Gr 9 Up-Jefferson, Donna, and fellow adventurers cunningly escaped a crazed scientist at the end of The Young World (Little, Brown, 2014), only to find themselves held aboard a military craft. They learn that while the Sickness wiped out North America, the rest of the world enacted harsh quarantines and survived. Politics, power struggles, romance, and violence drive the plot. A botched escape attempt separates sweethearts Jeff and Donna. Jeff returns to their New York City tribe with lifesaving serum and lofty ideals of self government. Donna is sent to England, where the Reconstruction Committee takes an interest in her past. She finds herself falling for Rab, who is a source of comfort in a tough time. Narrators Jose Julian, Spencer Locke, Christine Lakin, Adam McArthur, and Adetokumboh M'Cormack all read well. The story lines converge in the final chapters, with the promise of a reunion that could turn, quite literally, explosive in book three. VERDICT Consider purchasing when the trilogy is completed, where teen-themed postapocalyptic fiction is popular.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.