After the Green Withered Blog Tour Plus Review

After the Green Withered

They tell me the country looked different back then.

They talk of open borders and flowing rivers.

They say the world was green.

But drought swept across the globe and the United States of the past disappeared under a burning sky. 

Enora Byrnes lives in the aftermath, a barren world where water has become the global currency. In a life dominated by duty to family and community, Enora is offered a role within an entity that controls everything from water credits to borders. But it becomes clear that not all is as it seems. From the wasted confines of her small town to the bowels of a hidden city, Enora will uncover buried secrets that hide an unthinkable reality. 

As truth reveals the brutal face of what she has become, she must ask herself: how far will she go to retain her humanity?

After the Green Withered purchase links:

https://www.amazon.com/After-Green-Withered-Kristin-Ward-ebook/dp/B07D2X7YSY (Affiliate Link)

https://books2read.com/after-the-green-withered 

This book really made me think about how much water I am using on a daily basis. Enora’s generation does not even know what it is like to have enough water to live comfortably. All of the previous generations wasted water until there was barely any left, and now humanity is surviving on the last droplets. Enora does blame the previous generations for ruining her world, and she doesn’t want to give birth to any children in order to keep them out of this suffering world. But she keeps looking forward, questioning everything, and never settling for what the barren world was giving her.

I wanted to cry as I was reading about how they had to live in this time. Everything was dry, dirty, and gritty. No one alive at the time knew or could remember what it was like to live with water. The government took advantage of this and grew into power while helping people to control their water usage.

Enora was such a smart character. She knew that something was up from the point that she was offered a way to basically join the government’s army, and she never believed their propaganda. All of the actions scenes were accompanied by her conflicting inner thoughts as she wondered what she was really doing. She even explored with the new characters that she met along the way, finding out the secrets about her government.

The only thing that I didn’t like about this story was the slight love triangle that I think is starting to appear. I don’t know for sure, but it could even be a love square! I just personally like my YA characters to be tied down to one person or another to eliminate unnecessary drama, so this disappointed me a little bit. But the book did end on a cliffhanger, so I don’t know how these relationships are going to change in future books. I can’t wait for future books!

This book moved so smoothly throughout each chapter. It wasn’t so fast-paced that I got lost, but it wasn’t so slow-paced that the author was describing every tree that Enora passed on a walk. I read the book almost completely in one sitting and verbally said “that’s it?” once I reached the end. I was on the edge of my seat, Ward had me hooked!

Overall, this was one of the best, if not the best YA dystopian novels that I have read in a long time. I was already planning out scenes for the movie as I was going through it, it was great! I would recommend it to anyone looking for a brand new YA dystopian science fiction/fantasy read.

I received a copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 books

About the Author

Kristin Ward has loved writing since middle school but took thirty years to do something serious about it. The result is her Best Indie Book Award-winning novel, After the Green Withered, followed by the sequel, Burden of Truth. She lives in a small town in Connecticut with her husband, three sons, and many furry and feathered friends. A SciFi geek to the core, she is fueled by dark chocolate and coffee and can be heard quoting eighties movies on a regular basis.

 

Kristin Ward Twitter: http://twitter.com/YA_Author

Kristin Ward Website: https://www.writingandmythreesons.com/