The Girl at the End of the World

By: Richard Levesque

Narrated by: LC Kane

Her fight begins the day the world ends.

Scarlett Fisher is an average California teenager. She likes hanging out with her friends and talking on the phone. She does all right at school, and she's made the best of her parents' divorce. But in one way, she's special: on her 15th birthday, a fast-moving plague wipes out everyone she's ever known, yet somehow it passes her by.

Her family dead, alone in a corpse-strewn metropolis, she has no choice but to survive. She needs food, shelter, a safe place to sleep. She discovers that an ordinary girl is capable of extraordinary things, and that she's more resilient than she imagined. Even so, she wishes more than anything that she could just find another survivor.

Unfortunately for Scarlett, not everyone who survived the plague is looking for companionship. And she's about to find out just how difficult survival really is.

©2013 Richard Levesque (P)2015 Richard Levesque

Great book! No zombies. Not really.

A fungal virus quickly kills off almost everyone on the planet, except for a tiny few who are immune. The victims have psychotic episodes and often act aggressively but they die shortly afterwards, before sprouting mushrooms from their heads.

The story moves rather briskly along, sometimes too briskly; I had to go back several times looking for why she was going to the observatory. If you blink, you miss it. I didn't think there would be much more to it than her wondering around by herself, but later things take a sudden violent turn. Not too violent, its for young adults after all. The story was original and I couldn't predict what was coming.

Scarlett was a character you liked. Her internal thoughts relatable, that's how you would think too! In she beginning she thinks things though, cries, but quickly accepts the situation, even her predicted death. Chad comes along later on. Too bad he is worse than useless though.

The narrator has an "attractive" voice to listen to.

Full stars for a young adult story.

Once I got started I couldn't put it down

Once I got started I couldn't put it down. Kept my interest. Look forward to reading more

I think I just read a sceenplay for the movie.

Have you listened to any of LC Kane’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

She is always great.

Any additional comments?

Ok so I listened to this book almost straight through. Its good. Its worth listening too. I just wanted a little bit more. First off, like a lot of books these days, this one reads like a screenplay. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the movie is out soon as it would make a great movie. My one gripe would be on the survival aspects of the movie,... er.... book. I wish the part dealing with survival, and meeting basic needs had been longer and explored a bit deeper. The book is about a young girl who discovered her natural abilities to survive and survive smartly. The book hints at this. In one part the main character breaks a glass window and is then mad at herself because she knows she can't get hurt because there are no more hospitals. Good stuff! There are several parts of the book where her thought process is shown and it is really good! On the cover art she is shown standing with her motorcycle overlooking LA. More of that please! What a cool story. Otherwise it is a fun, adventurous story, easy to follow, a good quick listen.

felt like the beginning when it ended

The plot line is so simple I don't dare state it or I would give it all away.

And that is just it. This is not at all what I expected for an apocalyptic tale. It was all very interesting, and completely possible, but everything that happened felt as if it should have been the lead up to the real story. I gasped when the next chapter was "epilogue." Over? That's it? I was waiting for the story to start.

The girl

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Girl at the End of the World?

This is a Young Adult, post-apocalyptic novel! It's not often readers get to witness the world end through the narration of The Girl at the End of the World, you are there to experience Scarlett's shock and disbelief as the world as she knows it simply ends. Lots of excitement from beginning to end.

Surprisingly good.

Not exactly a 5 star book but pretty good actually. Biggest annoyance was the fact she knew of prepper types but when the world was collasping she didn't think to look for material to learn from online. She was more interested in finding out global news yet dropped that quickly too. Odd but whatever. If interested in other fungal outbreaks check out The Girl With All The Gifts. Less of a YA book.

I very much enjoyed this book!

Would you listen to The Girl at the End of the World again? Why?

I will be listening to this book again because I forgot to write my review after I listened to it the first time. I listen to books that are mainly part of a series. Therefore they always end on cliff hangers unless it is the last book of the series.

I enjoyed this book much more because it had a definite ending and was NOT part of series and had no cliff hangers in it. I hope this author writes more like this.

What other book might you compare The Girl at the End of the World to and why?

I can't really think of anything I have read in recent memory that I could compare it to. I can't really say it is a dystopian novel because at the end of the book the world has just more or less ended, except for a very few survivors who have not met yet. Therefore, there is no dystopian government set up yet. i don't really know what I would compare it with.

Have you listened to any of LC Kane’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was the first book I have listened to with this narrator. I very much enjoyed the narration. She was perfect for this story. My only complaint is that at times you can hear her take a deep breath before continuing, but that is an editing issue and takes nothing away from LC Kane's narration of the story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"The end of the world is only the beginning!"

Any additional comments?

Even though this was a stand-alone book, I would like to see a sequel to it just to find out how the world, and the two main characters, fares. We find out in the story what started the plague that caused so much devastation and are led to believe that there is a possible cure if the world can keep what few scientists it has alive long enough to find it. I want more from this author and narrator and look forward to hearing from both of them again real soon!

Definitely worth a listen!

Overall, it's a little short, but it only feels that way because I was enjoying it. It's a very interesting perspective on a plague outbreak scenario that doesn't spend much time being dull. Not flawless, but I'd certainly recommend it!

The Girl at the end of the world review

If you could sum up The Girl at the End of the World in three words, what would they be?

Great interesting story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The main character Scarlett.

What does LC Kane bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A great listening experience.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

More than anything I was excited listening to this.

YA PA story with fast plot & good heroine

This PA novel was very readable, a quiet gem (despite the lurid pulp fiction cover). A strange creepy plague strikes Los Angeles, and quickly spreads, killing almost everyone. Our protagonist, a girl celebrating her 15th birthday at a Dodgers game, is exposed. She survives the contamination and watches as the world around her dies. The scenes of her outside her best friend's house, as her friends stop responding to text messages, seemed real and scary. She makes decent decisions for survival, and experiences sincere fear, panic, and despair as she wonders if she is the only person alive. In her loneliness,she attracts the attention of more survivors, but the friendly-seeming group are not so friendly after all.

I really appreciated how real Scarlett seemed. Her emotional reactions are careful and yet age-appropriate. She doesn't fall into weepy depression, double-guess herself, act sassy and sarcastic, or look for someone to save her. Even when she meets a boy her age, they are equals instead of her hoping that he is her white knight. She plays a full part in her escape from dangerous circumstances, but she doesn't have special powers or too much luck to be believed. The plot moves quickly in the book, as PA stories usually do. The language is straightforward, yet doesn't leave out descriptive details or small moments of beauty either. I felt very in the moment while listening to the book, caught up in the story. While I would have happily read a sequel, I was satisfied by the ending of the book - and it may have been stronger for it.

I kept thinking that this book is what California (the popular YA PA book from last summer) tried and failed to be.

NOTE: I received a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I was pretty sure that I would enjoy the book, since I very much enjoyed his sci-fi detective noir novel Strictly Analog.