I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review .

This was an interesting story idea. It was set in the future after some sort of pandemic. It a neat perspective to think of all the things that were in the "past" and the characters didn't know about,

The story was okay to me. It moved at a decent pace. I liked most of the characters. The end was pretty abrupt.

In the future women can no longer get pregnant, or a very limited number can. Ami's grandfather has taken his family into a small trailer park compound, and preached the word of the lord in order to save the family from this plight. Ami's mother had run away when she was just a baby, and Ami was told it was because the government was going to take them both. She's 16 now, and her grandfather brought a man because she's going to help continue the family line.

Instead of being bred like a cow, Ami's aunts help her escape and send her in the direction of her mother, who they know is still alive. Traveling hard through the woods for a few days, she finds the small town this group has created, and is shocked to find her mother is here, along with her husband and daughter.

There's a lot of discussion about race, gender roles, abortion, sexuality, and government interference in this novel. While this are all relevant discussions, and the cult mentality of Ami's grandfather is held prevalently today, this book feels like it doesn't know what it wants to focus on. I kept getting into the story and the characters, only to have another big statement come up that now needs to be talked about and address because Ami's character was so absolutely sheltered in life. The book is easy to read, but it is jarring. That might be the author's point, as all these things were Jarring to Ami. I liked the sapphic romance, and there was this sense of anxiety running through it that you could feel, but also, there's no big climax, there's no real point of contention. With Ami being so worried about her grandfather coming after her, there ends up being, just nothing... They're also able to just walk away? It was a happy ending, but there was a lot of lead up to no blow up. Feels like there needs to be a sequel to this novel.

I'm always interested in a dystopian story with a religious cult at its center, but this one fell a little flat for me. The beginning was pretty gripping. I was into the dystopian set up of the world falling apart, the trailer dealership compound that keeps Ami's family safe, and the central issue of the difficulty of child-bearing at the center of the broken world. When Ami leaves the compound and reconnects with other people, that's when her growth really starts and she learns how much she doesn't understand, but that was where things went a little south for me. I appreciated Ami's personal discovery moments, particularly in recognizing that she has feelings for another girl, but I felt much less invested in the story and the characters in the second part of the book. I think I've just read other similar stories that I connected to more. I will buy this for my library and kids will definitely read it, but I'm not sure it will be a top checkout.

The Ballad of Ami Myles takes place in the not so distant future, especially if you live in Texas. Ami is a teenager, who lives with her family on a complex after the fall of society. It is now extremely rare for a woman to be able to have a child, so her religious zealot family tries to get her married off quickly so that she can make babies.

Ami, who was abandoned by her mother when she was born, runs away. She has help from the inside; one of her mother’s friends knows where she is, and tells Ami to go to her. After days of walking, Ami comes to the old resort where her mother now lives, but is told that her mother is out on a scavenging trip when she first gets there. Ami must wait for her return, but makes friends with the other teenagers while she waits, including Jess, a folk songstress with whom Ami falls in love. Will Ami’s mother remember her? Will Ami be accepted as part of a new family?

I thought this book was cute. Not something I would have picked out for myself, but I did find it interesting. With the way this country is headed I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d all be living in cults by the next decade, so it was a good reminder that I should maybe gain some wilderness skills. I liked Ami’s character, and it was fun to watch her learn about “new” things. If you love/hate cults, including the Republican Party (lol jk not really tho), pick ‘er up. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

This book was good. Not amazing but sometimes I still think about this movie I have seen and then I realize it wasn't a movie, it was this book. I love when that happens.

Ami is just a teenager when her grandfather introduces her future husband, a man surely at least old enough to be her father. It’s her duty to reproduce, she’s been told since she was a young child, to help repopulate the world. But for the help of her caring aunts and uncles, this is the fate she would have been resigned to. With their planning, she makes her way off the family compound and begins the journey to find her mother. When she finally succeeds, she realizes the world is much different than she’d been led to believe. A good post-apocalyptic story with cultish elements woven throughout.

Sadly this was a dnf for me. I only got a few chapters in, but the writing style and the stream of consciousness narration really wasn’t for me. I’m sure it will work better for another reader.

I thought this was just okay. The writing felt flat to me, and I was surprised at how anti-climatic Ami's escape was! She basically camped out for a few days and literally nothing of any note happened??

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Ballad of Ami Miles by Kristy Dallas Alley.

This is a story about a young girl escaping a damaging cult who teach her the the majority of her value comes with the ability to reproduce. After being introduced to her future husband, her aunt comes to her rescue and helps her to run. Now Ami is on her own in this new world, and has a lot to learn, about the world and herself.

