I initially found this book rather daunting because of its size: 616 pages. My usual reads are a lot shorter, but as soon as I got into the story, I just kept going. The world the author created was engaging, and I literally couldn’t stop reading as each new adventure spurred me on to discover what happened.
The adults fell ill and gradually died. Some of them became the ‘infected’, but this wasn’t the main premise of the story. They were more of an irritating extra for those unfortunate enough to come into contact with them. The real focus lay with the Kin, a gang of kids who became a family in this scary new world.
Tori is the main character, although the viewpoint occasionally switches to others. She was eleven when she lost her family in a horrific way, but then everyone had a story.
Navigating your teenage years is difficult enough in normal circumstances, with raging hormones and mood swings as she grows. She has all that to deal with while also learning how to survive alongside the rest of her kin.
Tori did annoy me at times with her attitude, and I sometimes thought she could have handled things better, but these were far from normal times.
I loved all the characters, and when things turned horrific, the author handled it well, striking just the right balance so that nothing was gory?
I’m glad I didn’t abandon this book. I did consider it at first, as the first few chapters moved backwards and forwards in time, which confused me occasionally. Before I knew it, though, I was halfway through and completely committed.
Big books can sometimes slump around the middle, and it tends to be more noticeable because of their length. This one didn’t. Every chapter kept me interested, and in the end, it turned out to be a superbly entertaining read.
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Book Blurb and Link
First came the virus that killed all the adults.
Then came the gangs, the hunger, and the sky turning grey.
But losing Nate broke her more than the world ever could.
Sixteen-year-old Tori has survived the collapse with nothing but a gang that feels more like a fragile family and Sky, Nate’s older brother, the only person who understands the parts of her she hides.
Together, they scavenge the ruins for food, safety, and scraps of the world they’ve lost. But grief is a dangerous thing, and hope is even more so.
When a newcomer joins the gang, so similar to Tori in all the wrong ways, everything changes and the line between survival and actually living begins to blur.
Now she must decide between clinging to a memory that’s hurting her, or risk letting go long enough to truly live again.
‘Everything Blue’ is a character-driven YA post-apocalyptic novel about found family, grief, and the quest for hope in a world where even the sky has forgotten its once-vivid shade.
World of Stories 