Alone out Here started out strong. I was excited by the premise of Lord of the Flies in Space, and the beginning was definitely exciting. However, about 20% in, the story started to drag and I had a hard time staying interested. After they boarded the ship the excitement and tension seemed to fade away and it ended up just being a teen drama. And not a very interesting one. I also was not happy with the way things wrapped up in the end. Lord of the Rings in space is a great concept, but this was not the execution I was looking for.

Alone Out Here is a fast-paced YA sci-fi perfect for middle grade readers and up. This tension and action filled book set entirely on a space ship will keep readers enthralled until the last page. Set in a recognizable near future, a climate crisis has ravaged the world and a ship of teens are the only survivors. Readers follow the main character, Leigh, the United States President's daughter, aboard the ship in her reluctant leadership position. Basically everything that could go wrong does and the ship quickly feels out of control. It was fascinating to see all the scenarios play out and wonder what you would do if you were in the character's shoes.

Redgate uses several shocking plot twists throughout the novel to catch readers off guard and they work so well! A must-read for fans of YA sci fi who don't mind a little space claustrophobia!

I always feel like I need to provide a disclaimer when I write a 3-star review. I definitely feel like that is the case with Alone Out Here. If you see 3-stars and think that I didn't like this, let me assure you, that's not the case. This is a good book and I can appreciate what Redgate created here. I know there are a lot of Readers out there that are going to adore this thoughtful-YA SF tale.

In 2072, moments before a volcanic eruption that is predicted to be an extinction event hits, several teens on a tour of a high-tech spaceship, the Lazarus, are able to escape the planet just in time.

The world's greatest minds have been working on this issue for a while. Knowing that someday their only chance of survival would be to flee Earth. The Lazarus was just a prototype for the vast fleet they were ultimately planning to build and utilize.

Leigh Chen, first-daughter of the United States, is one of the lucky few to be aboard the Lazarus as it launches. As the reality of their situation sets in, the teens begin to take stock of what they have. With 53-individuals aboard the vessel, they are going to need to ration their supplies.

In addition to that, and really more importantly, they need to decide on a game plan. Where are they going? How will they run this ship? This wasn't supposed to happen. There were supposed to be Adults on board, professionals, who knew what they were doing.

This was originally pitched to me as Lord of the Flies set in space and I would definitely agree with that comparison. As the situation really begins to set in for the teens, tensions rise. Certain characters stand out as leaders, some driven it seems mostly by power, but some for other reasons. There's definitely a lot of thought-provoking content included here.

I was constantly wondering how I would handle certain situations the teens were facing. Would I stand out as a leader, or try to remain more in the background? How would I handle the stress of losing literally everything all at once?

The tone of this novel is definitely heavy. I think with a lot of YA-SF stories, there's quite a bit of humor and snarky dialogue woven throughout. That's definitely not the case here. This is a serious story and in a sense, it felt a bit depressing for me.

There's also not a ton happening. I mean there is, but it doesn't feel like it. I would say it is more character-focused, but I had a hard time remembering any of the characters and couldn't tell them apart most of the time. They all seemed interchangeable to me, except Leigh.

I appreciate the themes explored and the thought that Redgate put into it, but besides trying to picture myself living through something like this, I was really never engaged by the narrative. I never felt invested and frankly, I'm glad, because the ending may have disappointed me if I had been more invested in these characters.

Regardless of all of that, even though I wasn't completely sold on this one, I know a lot of people will love it. So, don't take my word for it. If the synopsis sounds interesting to you, pick it up and give it a go. You may love it!

Thank you to the publisher, Disney-Hyperion, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity to provide my feedback.

I didn’t know what to expect from this book, because I have a deep fear of space for some unknown reason. (You may then ask, “Why did you request it?” It was an accident. lol) This is pitched as Lord of the Flies in Space and I would say that’s pretty much true. It was much more enjoyable than LotF, probably due to the inclusion of women and the focus on the social dynamics/hierarchy over heavy space science *shudders in disgust*. I think if I took my fear out of it, this would have been a four-star read, so if you like space books you should check this out. I enjoyed the writing style and immediately purchased Riley’s other non-space related books.

I would recommend this if you like The 100, Interstellar, The Darkness Outside Us, and The Martian.

