Review H2O by Virginia Bergin

I have to first say thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for allowing me to read an e-galley of this. I even was approved on both Netgalley and Edelweiss.  I guess I didn't realize that I'd asked at both sites, but I did.  And I'm glad I did, because I really enjoyed it.

The main character, our narrator, is Ruby.  I guess you could call Ruby one of the "popular" kids.  And Ruby is at a party, kissing her crush, Caspar, in a hot tub.  They're at her friend Zak's house, kind of a farmhouse out in the country, in England. Zak's parents are pretty cool, kind of hippies, as they've left the kids out there for their party, allowed them to have alcohol, and then don't bug them about it.  But on this night, while Ruby is in the hot tub in her underwear kissing Caspar, Zak's parents come running out and usher them all inside, no time to grab their belongings out of the barn or get dressed.  There's a rainstorm coming.  But it's in England, so big whoop, right?  Well it turns out that one of Zak's father's friends has given him a heads up about this rain.  You see, a long time ago, when Ruby was a very young girl, there was a giant asteroid heading towards Earth.  The scientists were able to completely destroy it before it hit the Earth.  But because Ruby and her friends don't really remember that, it's never been that big of a deal to them.  Until this night.  When it turns out that inside that asteroid, there had been a type of bacteria that was able to live in extreme conditions, like the ones that live at the bottom of the ocean near thermal vents.  So it survived in space, and it survived in the dust and rocks that did come through the Earth's atmosphere, and now it was in the rain that was coming. 

Everyone is kind of thinking the parents are being a little overprotective with making them all stay inside.  Even with the stuff that is getting broadcast on the radio.  So Caspar sneaks outside to grab his ipod and cell phone when no one but Ruby is looking.  But when he comes in, he doesn't seem to be feeling well.  He starts coughing, and soon is scratching his skin and bleeding.  Zak's dad says it isn't safe to leave, even though Zak's mom says they have to get Caspar to the hospital for help.  Everyone else is having tea and coffee to try to sober up from all the alcohol they've had.  Zak's mom wraps Caspar up to try not to touch him, and runs him to the car.  Ruby runs out with them to go to the hospital she thinks.  But Caspar dies on the way, and it seems that now Zak's mom might be sick from having touched him.  So she drops Ruby off at her own house, and she runs up, but under an umbrella to stay out of the rain.  But when Ruby gets to the front door, her stepdad Simon won't let her in at first.  He knows what is going on, and is trying to protect himself, as well as Ruby's mother and baby brother. Eventually he lets her in, but sticks her in the den, locks her in.  The rain keeps coming, and a neighbor even comes and knocks on the door asking for help, but Simon refuses to let her in, again to keep his family safe.  Ruby's mom throws some pain reliever stuff out the window to the neighbor.  Which may in itself be a fatal mistake.  When Ruby wakes up in the morning, the whole world will have changed.  She will have to survive with her family, and maybe eventually on her own when she tries to go find her read dad in London.  And more is learned as she tries to live without water, Simon is smart enough to know that the tap water is going to be contaminated, and that probably saves their lives.  But besides the water with the killer bacteria, there will also be people that are dangerous out there.

This was a very good story, told from the beginning of the "apocalypse" or "plague," whatever you want to call this.  Ruby's narration is a fun one, definitely like I would think a teen would talk/write.  I love that the science in this is mostly realistic. Although I really doubt that something that affected humans the way this does, wouldn't also affect the animals around as well.  But that's just my thought.  I really was kept involved in the story the whole way through.  It was hard to put it down because it was so minute by minute, and I didn't know exactly what would happen.  Would they get to where the army was and everything would be okay?  Or would it be like the camps I'd read about in other apocalyptic books like Ashfall by Mike Mullin?  I had to know how it would end.  And I'm not sure how I feel about the ending though.  I almost want more, but I can see why it ended that way.  So a good, edge of your seat read, for anyone who enjoys apocalyptic YA novels.

