Thanks to Victory Editing via NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

A country ravaged by radiation.

A bunker that's running out of supplies.

A mysterious stranger that can't remember her past.

The United States as we know it doesn't exist anymore. A mass radiation event has made it a black hole of nothing, save for a smattering of survivors.

Below the earth, a group of people have lived in a bunker for 10 years, and some are starting to get restless. One day, a girl shows up. She can't remember anything, but she's in good health, which intrigues the people of the bunker.

A group of teens take Brita in, and as a result, are plunged into an adventure they could never imagine. What they discover is beyond anything they thought possible, unearthing unimaginable horrors.

Henley paints a grim picture in this book, but its offset by the relationships we see between the teens, Brita, Hayden, Selah, Artemis, and Maisy. It has just enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, and I was really invested in the world she created. The ending was fantastic, and I hope there's another book in the series because I need to know what happens to these characters.

There's a touch of some love stories and love triangles which gave the characters lots of depth.

Fans of "Station Eleven" and "The Girl with All the Gifts" will enjoy this post-apocalyptic book.

Check out my review on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5285951244?book_show_action=false

I loved the idea of this book! If you like bunker stories, then you will enjoy this one. I had a little trouble keeping my interest in the first half of the book. I picked up about 75% of the way. Once that hit, I was completely immersed into the book. I wanted to know what happens to all of the characters. It has different POV chapters, which some love and some do not. This one was perfect for me. This book is about the struggles of life after a nuclear war… dealing with trusting people and finding supplies for life! I would read another book by this author in the future.

I could not put The Way of the Cicadas down from the moment I picked it up. After finishing this title, I noticed the author is a video game fan as well, which explains why this story felt familiar. Take your favorite RPG apocalypse game, give it a rich storyline with compelling characters and less combat, and you'll get The Way of the Cicadas. I loved this title and completely recommend it for some post-apocalypse adventure!

Dystopian is back with this great debut from Audrey Henley! I loved the claustrophobic setting of the opening in the bunker and the introduction to all the characters. The pacing was quick and had me finishing at lightning speed as I wanted to know what happened to this group of friends fighting for their lives in a post-apocalyptic world with its unreliable survivors. It is set up for a sequel and I look forward to what Audrey does with this series!

Thanks to Netgalley and Monodon for providing a copy for review.

There are some books you can’t wait to get back and keep reading; this is not one of them.

It feels like it was written for, about and by an eighth grader. The characters have random, irrelevant thoughts at all times. The settings are simplistically created. The action is ridiculous. The dialogue is juvenile. The story is stupid. I don’t even know what to say about the ending except I did finally make it there in spite of all of the shortcomings.

The Way of the Cicadas was a really interesting novel. I personally really enjoyed the world Henley created within -- and beneath -- and thought it was well-executed. I wasn't on the edge of my seat towards the end -- it felt a bit like the steam left halfway through the book -- but I did really enjoy the story, the writing, the plot, and the characters.

This is probably a YA story, which is not what I was seeking, and was not clear from the description. That said, I didn't stay engaged with it. There is some good writing here. It just wasn't for me, and it seemed kind of average overall.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

<i>The Way of the Cicadas</i> is a dystopian sci-fi novel about an underground colony in Nevada in the wake of Cold War II. Although the fear of radiation keeps the colonists underground for ten years, a group of teenagers decides they're ready to chance it out on the outside after a new person, Brita, arrives at the colony.

I really liked the concept for the plot, and you'll get sucked into the story pretty quickly. The future the characters live in feels very real and well-thought out - it made me curious as to what other parts of the country might look like after nuclear fallout. The main plot, although somewhat familiar, is done in a way that feels new and fresh, and I think it had a lot of potential.

I do want to make clear, as it was advertised on NetGalley as such, that the queer relationship is a very minor subplot - it read like it might have been added as a second thought. I'm honestly not sure why it was advertised that way, and I was a little disappointed as I was really looking forward to some queer sci-fi. When it was clear that wasn't what was going on here, I found myself tempted to DNF a few times; I'm just personally not into dystopian fiction that doesn't have something else going on.

The biggest issue I had, though, was character-related. I honestly didn't get why Hayden was so intrigued by Brita early on, or why all the girls were so enamored with Hayden, either - especially Brita. This wasn't fleshed out as much as I'd have liked, and considering that the novel is short for science fiction standards, I really think it would have helped a lot with giving the characters more nuance. Most of them felt either like archetypes or necessary sidekicks, and I think the concept behind this story is good enough that a lot more could have been done with these characters.

If you're a fan of dystopian sci-fi, this might be up your alley. Unfortunately, because of the advertising I came to this book with different expectations, and so was a little disappointed. Still, I think the right audience would really enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Monodon for providing a copy for review.

This YA skewed dystopian narrative places the reader in the confined space of an underground bunker 10 years after a radiation event. The 5 main characters face challenges and decisions about their future and the outside world that will affect them all deeply. The story zips along and the characters feel fairly well rounded. I can see this appealing strongly to the 14yrs and upward age group.

This wasn't BAD but it just felt...empty? Like a very basic dystopia novel. That may appeal to some but I think I have outgrown that.

This was a fun read! I'm very much into post-apocalyptic sci-fi in any form, and I love one with great representation. The concept itself was different than anything I've read before, and the twists that go along with it make for a great story. The characters were all fantastically written, and I was more than invested in them until the final page.

This post-apocalyptic YA novel was billed as being for fans of The 100 and I can see that. Add a touch of Hanna in there too. A group of teens who have been living in a military bunker for years after nuclear bombs were dropped on the US break out with a mysterious newcomer with no memory who fights like an action hero. I liked some of the characters but had trouble remembering who was who with some of them. It feels set up to be a series. I liked the world building and character development better than all the action adventure and unpleasantness. I’m not sure I’d read the next but this one held my attention and I read it over a couple of days.

I read a digital copy of this book via NetGalley.

Thank you, Monodon Books, for allowing me to read The Way of the Cicadas early.

Debut author Audrey Henley surprised me in the best of ways with this thrilling dystopic sci-fi. I REALLY enjoyed it.

I do like a post apocalypse book, so jumped right into this one.
I think I mostly enjoyed the first part the setting the scenes and relationships between characters, before sending them out into the wild world.
The bigger picture then comes to light on how people may or may not be surviving, and how they survived the fall out.
At times I felt like it just read like a teen drama, but not too often.
It would be interesting to see where this could go next.

this does a great job in the scifi genre, it had a great concept and executed really well. I enjoyed getting to go into the world and trying to figure out what was going on in the story. I enjoyed how well the main character dealt with her situation. The rest of the cast was written like real people and I enjoyed that. Audrey Henley had a great writing style for this and I'm excited to see where Audrey Henley will go next.

"When he came out to join the others, he saw that everyone else had similar burns where the rain had touched them. Everyone except Brita. The skin on her arms and face was nearly as smooth as it had been before they’d left the bunker. Hayden wasn’t the only one to notice. Niko stared, open-mouthed, as Brita pulled a sweater over her tank top."