new treacherous, lawless landscape. Will she be reunited? Will she do more than survive? This is a well crafted story that had my interest from the first page.

I read this one without quite knowing what to expect. Set 100 years in the future, some catastrophic floods, and most of the world is covered with water, with survivors on the few land areas or living on the water. Society has had to realign and find a new direction. In this world, we are introduced to Myra and her young daughter, Pearl who was born after the last major flood and has never known anything but the world as it is. Myra is trying to keep both of them alive, and hopefully find her older daughter, Row, whom her husband took seven years ago when their home in the plains of Nebraska was inundated with water. As she is ready to give up, she encounters someone with information, and it sparks a renewed fervor to reach Row before she is lost to her forever. As Myra and Pearl embark on their final quest to find Row, they become involved with others but what and who will Myra sacrifice to find the child she lost.
This story was intense and scary to me. It could be a glimpse into the future of humanity and how we could react to a world-changing event like this. I started this and couldn’t put it down. The author creates a world that is detailed and frightening in its possibilities. I look forward to seeing what direction Montag will take with her second novel.
#AftertheFlood #WilliamMorrow #KassandraMontag

I was very excited to receive an ARC of this book. The first thing I saw was that After the Flood was compared to Station Eleven, and lets face it who doesn’t love that book. When I read the first chapter I said, finally this book was going to do it, however, it started to fall short of that comparison quickly.

The book is set approximately 100 years in the feature, and The world is in the middle of a six year flood. Myra is pregnant with her second child when her husband takes off with their oldest daughter nowhere to be found. That sounds really good, right? The book fast forward 7 years later and she is raising her daughter Pearl. She hears word that her oldest daughter Row is alive and what starts is an adventure story.

I really liked how the author kept the chapters shorter, it really made the story flow and read very fast. It was a solid book, with characters you will love and hate. Montag gave this a great ending, that I did not see coming.

Overall, it was a solid read, but I was looking for Station Eleven, so that left me a little disappointed. I know why publishers throw those comparisons out there for books but that book has too high of standard to try to compare. I believe there is a place in the dystopian category for this book, and people will love it, just be careful of that comparison.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After the Flood, the first novel by Kassandra Montag, is the atmospheric post-apocalyptic story of a mother’s quest. Beautiful, violent, and horrifying, After the Flood is the poignant tale of Myra's desperate search for her daughter in a world destroyed by flooding. Myra’s story will resonate with fans of The Road or Station Eleven, and make the reader wonder just how well they would handle the end of the world.