“Katydid” by Popeye Theophilus Barrnumb The book is really a novelette, showing us a nightmarish, post-apocalyptic world from the eyes of an innocent child. There’s one very unnerving—creepy might be a better word—scene in which a stranger finds Katy in the night. And while it might be hard to believe a ten-year-old’s response at one point, overall she is written in a very believable manner. Katy is a survivor in time where survival is everything. The epilog gives a satisfying conclusion. Speaking of time, “After” is what they call the world after the apocalypse. Not After-This or After-That. Just After. As opposed to Before. Really, better names would prevent some confusion. But tha
“Shadow Stalker” by Renee Scattergood This is another coming-of-age fantasy-adventure. Therefore, a great deal of emphasis is on the main character training to be The Chosen One. Yes, I suppose if a young lady’s destiny is to fight evil, she would want to train for it. Still, a feeling of dread comes over me whenever I come across a book that gives so much importance to the subject. Usually, those scenes are just plain boring. In “Shadow Stalker”, those scenes consist of being tortured by creepy guys with electric prods… because being tortured is a proven training technique, right? Auren was raised by Kado, a Shadow Stalker with the ability to travel into the shadow world. Now, as the
