The Winter Place by Alexander

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 448

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Released: 22nd of October 2015

When a mysterious stranger and his brown bear show up on the same day that Axel and Tess's father dies in an accident, Axel fears he might be going crazy, especially as only he can see them. However, the strange duo are quickly forgotten when Axel and Tess are shipped off to Finland to stay with grandparents that they've never met. But when they arrive in Finland, Axel is stunned when the stranger and his bear reappear. More incredibly, the stranger tells him that his parents are lost and need help. 

Desperate to see his father again, and actually meet his mother, Axel follows the man and his bear, disappearing deep into the frozen wilds of northern Finland. When Tess realises that her brother has vanished she's distraught. And so begins the frantic search across snow and ice into the dark forest. But as the hours creep by and with no sign of Axel, Tess begins to wonder if her brother has ventured onto a path that she cannot follow. 

What I Have to Say 

This book got better and better as it went on. It's not the kind of book that I was in love with from the start, but by the end of it I was sad to finish it. It was a very urbanized fairy tale, with the enemy for the most of it being a wheelchair. Which really worked when you found out what it actually was and how the mythology worked.  

The Finland setting was really interesting as it's a country that I don't know Learning about the mythology of other places is one of my favourite things about books like this, so I was glad there was so much of it. 

The reader is kept in suspense for most of the book and I did feel it was drawn out a bit, especially towards the start. But on a whole, I enjoyed it a lot. 

Boy 23 by Jim Carrington

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 384

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Released: 19th of November 2015 

Boy 23 isn't in My Place any more. He can't see The Screen, he can't hear The Voice. Boy 23 is alone.

One dark night, Boy 23 is thrown in the back of the van and driven out of My Place - the only home he has ever known. He is abandoned in a forest with a rucksack containing the bare essentials for survival. Before the van drives away, a voice tells him he must run as far as he can. His life depends on it. Boy 23 has never known another human. Boy 23 has never even been outside. So who is he? Why do people want to kill him? And more to the point, who is the voice that wants to save him?

What I Have to Say 

I really enjoyed this book. There was such a lot of great mystery in it. From the start, we have no clue who Jesper is or who the Voice is and what their connection to Marsh Flu is. Jesper's voice really draws you in. He sounds perfect for the boy he is, having grown up in seclusion with no contact with another person, his only knowledge coming from videos. 

The replacement of words in Jesper's vocabulary didn't bother me. Though they weren't really needed, since why would he know some words and not others, but there weren't too many of them so it just fell naturally into the way he spoke. Comparing it with Sophie Someone, which I really hated because of the replacement of words, I think it is because Boy 23 just replaces a couple of words whereas Sophie Someone replaced so many. 

If you're looking for a good post apocalypse book, this is a really good one to pick. There's people who've taken advantage of the break down of the society and others who have tried to help. There's so many things that get revealed later in the book too. 

This was a really good read.