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

While this book was described as being Lord of the Flies in space, I can’t say whether that’s true or not - I’ve never read LotF! This book was okay, with many highs and lows. I was bored at times but also eager to see how the story might end.

Following Earth’s collapse, a group of 50 or so teenagers find themselves on the Lazarus, alone without the ship’s commander. They attempt to form a Council, which at first glance is quite impressive. They establish their own school, assign maintenance checks, and ration their food supply accordingly. You can probably guess that their plans were not fool proof, and people quickly turn on each other in the name of survival. This book has strong female leads, including the First Daughter of the United States and the commander’s daughter, but there was a lot of teenage bickering that was kind of annoying on paper. Simply put, I guess it wasn’t the worst book I’ve read. The target audience of ages 14-18 seems appropriate, and I would give this author another try.

“As the words fall from my lips, I know I will never go back to that place again. It’s a promise. I choose the future. I choose to face forward, to follow her.”

Riley Redgate's Alone Out Here is being sold as Lord of the Flies set in space. The year is 2072. Soon a volcanic eruption will trigger catastrophic devastation, and the only way out is up. While the world’s leaders, scientists, and engineers oversee the frantic production of a space fleet meant to save humankind, their children are brought in for a weekend of touring the Lazarus, a high-tech prototype spaceship.

Children of dignitaries from all over the world have gathered to tour the generation ship Lazarus, which is a prototype that has been built as a way to transport as many humans off of Earth as possible in anticipation of super volcanoes going off and making it uninhabitable. This is the new world: a starship loaded with a catalog of human artifacts, and a frozen menagerie of animal DNA.

But when the apocalypse arrives months ahead of schedule, First Daughter Leigh Chen, the First Daughter to an Asian-American female president, and 52 teens from all over the world, are the only ones to escape the planet. From the panic arises a coalition of leaders, spearheaded by the pilot’s enigmatic daughter, Elizabeth Jefferson, who takes the wheel in their hunt for a habitable planet called Juventh some 1100 years away. Leigh is well trained as a politician, to say the right thing at the right time, to give answers that aren't really answers and calm everyone's nerves.

But as isolation presses in, their uneasy peace begins to fracture. The struggle for control will mean the difference between survival and oblivion, and Leigh must decide whether to stand on the side of the mission or of her own humanity. Without the supervision of any adults, these kids will have to create their own society and its sets of rules. Things fall apart rather quickly. The mental state of the teens begins to deteriorate. But some rebellious kids have something else in mind.

As tensions rise within the group over everything from time in the VR simulator to food to turning around to rescue an astronaut that may still be aboard a space station, Leigh begins to question her decisions and find a voice of her own. The only chance of survival is to work together and keep their moral compass pointing north. Truth be told, I am deeply disappointed with the ending to this book, and unfortunately, I am not allowed to say why because it's a huge spoiler. Could there be a sequel? Not sure if that will happen, but there probably should be to explain what the hell happened.

Space. The final frontier.
I’ll admit to a certain keen interest to YA Science Fiction which comes from a literary-realized fear of being alone in space. It gets the heart bump-a-thumping and even though I’m not generally a thrill seeker, I can’t help, but get extremely excited when I come across a new book like this.

Pitched as a sci-fi Lord of the Flies, the premise promises an apocalyptic escape into space gone awry. When a volcanic eruption threatens the world as we know it, political leaders and scientists from across the globe work to build a fleet to travel a select population into the unknown, seeking a new world. When teens are brought in to a weekend field trip, chaos erupts early leaving only the teens to flee in an unfinished prototype.

The first few chapters were outstanding—all of the heart racing thrills you’d expect from catastrophe of epic proportions. Unfortunately as the Earth gets left behind, the tension unwinds and it becomes what you’d expect from a group of teens on board a ship, especially when one is the president’s daughter and the others all have their own opinions. Politics aside, do the teens have the wherewithal to overcome certain obstacles in order to begin again? It was difficult to stay awake long enough to find out.

I predicted this book to either explore that idea, teens attempting to figure things out with a nod to hope for the future or go all out FantasticLand with a desperate fight for survival, but the ending took a surprising abrupt twist that left me feeling disappointed I took the time to read it at all. Two takeaways—teens sometimes don’t make the best decisions and they get acne without soap.

