“After the Flood” is a story about a mother and daughter surviving in a future Earth that is almost completely flooded. The only land masses that remain are the tops of mountains. Somehow the story is a blend of Life of Pi, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Noah’s Ark all wrapped up in one swashbuckling, seafaring, post-apocalyptic adventure. Though long, the book stays at a fast pace throughout. I was as easily swept up in the drama of trying to survive at sea and all the hair-raising dilemmas the characters get into as I was swept up in the inner turmoil of the main character, Myra. Not only is Myra a first class fisher and sailor, she is a struggling mother to her 7 year old daughter, Pearl, which leads to many interesting clashes. Pearl, who has lived her entire life at sea, is a handful to raise, but Myra’s mothering skills are further hampered by the loss of her first daughter, Row, at the beginning of the Flood when Row was taken by Myra’s then husband, Jacob. Myra is on a personal journey to find Row, which leads her to make rash decisions that are potentially harmful to both her and her remaining daughter, Pearl. Overall, the arc of her story is threaded nicely through the book with plenty of room for thrills and close calls in between.

Despite the immersive story, there were a few quibbles I had with Kassandra Montag’s writing. First, there were a few minor inconsistencies that took me out of the story. The one that got me the most was that Pearl’s grandfather supposedly taught her the words to his favorite prayers when Pearl was young, but then later in the book, we learn that Pearl’s grandfather had died when she was an infant. Pretty precocious baby. Second, Montag’s use of metaphors and similes is just crazy out of control. It is as if someone taught her that similes are the only way to describe something. Everything Montag describes in this book is “like” something else. Seriously, once you start seeing it, there is no escape. This is of course only my opinion. Overall, the book was riveting, but if you have a phobia to the word “like,” you have been forewarned.

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Created Nov 24, 2019 at 10:21am • Submit your own review...