These kinds of books are hard to read, especially because high control groups like these exist! And many cultures have taught women that motherhood is the end-all role. But even though I've already read plenty of cult books, I felt like this was a worthwhile read, entertaining as well as sobering.

Overall, The Ballad of Ami Miles is okay.
The premise of the story and this post-apocalyptic world are interesting, it reminded me a bit of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. But I wasn't a fan of the characters or writing style, so it fell a little flat.

I tried to get into this book, I really did, especially with that premise, but the writing just very hard to connect to, and I found myself drifting off more often than not.

The Ballad of Ami Miles by Kristy Dallas Alley was okay. My students love books that revolve around post- apocalyptic times, but this one fell short in what it was trying to achieve.

I wanted to like this book more, but it kind of fell flat for me. I liked the premise, and the idea of a girl breaking out of her old belief system and growing into her own self, but there was a little too much exposition and not enough actually happening.

I did enjoy the romance that happens once she escapes to Lake Point, and how that makes her question her past, but her transformation just didn't ring authentic to me. It felt like it came too fast; if she had been completely brainwashed I feel like it should have taken longer. I wanted more of the journey, and less of the two destinations.

Still, I really loved the romance between Ami and the guitar player(lol), and I've definitely had those same feelings come up when I've fallen for people, and even some of the same doubts, since I was raised in a conservative religion (though def not as crazy as Ami's). That might be why I'm so critical of the pacing, since I know from experience that kind of changing your belief system takes years and years. So this was just not for me.

The Ballad of Ami Miles is the first dystopian book I’ve read in quite some time. Kristy Dallas Alley has created a post-apocalyptic world that could easily be our future (or so it feels that way with how it’s described). The author had me completely sucked into this world and I just had to know how everything would play out!

In this book the story basically revolves around our main character, Ami, and her journey into the world she didn’t knew existed. It’s also been awhile since I’ve read such a character driven book and it was so refreshing. I felt I really got to know the main character and it felt like I was with her and along for the ride.

Ami only knows the compound she grew up in. Her grandparents have raised her and she’s known it’s her duty to have a child in a world where most women aren’t able to. Because that’s what happened when the world started having problems. Women weren’t able to get pregnant anymore and the few that could were watched by the government, so they would continue to do so. Seeing how Ami’s mother was able to have her, her family thinks she may be able to as well. Knowing this doesn’t make it any easier for Ami when a man shows up and she knows she’ll have to be with this man.

When she’s told her mother may still be alive and that her aunts don’t believe this should be her future, they help her flee. This is definitely part of the story I won’t forget. Part of her family wanting more for her and her taking that risk. I can’t imagine how scary that was. Leaving the only place you’ve never known and going out into a world that sounds pretty scary and not even knowing how many people are still around.

Ami’s journey was so interesting and emotional. All the little things she discovers along the way. Actually seeing people her age for the first time or the mention of babies. When it turns out the world may not be as she was once told, Ami’s whole world is turned upside down. Even though this is really hard for Ami it also takes so much strength to deal with everything. I don’t know if I would’ve been so brave.

The Ballad of Ami Miles was a pleasant surprise and if you enjoy dystopian books, this is definitely one I recommend. The author wrote this book in a way that I didn’t want to stop reading and I actually had to cut back my selection of favorite quotes, because a lot jumped out to me while reading. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more books by this author.

It's a story about a teen girl on a quest to find her long-lost mother.
Being a debut novel she has done a wonderful job in character development. Lucid writing.
Very intriguing story. Will keep you hooked up till the end. Fast paced unwrapping secrets in almost every chapter. Contains triggering contents such as racism , homophobia , toxic masculinity , toxic family , mention of abusive parental relationship. Waiting for the sequel 😗
Recommend to all !!!

The Ballad of Ami Miles is a dystopian young adult novel written from the perspective of Ami Miles. The world is set the future where women most women lose their ability to conceive a child due to a mysterious virus, except a few lucky ones. To keep the human race alive, the government has decided to capture and take these women to a breeding facility to increase the dying population.
Ami's mother had run away when she was a year old, leaving her with her grandparents, Papa Solomon ad Ruth. She ran to escape the government agents who took away any fertile woman for their breeding program. Ami on turning sixteen was deemed suitable to have a child with a stranger brought by her grandfather. However, she refused to surrender to her fate and ran away to find her mother.
The book, despite its short length, includes a lot of serious issues including homophobia, racial injustice and forced marriage. Ami went through a lot of character development throughout the book. She set out first to find her mother but decided that she will never be happy until she found herself. She went from the oppressed little girl who had no say in her own life, to be an independent girl and I am totally here for it.
However, the world-building could use a bit more work. I think the author could tell us a lot more about the story of how this virus attacked, which lead to a decrease in the human population.
Overall, it was a nice read, and I liked reading about all the important issues that the book touched upon. I would recommend it to someone who likes a good dystopian fiction.

