After the Flood by Kassandra Montag

Myra is a young mother searching for her daughter in a dystopian future.  A six -year flood has resulted in her home in Nebraska being flooded out.  Pregnant Myra, her young daughter Row, and her husband, Jacob planned to sail away on a boat that her grandfather is building in the attic of their flooded home.  Then one day, Jacob leaves on a motorboat with young Row without Myra.  Myra and her grandfather set sail with Myra giving birth to her daughter Pearl along the way.  Life reverts to basic survival and Myra has one goal in mind, to find Row.  Seven years later with her grandfather dead, Myra finally gets a glimmer of hope that Row is yet alive.  Will Myra put Pearl’s life at stake in order to find Row?

I read After the Flood as a “book set in the future” for my summer library reading challenge.  I am a fan of dystopian novels and movies.  After the Flood is told in the first person from Myra’s point of view.  Myra is a strong character and a great heroine for this novel.  I loved her perseverance and her ability to cope with trying situations.  What I loved the most about her was her fierce motherly love and her imperfections.  She doubted herself and had her trying moments, but overall, she did what she thought was best.  It had great moments of action as well.  I would love to see this as a movie.

I am a water resources engineer so I did have some problems with some of the explanation of the flooding.  Climate change will cause our coastal areas to end up under water, but the earth will not crack open and spew out water to flood the entire planet.  These were phrased as rumors that Myra had heard so I was able to forgive it and move on.  I had to not think about it too much.

Favorite Quotes:

“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.”

“I don’t know how to talk to Pearl about what lay beneath us. Farms that fed the nation.  Small houses built on quiet residential streets for the post-World War II baby boom.  Moments of history between walls.  The whole story of how we moved through time, marking the earth with our needs.”

“I know I sound idealistic.  But you have to risk idealism to have hope.”

“Maybe we all were born with trust and then lost it.  Maybe we all had to find it again before we left.”

Overall, After the Flood is an intriguing dystopian novel interwoven with the story of a mother’s love.  I greatly enjoyed it.

Book Source:  Advance Reader’s Edition for Review from William Morrow.  Thank-you!!