Review by Lisa Matthewson
Orca Book Publishers, August, 2023
96 pages, paperback, $10.95 CAD, 9781459837218
Young Adult, Ages 12+ (Hi-Lo)
Action/Adventure, Survival
I wonder what time it is. My phone battery died hours ago, and I don’t have a watch. The rain clouds make it seem gloomy. Is it nearly night? I’m pretty tired. My eyes feel heavy. I’ll just close them for a second.
When I open my eyes, it’s pitch dark. And the world is shaking again!
It was just an ordinary school day… until it wasn’t. One minute, 15-year-old Amy is happily awaiting the imminent start of a relaxing summer. The next, her world is thrown into chaos when a huge earthquake destroys her school, damages her house, and puts her out of touch with both her parents. The rest of the novel follows Amy’s struggle – with the help of her 17-year-old half-sister Mara – to survive and to find their father, who was at work many kilometres away when the earthquake struck.
Within a mere 82 pages of largish-font and widely spaced text, Gabrielle Prendergast manages to pack excitement, suspense, and, most memorably, an emotionally moving plotline. When the action begins, Amy and Mara are almost strangers to one another, kept apart by their ‘messy’ family history and the failures of adults. By the end, just a few days later, they have supported each other through dangerous and traumatic events and have forged a close relationship that they swear will last forever. Their growing attachment is authentically and believably portrayed, and for me it was the highlight of the novel.
Prendergast is a strong world-builder. Aftershock is set in a realistically rendered Lower Mainland of British Columbia, and enough details are smuggled into this short read to immerse the reader in what it’s like to be a high school student in this region.
Speaking of short, it is important to make clear that this book is written for teenagers with reading abilities ‘below a grade 2 level’ (according to the author’s website). As such it fits squarely into the Hi-Lo category (high-interest, low literacy/vocabulary/readability). True to the goals of Hi-Lo writing, the action is fast-paced, and the writing style is engaging, while vocabulary and sentence structures are kept manageable for the target audience. Aftershock is a successful exemplar of Hi-Lo writing, and readers who enjoy it can look forward to the other two survival books to come in Prendergast’s ‘Disaster Trilogy’ series: Wash Out in 2024 and Back Fire in 2025.
Although effective, the Hi-Lo status of Aftershock is not made clear in some of the promotional materials. At the time of writing this review, for example, a customer investigating this title on Amazon will be given the incorrect information that it is for ‘Reading age 12-17’.
My one criticism of Aftershock itself is that it ends abruptly and, for this reader at least, unsatisfyingly. I like a juicy mysterious ending as much as the next person, but here there is no enticing ‘hook’ nor any clues about a potential resolution. Instead, the action seems to simply stop mid-scene. Nor will answers be forthcoming in the rest of the trilogy, since the upcoming books star different protagonists.
In spite of this grumble, on balance I would definitely recommend Aftershock for Hi-Lo readers who enjoy realistic adventure stories.
Lisa Matthewson is a sixth-generation New Zealander and a first-generation Canadian. She teaches Linguistics at the University of British Columbia, and hopes to one day bring parts of New Zealand history to life in fiction for middle-grade readers.
YOUNG ADULTING 