I would not recommend this book to most reluctant readers. The book is 304 pages and the majority of the time the two main characters are walking through the desert, thirsty. Esplin devotes a lot of page space to describing the setting and character actions, which some readers will really enjoy, but this is not the best book for folks who may not like to read. It's just very slow-paced, but a fine read overall.
( )

Not too many comments for me to make about this middle-school book. However, I have a feeling that all the middle-schoolers I know might like a little bit more action in their survival stories. I liked the friendships that developed and the strength of the sibling relationships. Some rather tame ‘bad guys’ with a ‘dog eat dog’ attitude made a couple of appearances. They weren’t too scary which is appropriate for this text level.

A piece of advice for Readers. Just like when you are reading Neal Shusterman’s book ‘Dry’, you should have a bottle of water with you. It appears I am quite suggestible and spent large parts of the book guzzling water in response to the bone quenching thirst that was well described in the book. I would give this 3 stars with my middle school reader hat on, but in reality it was a 2 star read for me. ( )

Pretty good survival story, hampered by the fact that Esplin tries to treat Stew's diabetes as some kind of mystery and twist. It would have been way more effective to state it plainly at the beginning, and then we would have a much better understanding of John's urgency and Stew's stupid behavior.

And Jess's brother brings up a really good point - if this disaster lasts longer, or it really is the end of the world, giving her insulin away is actively harmful for her. I wish that had been explored a little more. ( )