After developing flu like symptoms Paige sets off to bed to help ease everything. With the intentions of getting up the next day, she discovers she has been in a coma like sleep for 6 days. Waking up to find not only her family has died, but most of humanity is gone as well, she embarks on the journey to find others who have survived.

If you have read Rae Carson’s previous work, don’t look for the same fantasy and magical worlds in this. This is a sci-fi / dystopian adventure that hits a bit close to home. With talks of politics and the coronavirus it starts to make you think a bit. While the story line was great, and I did love it all, there were some lulls where it just felt that Carson was forcing there to be a storyline. This did read like a mid grade books, so I went easy on the rating. Being left on a cliffhanger at the end, it was set up for a second book. And if we know Carson, we know there will be one.

I really liked this book and I think teens especially would love this story. . The beginning is rather disgusting and gross, but it fits with the story.

It does seem like it will be a first of a series, though. The teens accomplished their short-term goal, but there is still much that needs to be done.

This story seemed to be a little bit of a cross between The Maze Runner and I Am Number Four book series, but still unique in it’s own right. I loved it. Good pacing, (I didn’t want to put the book down,) interesting characters that all had their unique story, a little bit of new love, and some great action scenes. I highly recommend this book and I hope that there is a book two.

Thank you Net Galley and HarperCollins Children’s Books/ Greenwillow Books for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Star basketball player, Paige Miller, wakes up after being severely ill to discover that she is all alone in the world. Her dreams of playing college ball and going to the WNBA are gone, her family is gone, and she must figure out how to survive in the world. But as she ventures out to find supplies she discovers maybe she isn't all alone in the world. Throughout this book Paige must figure out what makes life worth fighting for.
I really enjoyed this story. The story really gets you to ask yourself if life is worth living or fighting for when everything you knew and loved is gone. Each character has a different experience before the apocalypse, and it makes them an unlikely crew. But they are all that they have left. I was worried that since this book includes a virus that wipes out the whole world that it might be a little much with the covid pandemic. But the story is set a little bit in the future, probably about ten years from now and she makes a few references to the pandemic. And with the alien twist it makes it feel different than our current state of affairs. This was a fast paced story and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I haven't engaged with any fictional stories about deadly viruses since the pandemic hit, and I've always brushed off warnings of things that "might hit too close to home these days." Now I have egg on my face because I've tried multiple times to read this book about a deadly virus, and I just can't do it right now. It's too triggering. I'm going to have to DNF the book and maybe give it another try in a few years.

What I've read is worth at least 4 stars, though I feel weird rating a book I couldn't finish!

#AnySignofLife #NetGalley
Rae Carson gives a vivid and well written novel about survival. It is a page turner that will have you up into the night.

I enjoy Rae Carson’s writing and the idea for the plot of the book was great, but I was somewhat disappointed by the execution.
High school basketball player, Paige, catches the very contagious flu that’s been going around. She wakes up in her room hooked up to an empty IV bag and surrounded by weird smells and silence. Confused she searches her house to find her little brother, mother and stepdad all dead in their beds and her neighborhood is silent. What has happened? It turns out that she had been sick and comatose for 6 days as a majority of the world’s population died from an alien virus. She finds Emmaline, the dog of her neighbor, also alive and when her house is destroyed, they set off to see the extent of the damage. There’s no people, no electricity, no 911 or working cell phones, only an emergency broadcast message. In a neighboring town, she runs into Trey, a handsome brilliant football player who was college bound before the virus. They decide to stick together. They later meet Tanq, an artistic teenager who does not really like people and joins them reluctantly. She tells them about a late night broadcast from a person named Manny who is looking for survivors. Will they be able to survive and get to Manny? Are there really other survivors out there or are they the last? Will they be about to defeat the aliens and rebuild Earth? Lots of questions are raised in the book, so it was left open for sequels.

From the first page, I was completely captivated with this apocalypse novel! I went into it blind, just trusting an author who has never let me down. Rae Carson's books keep the reader turning the pages late into the night. She builds the characters and the world with dialogue and action so there are no boring moments. As we are finally coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Any Sign of Life is a perfect read.