The Quiet at the End of the World – Lauren James

Lowrie and Shen are the youngest people left on the plant after a freak virus causes global infertility. They live in a small pocket of London and are doted upon by a small, ageing community. The pair spend most of their days mudlarking for treasure and artefacts throughout London. Suddenly when a secret is uncovered their idyllic life is torn apart! Not only is their existence threatened but so is their families and the entire population! Lowrie and Shen face an impossible choice, who to save and who to sacrifice.

Anyone who has followed my blog for a long while will know how much love I have for Lauren James’ books and this one is no different. When I had the chance to get my hands on this book early I couldn’t miss the chance and I had read the whole thing in less than two days!

Something about Lauren’s writing just captives me completely and wraps me up in a world that I never want to leave! This book has what I’d like to call a “soft apocalypse”. It isn’t soul destroying like some apocalyptic books but it isn’t so calm that it doesn’t feel dystopian at all. This book certainly makes you think about human existence and what we are doing on this earth and what would happen if our species ever went extinct.

A given with Lauren’s books is that a big twist is going to happen at some point. The thing is Lauren is such a fantastic writer you never know when this twist is about to happen. Also, even when reading the book the clues are so well hidden in the writing that you cannot figure it out until the twist hits you in the face!

The characters in this book have once again made it into my list of my favourite ever book characters. Lowrie and Shen are just two excellent main characters who you instantly want to become friends with. Lauren shows some excellent representation in her characters throughout this book including a bisexual character and an Asian family. I won’t mention much about the little life save robot Mitch but I will just say that he will steal your heart and you will want to do anything to protect this little robot.

Another thing I like about Lauren’s books is how much she winds science into all her novels. It shows that she researches the topics she is going to be talking about in her books and I feel like I leave all of Lauren’s books having learnt a bit more about the science behind things. Lauren also does an excellent job of creating female characters who are empowering and who show readers how clever they are. Lowrie for example is clever, doesn’t hide the fact that she is clever and is the character in the book best at handling the tools.

Overall, this book lived up to all the hype for me and didn’t let me down at all (not that Lauren’s books ever do). I will be recommending this book to anyone who asks me for a recommendation in the future (and maybe even if they don’t ask me, I’ll just put a copy of this book in their hands). Thank you to Lauren James for captivating me in yet another book that I couldn’t put down! This book is excellent!