All Things Now Living, by Rondi Bauer Olson {book review}

About the book

Her whole life Amy has been taught the people of New Lithisle deserve to die, but when she falls for Daniel, she determines to save him.

Sixteen-year-old Amy doesn’t like anything to die, she won’t even eat the goats or chickens her mama has butchered every fall, but she can’t let herself pity the inhabitants of New Lithisle. In a few short months the dome they built to isolate themselves from the deadly pandemic is predicted to collapse, but her whole life Amy has been taught it’s God’s will they die. They traded their souls for immunity to the swine flu virus, brought God’s curse upon themselves by adding pig genes to their own.

Then, while on a scavenging trip with her father, Amy is accidentally trapped in New Lithisle. At first her only goal is to escape, but when she meets Daniel, a New Lithisle boy, she begins to question how less-than-human the people of New Lithisle are.

Amy’s feelings grow even more conflicted when she learns she didn’t end up in New Lithisle by mistake. Her father is secretly a sympathizer, and was trying to prevent the coming destruction.

Now time is running short and Amy has to decide if she will bring the computer program her father wrote to his contact or save herself. Installing the program could prevent the dome’s collapse, but if Amy doesn’t find her father’s contact in time, she’ll die, along with everyone else.

What I thought about the book

To be honest, I admit that I'm not a fan of the young adult dystopian genre, so I really requested this book to review with my middle son in mind. He and my daughter enjoy books in that genre. While my son enjoys that dystopian, I learned that he doesn't like books in present tense or first person, both in which All Things Now Living is written. So I handed it over to my daughter, who's "devoured" it. She seems to have enjoyed it. I may even see if my youngest might like to attempt reading it.

I found it well written and captivating, in spite of my disinterest in the genre.

About the author

Rondi Bauer Olson is a reader and writer from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where she lives on a hobby farm with her husband, Kurt. She has four grown children, works as a nurse, and also owns a gift shop within view of beautiful Lake Superior.

Learn more and purchase a copy.
(You will find on this page a discussion and project guide to be used with All Things Now Living, for grades 7-12)

*Publisher's Note: This book is considered a Hi-Lo book - with a reading level of 3.2 - specially designed with the goal of enhancing literacy through literature that engages and drives interest.

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Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Litfuse Publicity in order to give you my honest opinion.

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