Ashen Winter (Ashfall #2) by Mike Mullin

I finally got around to reading this!  Not that I didn't want to, just the size of it I think kept me from picking it up when I had sooooooo many other books to read.  Not that I don't still have a ton, I just decided with our late March snow last weekend that a book like this was the right way to go.  Once I picked it up, it was a quick read, well as quick as I could get through an over 500 page book while teaching every day this week! Not to mention it seemed I had something to do every night this week and I didn't have a lot of nights that I was just sitting around reading.  Until last night, when I finished the last 100-150 pages.  Once I started it I really just wanted to sit and read and find out what happened next, and then after that, and then next, and how would it all end?  And it was another good book.
Okay, so if you read the first book, Ashfall, you know that there was a supervolcano explosion, in Yellowstone National Park.  From that explosion there were major changes.  It threw dust and ashes up into the air, and basically created winter.  It got colder as the sun was blocked out, plants began to die as they had no sunlight and the ash just cover them.  Our main character in this book is again Alex.  He and his new girlfriend Darla, although after all they've been through she is more than just a "girlfriend", found their way at the end of the first book to his uncle's house, where his parents and younger sister were supposed to be.  Only once they got there, they found his parents were gone, they had left to try to find him.  For awhile they stayed and worked on the farm.  The farm did okay because they were able to grow kale, which was good because kale had a lot of vitamin C, which many people need in this time of ashen winter.  In fact the seeds are so valuable, they can use them as money for things that need.  Help from a doctor, information, etc.
The farm gets attacked, and Alex recognizes one of the guns as one that was owned by his father.  So he and Darla follow after these men, called flensers, to find out where they got the gun.  Flensers, a disgusting new group of people, many different groups actually, that eat people.  They are cannibals.  They find out that the gun was traded to this group from a FEMA camp.  Well Alex and Darla remember what it was like to be in one of those camps.  Alex insists on going to find his parents.  He takes many packets of kale seeds.  They also remembered from crossing the river before that there had been a whole barge of wheat grains.  So they, Alex anyway, decides to try to go by there first to get some of the wheat so that they can plant that as well as the kale.  Unfortunately when they reach the barge it is now swarming with the military.  Alex insists that they try to get some wheat from the guard shack.  But the heist goes wrong, and Darla gets shot when they're on a bridge, and she falls off the bridge onto the top of a truck.  And now, Alex must find Darla too.
So he is now looking for not only his parents, but Darla too.  And when or if he finds his parents, will they want to help him find Darla?  Along the way he meets a girl named Alyssa and her autistic brother Ben, and rescues them from one of the Flenser groups.  But will they be able to fit in and  help Alex as well?

Such a good book.  You're on pins and needles all the way.  It's a great apocalyptic survival story, reminded me in some places of The Walking Dead in how much you got involved with the characters.  The author does such a great job with Alex's Tae Kwan Do skills.  And his portrayal of Ben, the autistic character is right on from my experience of the few autistic students I've had in the past.  You can see the way they do have their quirks, and you even smile at points where you can feel Alex's exasperation, but also Alex's learning patience with Ben, and even coming to be able to be a part of Ben's life.  I do love how Ben calls Alyssa his "sister unit".  A great read.  Lots of action, great characters, and even some sadness and heartbreak.  But now, I have to wait until 2014 to read the third book.  *Sad Face*  On a kind of interesting note, the first book in the series was the first e-galley I ever read from Netgalley.  I got an ARC of this one at BEA 2012.
Oh yeah, and I have to include my picture with the author from BEA last summer.  He is such a neat guy!  And you can tell how much he appreciates teachers from just talking to him, and mentioning that I was a teacher got him talking to me for quite a while!

2011 Debut Author Challenge 9: Ashfall by Mike Mullin

This is my first egalley I'm reading from NetGalley, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to blog about it yet, because some of the galleys said something about waiting until 30 days before the book came out, but I'm going to go ahead with this one and try to be better next time, and hope this is okay.

This book was really good. The storyline is a supervolcano at Yellowstone Park erupts and of course, this sends the world into disaster. The beginning you're in major suspense while the main character, Alex, is home alone because his family went to visit other family, and he wanted to stay home as an adult. Of course this is bad, because when his home is destroyed and they begin to have looting and robbing, he knows all he wants is to go find his family. And so we follow him on his journey. The ash from the volcano is like snow, so he finds that skis help him to travel. Along the road he meets helpful people, murderous people, and ends up at the home of a very nice woman and her somewhat grumpy daughter. They take him in when he collapses thanks to the prison escapee he last ran into attacking him. He spends time on their farm where they are able to grind corn and seem to be able to make it. They decide to go into town to see why the rabbits are dying, and when they're gone, disaster strikes back at the farm. Now they must set out to find his family again. Along the way they come across a woman with small children that they help, and then find their way to a government disaster camp. Which turns out to be almost a concentration camp in a way. When they can escape they move on to find his family again.

I like that Alex knows martial arts, it makes it a bit more likely that he is able to survive this situation when it becomes violent. I like that they don't gloss over that he is a teenager who does want to have sex. I saw a review that said these things were annoying, but I feel they fit the story perfectly and will make it very accessible to teens. I also was greatly reminded of Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and will be able to recommend it to people who enjoyed that. Now, it doesn't come out till October, so I'll be eagerly awaiting to share it!