Review: After the Snow by S. D. Crockett

Title: After the Snow

Author: S. D. Crockett

Pub Deets: March 2012, Feiwel & Friends

Series/Stand Alone: Series

Source: ARC for DAC Tours

Goodreads | Author Blog

After Willo's family goes missing from their secluded mountainside hideaway, he is thrust into wild with the ever falling snow and an unwilling companion on a search that's much greater than he knows.

Willo may not know much, but he knows how to survive. In a world that faces extreme cold most of the year, he knows how to trap animals and build fires and absorbs any and all the advice of his father.

One day when he's out trapping, his family disappears. All they left behind were their footprints and tire tracks. He is faced with living all alone in the wilderness or getting revenge on the man he knows turned his family in. He doesn't know how to find him, but he is determined to give him what he deserves.

That's before Willow meets a girl. A starving girl who is on the brink of starvation and death. He can't just leave her behind. This girl will end up leading him on a path that he doesn't expect, but it is the path he must follow to fulfill an unexpected destiny.

Willo is more than a little bit country. I mean, dude wears dog skulls on his head to help guide his conscience. He makes his own coats and gloves out of rabbit fur. He has a dialect that is challenging to read at times, but definitely unique and fitting for his character. So yeah, he's kind of a badass.

The book was slow to start, but once it picked up about 75 pages in or so, I was digging it. In fact, I'll even admit that I was pleasantly surprised when I started to get hooked into the story after the sluggish beginning. I was intrigued by the post-apocalyptic slums and the constant snow and how Willo struggled to survive. Slowly, the greater plot was revealed and Willo's greater purpose slowly comes to focus. And y'all know how this kid loves character development and coming-of-age.

While I loved where the book headed, I was supremely disappointed with the conclusion. Obviously, I won't discuss it because I am ardently anti-spoiler. I will tell you there was a ton of build up and suspense toward the end that I loved and I'm trying to hold on to that. Ultimately, the first 25% was slow build, the middle 70% was build up and world building and tension and awesomeness, and the final 5% was major let down.

"Even though she's just a pesky starving girl who gonna eat my food and get heavy on my back, she still gonna know where I am and what I been, so I aint quite alone. That's it - I ant alone now i got the girl here, and it feel better than before even though I don't know her or nothing." (77)

THE ENDING.