When you first pick up The Ballad of Ami Miles, you’ll probably assume it’s just another entry in a surprisingly long list of recent cult-focused releases. (Thanks a lot to popular documentaries like Seduced and The Vow for this trend, I guess.) After all the story includes family secrets, a post-apocalyptic dystopia, and what is essentially a fertility cult.

Yet, although those things are a big piece of this story, they aren’t even close to the most important element. For all its dark and dystopian feel, at its heart, The Ballad of Ami Miles is a surprisingly sweet and charming coming of age tale, telling the story of a girl who must not only reevaluate the entire world she thought she knew, but figure out what sort of place she wants to forge for herself in it.

And here we have another novel that I wished I would’ve read when I was in middle/high school (mind you I know this book was not out yet). The story of Ami and her journey of potentially being one of the last females on the planet to have children is such a heavy story to tell. Ami is only sixteen and she has grown up her whole thinking that she had to reproduce with a man in order to please God. Ami’s internal conflict of having please God or find her own purpose in the world was realistic and her thoughts were truly that of a sixteen year old girl faced with being impregnated by a strange man old enough to be her father.

Alley does a wonderful job of using Ami’s internal monologue to give us more information about the world without having to info-dump it. All the information was relevant and well spaced out within the novel. It also showcased how smart Ami was in a world that didn’t always appreciate women like they should. The setting of the book is also noteworthy. It reminded of The Last of Us without the clickers. I could visualize the abandoned buildings that Ami passed on her journey as well as the forest and rivers around her. One thing I can say about this book is that I wished it were longer. I want to get to know Ami more and find out how her life is years later. I haven’t heard anything surrounding a sequel, but hey a girl can wish.

Overall, this book tackles sexism, racism, and many other elements in a dystopian world, but Alley’s storytelling gives this story a unique voice in the genre. I would definitely recommend this book if you enjoyed Agnes at the End of the World.

I was drawn in by the world and its post-apocalyptic setting, but what I really fell in love with were the themes of community, friendship, and found family. It's an extremely satisfying read.

Thoughts and Themes: There is so much that I could say about this book and how I read it at just the right moment. The interpretation of my religion and what I chose to follow from it will always be something that I disagree with my dad about. If I ever needed a message from above to let me know that I was okay in what I’m doing then this book was that for me. Books that feel like a welcome home or that help me heal in some way will always be something that I remember. It’s not steeped in religion or faith the way other religious books are but it serves as the foundation and the upbringing for Ami.

I was really excited to read this book as I really enjoy dystopian books and was pleased to find that it was also LGBTQ+. I liked how this book mixed a lot of different themes together and liked how the plot played out. I liked how you didn’t really get to know immediately if what Ami went there for was waiting for her but you really got to see her figure out who she is. I liked that this was a science fiction coming of age story because I feel that I haven’t read many of those. I liked that this story was a reminder that history repeats itself as Ami is taught that interracial relationships are a sin, and that to be a worthy woman are supposed to produce children. I thought it was interesting to see that while the world around Ami had progressed her town hadn’t and they had gone backward in time. I thought that the revelations that happen throughout the story are really well written and enjoyed the moments that they happen in. I think that these moments are shocking to the reader because your reality is very much what Ami has told us.

I really enjoy the old timey feel of this book and how it feels like you are going on an adventure with the main character. I think that the setting really added to making it feel like I was in the future with so many elements and rules of the past. I liked how this book was set in the future but it was as if society had taken several steps backwards. Something that I really enjoyed about it being set in the future is the scene in which they are talking about computers and record players as I thought it was a nice callback to our present times and the past.

Characters: While there is one main character there are a lot of side characters that you meet throughout the book. I liked how this story takes the time to introduce you to Ami’s family before really getting into the story. I think that it is important that you know them and their role in her life so you understand where she is coming from.

Once Ami leaves her home, she meets a lot more people in the area that her mom is supposed to be at. I really enjoyed her interactions with each of those characters and how vulnerable she is with one of them. I really liked how the relationship between Ami and Jessie develops and the way that Ami struggles through this all. I like how this book shows that this goes against everything that Ami has been taught and how multi-layered it is for her.

Writing Style: This story is written in the first person from Ami’s perspective which I found to be great. I liked that we always know how Ami is feeling and what she is thinking but we don’t know the inner thoughts of anyone else. I liked that we didn’t know anything about anyone else besides Ami because it let you feel and discover things along with her.