The Rule of Three by Eric Walters

First I will thank Netgalley, FSG, and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  As anyone who follows my blog probably knows, I am a huge fan of dystopian stories.  So this sounded like one of those, although, really more of a post-apocalyptic, but similar.  And it was.  However, it was a bit slow for me.
The main character is Adam Daley, and strangely enough his elderly neighbor Herb.  Things seem to be just a normal day at school.  Adam and his best friend are sitting in computer class, when all the electricity and computers go out.  Now, it's not just those things connected to electricity, even laptops go out.  Something has happened that has caused anything that works with computers to no longer work.  Which means any car without computers in it, older cars, will still work.  And that included Adam's '79 Omega.  Up until this point, his friend Todd had made fun of it.  But now, when it is about the only car in the high school parking lot that will actually start, he's not so amused by it.  Once Adam gets home, after picking up his younger brother and sister from their school, dropping his crush Lori off at her family farm, and also dropping Todd off, he is met by their neighbor Herb.  Herb has a favor to ask.  He wants Adam to drive him to the Pool store.  The drive there is a bit scary as there are people who stare at them as they drive by, some looking as if they'd like to steal the car.  At the pool store Herb has a lot of cash that he give the guy for a ton of chlorine tablets.  It seems Herb may have an inkling about the whole situation not just being a temporary one.  As they're loading the car up with buckets full of the chlorine tablets, they even have a group of men who once again try to take the car.  But Herb moves his jacket to show a gun and the situation is defused.  They get back home and now Herb begins to talk about what may be going on.  He begins planning what they should do, how to be safe, and keep themselves safe.  Many of the plans seem to be quite pessimistic in Adam's point of view.  But as things that Herb has somewhat hinted at begin to occur, it seems maybe he knows what to do.  They must figure out how to secure their neighborhood, as well as what to do in order to keep themselves fed in case things don't get back to normal soon.  This includes talking to Lori's family about farming, and making some improvements in the walls/fences around their neighborhood, as well as planting some fields in yards and school lands.  Also, Adam has a very light plane, called an Ultralight.  And he gets it ready to be flown, and they are able to use it to do scouting to try to help their situation as well.  And while mostly it is just groups of people from neighborhoods that they see walking outside their area, there seems to be a larger group that may not be as innocent, may be out for only themselves.
This is a book that really just goes into the setting up of a community for this type of situation.  Yes there are times when we have conflicts with other people and neighborhoods. But a lot of it is about how they figure out what to do and how to help themselves to survive.  In a way, it feels like what maybe following how the Governor set up his town in The Walking Dead.  Or on the show Revolution, just the beginning of how they got to handling the disaster.  All the stuff that is usually skipped in books or movies or tv shows.  Because it is kind of boring.  Maybe it is important for us to know if such an event does occur.  But honestly, I found it a bit boring.  While it was interesting to hear Herb's strategies, and the reasoning behind what they did, the story did kind of just stall out in my opinion.  And the end was really just kind of a sudden ending, and you're left before probably any of the stuff that would normally be in this type of book starts to occur.  That's just my opinion.  I still gave it a 3, because it may be something that others want to read.  Another issue I had is that I want to know why the things with the computers went out.  And what has happened to Adam's father who is a pilot and would have been in Chicago at the time.  Is the author planning a sequel?  Can't tell.  But I don't know if I'd read on or not.  My need to know those things may not be strong enough to read through another slow story.  400 pages of slowness.  So not one of my top books.  But like I said, on Goodreads I gave it a 3, because it wasn't bad, just wasn't my cup of tea.

