BLOG TOUR: After the Flood by Kassandra Montag @kassandra.montag @tlcbooktours @williammorrowbooks #bookreview #aftertheflood

In an epic story about grief, the love of a mother, and lengths one will go to save their child, many readers will find themselves lost in the emotions of Kassandra Montag’s debut novel, After the Flood. Though this novel has a dystopian setting, I think it will appeal to fans of women’s fiction and contemporary fiction more than a traditional dystopian novel would.

About the Book

An inventive and riveting epic saga, After the Flood signals the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.

A little more than a century from now, our world has been utterly transformed. After years of slowly overtaking the continent, rising floodwaters have obliterated America’s great coastal cities and then its heartland, leaving nothing but an archipelago of mountaintop colonies surrounded by a deep expanse of open water.

Stubbornly independent Myra and her precocious seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, fish from their small boat, the Bird, visiting dry land only to trade for supplies and information in the few remaining outposts of civilization. For seven years, Myra has grieved the loss of her oldest daughter, Row, who was stolen by her father after a monstrous deluge overtook their home in Nebraska. Then, in a violent confrontation with a stranger, Myra suddenly discovers that Row was last seen in a far-off encampment near the Artic Circle. Throwing aside her usual caution, Myra and Pearl embark on a perilous voyage into the icy northern seas, hoping against hope that Row will still be there.

On their journey, Myra and Pearl join forces with a larger ship and Myra finds herself bonding with her fellow seekers who hope to build a safe haven together in this dangerous new world. But secrets, lust, and betrayals threaten their dream, and after their fortunes take a shocking—and bloody—turn, Myra can no longer ignore the question of whether saving Row is worth endangering Pearl and her fellow travelers.

A compulsively readable novel of dark despair and soaring hope, After the Flood is a magnificent, action packed, and sometimes frightening odyssey laced with wonder—an affecting and wholly original saga both redemptive and astonishing.

Reflection

I want to start by commenting on how beautifully written this book is. Montag has a use of descriptive words that is at once intricate and straight forward. A perfect blend of complexity and approachable language that makes this at once gorgeous and easy to envision what she describes.

In some ways this feels like a story that could exist outside of the dystopian time that it is written within. Truly, a story of the lengths a parent will go to for their child is a timeless story that could be written into any genre, setting, or context. But there is something interesting here about the setting itself. When most of the population is wiped out, survival is all that is left to motivate us, and humans are pushed into a different sort of morals and ethics than we can fathom.

Though I found this intellectually a fascinating commentary on the fragility of our own moral codes, it also led to a character that I didn’t particularly like. I don’t find liking a character to be a prerequisite for me to like a book, and Myra was at once someone I admired in strength but disliked her selfishness. I have to imagine that was a statement that needed to be made on behalf of this story. A mother trying to save her child, particularly when pushed to the breaking point of survival like in this novel, will do anything she can for her child. Even if it means treating others poorly and putting her family first.

The pace of the novel is both fast and slow for me. There is a lot going on and it certainly keeps moving. But it also is a long book with a long journey to get to the conclusion, and that journey is important to get through to the end.

Atmospheric, emotional, and sometimes hard to read in it’s rawness—this is a book that will attract a lot of well-deserved attention. I am already seeing reviews rolling in talking about the way it touched readers, and I can’t wait to see what Kassandra Montag does next.

“Children think we make them, but we don’t. They exist somewhere else, before us, before time. They come into the world and make us. They make us by breaking us first.”

 HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Kassandra Montag grew up in rural Nebraska and now lives in Omaha with her husband and two sons. She holds a master’s degree in English Literature and her award-winning poetry and short fiction has appeared in journals and anthologies, including Midwestern Gothic, Nebraska Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and Mystery Weekly Magazine. After the Flood, her debut novel, will be published in over a dozen languages and has been optioned for a television series.

Website: https://kassandramontag.com/

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and William Morrow Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.