As far as rated reviews go, I may be alone out here, but for me this book proved to be an apocalyptic disaster.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This was one of the few books this entire year that I was hooked from the very beginning. The author easily makes you feel for the main characters. To be honest, the book was terrifying on a number of levels, especially with the fact that it felt so realistic.

The year is 2072 and a volcanic eruption will soon make the Earth inhabitable. In preparation, spaceships are being built to save them when the time comes. In the meantime, a group of kids are brought in to tour the first prototype of the spaceship called the Lazarus - their future home. It turns out that the volcano is ready to erupt now, leaving only 53 teens and kids being the only survivors. As they journey into space, the kids begin to struggle getting along and figuring out how to survive until they make it to their new planet.

This started interesting enough but after 20% - I almost have up. It gets extremely slow and turns into some teenage drama. I expected the lord of the flies vibes that were promised and maybe thought I would get some Hunger Game influences too but I got nothing.

Also, the ending and explanation of certain things was…… not it. Some of it was kind of ridiculous and disappointing.

Thanks to Netgalley and Disney-Hyperion for an advanced copy of this book!

I was really hoping to love this more, but as it moved on I found myself getting bored.

The book opens with a strong premise: massive volcanic eruption will change life as we know it, so humans must evacuate. However, once on the ship, this felt like a snooze fest. I wanted to feel the tension and the rush inside of the story, but it fizzled out fast.
The characters were interesting and you can see the "Lord of the Flies" relation, but it just felt like a million things were thrown into the plot just to make it interesting.

I wish I had more to review, but I was so detached from the reading that I don't have a lot to say. This had so much potential and fell really short for me.

Probably more of a 4.5 but we'll round up to 5 because it deserves it.

I know that there are those who wanted this to be an adult novel so he could lean more fully in to the horrific things that occur and I get where you're coming from, truly I do. But this to me was what was promised: Lord of the Flies in Space.
In Lord of the Flies, the boys try to maintain humanity because it is what would be expected of them when they are rescued. In Alone Out Here, these kids think they ARE humanity and so the question quickly becomes: Do we commit the sins of our fathers in an effort to survive and how much of Earth can we take with us? And by how much, I mean physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. The nuances in how these two book needed to be told means the build to a destructive climax is slower and more political than you'd think but it isn't innocent by any means.

If I was to compare this more honestly, I'd say it has a feel of an old school Twilight Zone episode where humanity is tasked with a challenge and has to see if they are up to it. It is at its best moments very much like "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" or "The Shelter" or possibly even "The Obsolete Man". Look up those episodes if you want to understand the connection, I won't do it here for risk of spoilers.

The last thing I'll touch on is this: I loved our protagonist. Leigh Chen, the president's daughter, has lived her entire adolescent life worrying about saying the wrong thing and embarrassing herself or her family. To take a side is to reveal your vulnerable throat to others. So while she initially excels at finding the politically savvy way to deal with issues aboard the ship, she slowly has to figure out what she cares about enough to be vulnerable for. As a perfectionist eldest daughter, she struck a chord with me. I still sometimes find myself being careful and nonconfrontational to a fault so that my words can't be thrown back at me later. But how often does not choosing a side read as weakness to others? That is a huge conflict in this story.

As an educator I am looking forward to having this in my classroom one day and I am already brainstorming ideas for how to pair it with Lord of the Flies.

The first word that came out of my mouth upon finishing this book was, “Jesus.” Cuz that was a gigantic surprise of a story, a wallop to the heart of an ending, and just a remarkable read, y’all.

I am so glad I requested and received this ARC from NetGalley, as I don’t know that I would have picked it up on its description alone. I’ve read a Riley Redgate book before, but it was nothing like this one. This felt like equal parts Lord of the Flies and Hunger Games with a dash of The Martian for added intrigue. I loved it. Can’t wait to get it for the library and start recommending it to my readers. 💜💜💜📚

I LOVE A GOOD SPACE BOOK!! And this one absolutely delivered! Loved the high stakes, all the apocalypse vibes, and how we get teenagers basically fending for themselves and trying to figure out what to do. Highly recommended!

THis was a really well done story. I have been loving the space books lately and this one definitely hit the spot!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I wanted to like this book, but I had a hard time getting into it. The characters were hard to relate too and the plot just didn't grab my attention like I had hoped it would.