The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Macmillan Childrens Publishing Corporation for letting me read an egalley of this. 
First I have to say that I have enjoyed two of the books by this author, The Compound and The Gardener.  This book was also good, but a bit different.  Our main character is Robie.  Her parents are scientists on a remote island in the Pacific.  She gets really bored there and so often goes to stay with her aunt in Honolulu.  And that is where we join the story.  Living with her aunt she does some kind of rebellious things.  This time she's getting her nose pierced.  We find out that Robie's way of dealing with things she is scared of is by finding out what would be worse.  Soon though Robie's aunt has to go out of town unexpectedly and while she really is supposed to go back to her parents, she convinces her aunt to let her stay as long as a friend of her aunt's checks in on her every day.  And Robie is stoked when the friend ends up not being able to.  But then, she gets lonely and bored by herself.  And when she is attacked on the street, she runs home, and decides to go ahead and fly back to the island on the next supply flight out.  When she gets to the airport the next night, she's not been able to get ahold of anyone to let them know she is coming.  But she assumes they've told the island that she's coming with them.  As they're flying, with one different pilot than normal, they must go a different way because of a storm, the reason communication has been lost with the island in the first place.  And, Robie and her baggage were never weighed, so it is possible that the extra weight causes the engines to not be able to handle all the stress with the storm, and it goes down.  Robie and one of the pilots, Max, are able to get in the raft.  The other pilot doesn't make it, goes down with the plane.  Now they're stranded in a raft, which seems to have a leak.  Robie must figure out how to survive with no water or food.  She soon also realizes she could probably figure out which way to land and maybe an inhabited island.  She does finally reach land.  But landing there isn't necessarily any better.  Throughout the experience, she spends a lot of time alone, as Max seems to be sleeping all the time.  She thinks she will find food, but then that brings a shark.  On the island she realizes just how alone she is, and must again fight for her survival.
An interesting story.  I love how the author uses a Hunger Games reference, she hopes for a silver parachute to come in and bring her exactly what she needs at that moment.  And I love that the first food she finds, are in Max's ditty bag, and it is Skittles, my favorite candy.  This was a short, quick read, and a good one.

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

First I have to say thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Childrens Publishing Corporation for letting me read the egalley of this book.  It really fits in with all the end of the world stories I seem to be reading lately.  It is set slightly in the future, eveyone carries a "tab" around with them for use of a phone, internet, etc.  We begin with our main character, Dean, traveling on a bus to school.  In this school district they have 2 buses for each route, one that carries the high schoolers, and one that carries the middle school and elementary kids.  They are both traveling to school when all of a sudden a freak hail storm begins.  The high school bus gets hit the worse and slides until it flips over and crashes.  The younger kids' bus driver is able to control their bus better and pulls/crashes it into the front of a huge department/grocery store, kind of like a Walmart or Target supercenter I would say.  Maybe a shopping mall?  Not quite sure.  Then she goes back and helps get the high school kids out and over into the store and out of the storm.  It's early enough in the morning that the store is empty.  Mrs. Wooly, the bus driver, leaves the kids saying she is going for help. About that time the security gates come crashing down around the store, making it impossible for the kids to leave.  So while they're waiting there, they figure they'll eat at the pizza shop.  Astrid, one of the high school girls that Dean has always had a crush on, used to work there, and so she get the pizzas going.  Their tabs aren't working, the network seems to be down, which never happens according to Dean's brother Alex, who is a tech wizard.  But they do find an old fashioned tv that they turn on to find out what is happening.  Turns out there have been lots of disasters.  A huge tsunami has wiped out most of the East coast.  And near where this is taking place, a huge government testing facility has either been attacked or something we don't know for sure, but anyway, chemicals have been released into the air.  The kids finally find a way out, on the roof of the store, but when they get up there, they see a huge mushroom cloud, the chemicals.  And then Dean turns murderous, and Niko, one of the other high schoolers, breaks out in blisters.  They learn that the chemicals have different effects based on a person's blood type.  So, they end up settling in waiting for Mrs. Wooly to return, which she doesn't.  At first they let Jake, the big football hero kind of take over as boss.  But soon other things begin to happen.  They figure out the water also contains the chemicals in the bathroom when Astrid attacks one of the little kids she is helping clean up.  Astrid then takes off on her own and hides.  Jake and his buddy Brayden just want to relax.  Aren't up much for organizing or getting things figured out so they can survive on their own.  Other problems that they must deal with, people outside trying to get in who have been affected by the chemicals.  Worrying about if the electricity will go out.  Food lasting, etc.  We've got 6 high schoolers and I think about 6 little kids plus a middle school girl.  One of the little kids speaks Spanish mostly.  Dean ends up being in charge of the food, and gets the little kids to take turns being his helpers.  Niko ends up in charge and plans things out.  Dean's brother Alex is in charge of all the power and things like that. 
This was a pretty good story, an interesting take on end of the world.  In a way, a bit of Lord of the Flies, kids must learn how to take care of themselves, and when/if adults show up, they may be surprised by how the kids have had to handle things.  Definitely a good, quick read.  My only negative on it, is I don't quite know what the title has to do with the story.  I think there has to be a sequel, but not sure.  I will read on because I have to know if they do ever find their parents.
I am going to put this on my A-Z Reading Challenge as the "Y" for the two of them in the author's name.