Autumn in the City of Angels by Kirby Howell

The pacing is good with smallish suspenseful scenes peppered in so that you never have to go very long without something of interest happening. At least the authors gave a reason for this and didn't just have her miraculously stumble upon a really safe location to hide out for six weeks while the city and world around her was crumbling.

Her mother was a famous actress from Ireland so, okay, she happens to be beautiful. Her father had designed a safe home for them, yeah, I mean, he's an architect, so that's possible. There is no flaunting of wealth or trying to make her seem more special by having been the daughter of an actress and an architect, but because she is those things it makes her situation more plausible. It's also fairly realistic in terms of how people would respond in the event of an emergency.Īutumn is luckier than most and comes from a very privileged family so when she is left all alone she has benefits that many others don't have in their attempts to survive after the plague hits. It's abrupt and shocking, just like it would have been to Autumn's character. And here was the best part, getting to the plague was NOT some drawn out ordeal. This intro to the story gives us a nice baseline of what Autumn's life was like before we are pushed into the post-plague hell zone. We begin the book pre-plague with 17 year old Autumn Winters walking across town after school to meet up with her friend for coffee on her way home. Let's come back to that, first let's go over what I enjoyed. So why a three-ish four instead of a five. You might think that, but you would be wrong.Īll of those things I listed above are true, but I have read other plague books with a really great unique twist that failed miserably for me because of poor execution (I'm looking at you Masque of the Red Death and Dance of the Red Death).

Plague, beautiful girl all on her own, limited resources, dangerous groups of people, helpful groups of people, a mysterious love interest.

Autumn in the City of Angels by Kirby Howell