In the second novel of this series, the stakes are much higher. After the eruption of a super volcano in Yosemite, most of the United States has been buried in ash. Alex, who was home alone when this event occurred, sets on to meet up his parents and relatives. On the way, he encounters many dangers and Darla, who has saved him multiple times. Alex knows that his relatives have a farm and that his parents are there with the rest of his family. After several weeks of starvation and of trying to stay alive, Darla and Alex arrive to the farm and he finds out that his parents are no longer there because they went in search of Alex. Darla and him decide to stay at the farm and help in any way they can. One day, a group of bandits attacks the farm and through them, they discover that one of them had Alex's father's gun. Alex and Darla decide to embark on journey back into the dangerous roads that they had left in the hopes of finding Alex's parents.
I thought it was important to summarize what happened in the first book in order to explain what happens in this book. This book starts almost right after the events of the first novel, so it flows very nicely. Being the second book of a series, I kind of expected it to have the second-book syndrome. I have plenty of books that is has happened but I am glad to say that this was not the case. I'll admit, in some parts of the novel it did feel slightly slow. However, I do think they were important components of the book and they were necessary to keep the pace of the book.
It has been about two years since I read the first book but, reading it, I felt very familiar with the characters. It did not really feel like I waited that amount of time to read this book. Darla, is and continues to be my favorite character of this book. She is so brave and intelligent; I think she has the components of what a good female character should be. I was a little disappointed to see that she was not part of the action of the novel, she is gone for most of the second half. The moments that she was present were very memorable. Alex continues to be his usual self. I did see a growth in him; he is becoming more independent and is able to make his own decisions. Although those decisions don't always turn out as planned.
One of the things that I loved about this series was that it wasn't afraid to be graphic. When you have an event like a super volcano occur and have to deal with the consequences of that, like the collapse of the societal infrastructure, it would make sense not to be nice about it. Once again, this book is able to show the bad things that people are capable of in times like this.
I never see a lot of people talking about this series, which is such a shame. More people need to read this series because it is incredibly good. I swear.