This book had me at Lord of the Flies in space! Sci-fi horror is BADASS and this book’s synopsis had me in a chokehold. We need more outer space thrillers/horror in YA! Basically, the premise of this book was amazing. I so very wanted to like this book, and I was expecting to. Unfortunately this fell super flat.

With a premise this enticing and gripping, you’d expect the book to be the same. And it started out AMAZING. The first couple pages were filled with so much tension and I geared myself up for a super thrilling and intense ride. Yet, this book wasn’t that. Not at all. Basically this book was interesting until they boarded the ship, and they boarded the ship within the first chapter, so…

It’s weird because this book DID have high stakes obviously, as you can tell from the synopsis, but it didn’t feel high stakes. You can tell by how long it took me to finish this arc. Granted I am in a reading slump this long but geez, I can’t remember the last time it took me so long to finish an arc.

Also this is a minor thing but it made absolutely no sense; a huge part of this book is how they have limited food resources on the ship and in danger of starving, yet two of the characters go on intense runs every night. If you guys are literally limiting food intake and starving, why would you do intense cardio everyday, even as a stress reliever you CANNOT actually think that’s a good idea. I mean, come on.


Great concept, and I LOVE seeing that the mc is Chinese. Yay for Asian rep! But the execution was still poor. Sorry, but this was just super boring for me. A huge plus however, this book puts a massive fear of climate change in you, and that’s something our world desperately needs to take seriously right now. This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but I actually liked how this ended!

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

So firstly - big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Firstly - this book got pitched to me as 'Lord of the Flies in space' which REALLY set my expectations high. I am a big fan of survival stories and the 'last man standing' concept. Battle Royales especially. So I was expecting this to be darker than it was.

Unfortunately it wasn't QUITE Lord of the Flies enough for me.
However! it is still a fantastic story! I found myself constantly ping-ponging between characters as to who i believed because i felt everyone was making a great point. I really empathized with Leigh having to play peacemaker because she felt peace was the most important thing to ensure survival.

Even by the end I still don't know that any one was inherently WRONG in their choices. Everyone had a valid reason for why they were acting the way they were acting and what they felt was right. I absolutely loved how strong that came through.

Additionally, the set-up all felt believable. Why were only the teens aboard a spacecraft, why did they have to leave so suddenly etc. It's all well explained and felt realistic. Another note i loved - the characters had acne and struggled with their lack of normal resources. Something that you KNOW EVERY TEEN WOULD FEEL IN A DYSTOPIA BUT IS NEVER MENTIONED so i found that very refreshing.

I think the biggest miss for me is the ending action. I am left with some lingering questions that perhaps could have been answered organically but alas.

I think this story touches on humanities innate nature to want to believe the best of people while simultaneously realizing many are out for themselves when their faced with life or death. And when you're faced with a trolley problem - what do you pick?

and there is really no right answer.
I also found the actual ending-ending to be a bold choice and I applaud her for that.

Having read Lord of the Flies in high school, I was interested to see what new twist or angle Alone Out Here would bring. Unfortunately, the answer seems to be "none." This is a space version of your typical high school drama tale. Lord of the Flies at least had interesting characters to drive its plot forward, while Alone Out Here has...a lot of generic people with a lot of confusion actions and uninformed opinions. This story has been done before, and better.

I really really enjoyed this one. It’s basically Lord of the Flies but in space, so I was intrigued from the start. I liked our main character because we see her internal struggle with finding her unique voice, but coming into her own. And I enjoyed all the twists and turns that were thrown at us. I feel like a lot of folks could enjoy this one regardless of age and I would easily recommend to my friends and family!

I was so excited for this one. I absolutely love the concept of teens alone in space, sort of a reverse The 100 meets Lord of the Flies. I really liked the beginning of the story and enjoyed some of the sciency aspects incorporated into the narrative but I struggled with the pacing quite a lot after about 20% through the book. It just was a lot slower paced than I was expecting with a lot of interpersonal drama rather than survival elements relating to being in outer space. For somebody who absolutely loved the writing of Andy Weir, I was definitely hoping for something a little more like that. Also, there were so many characters it was difficult to keep track of them especially since the majority of them weren't really fleshed out. I ended up DNFing this one at about 45%. It's not a bad book it's just not as fast-paced as I was hoping for and there were too many characters for me to really feel invested in any of them.