Blog Tour: After The Green Withered by Kristin Ward @YA_Author @The_WriteReads  #TheWriteReads #UltimateBlogTours #AfterTheGreenWithered

Morning / afternoon / evening! Welcome to my blog on day one of the ‘After The Green Withered’ blog tour. I have been so excited for this tour because firstly Kristin Ward is an amazing indie author AND it is the first of many The Write Reads blog tours. I feel so privileged to be taking part and would like to thank both parties for allowing me to be involved, as well as providing an electronic copy of ‘After The Green Withered’ to review.

I chose to do a chapter review for this blog tour, but I did read the prologue and first two chapters. Just those pages alone blew me away, in this post you’ll find out why but first the bookish details. This debut novel is available in both paperback and e-book  format here.

As I’ve said Kristin Ward’s first novel is titled After the Green Withered, which is genred as a fictional dystopian. It was officially published in May 2018 and won the 2018 Best Indie Book Award in young adult fiction. Kristin has said that this novel was truly a labour of love and a long time coming! Of course, they say that good things come to those who wait, so I suppose this was one of those things that needed more time. Following the release of her award-winning novel was the sequel, Burden of Truth, published in November of 2018.

Just for you, here’s the blurb!

“They tell me the country looked different back then.
They talk of open borders and flowing rivers.
They say the world was green.
But drought swept across the globe and the United States of the past disappeared under a burning sky.
Enora Byrnes lives in the aftermath, a barren world where water has become the global currency. In a life dominated by duty to family and community, Enora is offered a role within an entity that controls everything from water credits to borders. But it becomes clear that not all is as it seems. From the wasted confines of her small town to the bowels of a hidden city, Enora will uncover buried secrets that hide an unthinkable reality.
As truth reveals the brutal face of what she has become, she must ask herself: how far will she go to retain her humanity?”

My Thoughts

As I’ve already said, this is a chapter (or two) review and from those chapters alone I knew that this was a dystopian fiction that I wanted to cwtch under the covers with and delve into. The post apocalyptic visualisation is both creative, scary and sobering. It begins at a heart – pounding start line, where we learn that water has become a complete privilege, rather than the need that it is and therefore is being used as currency.

The storyline touches topics that we, in the developed world take completely for granted, as well as their disastrous effects; for example how over the years climate change and pollution have become a fatal weapon in the destruction of humanity, the earth and the overall world as we know it.

Although the concept is sobering, it also completely broke my heart – rain, the thing  EVERYONE has moaned about because it’s interfered with some sort of plans etc. has become a complete fairy tale to the children who still remain in this broken world, it can’t get any sadder than that. Like I said the visualisation, as well as the penmanship of this novel will blow you away, it captivated me almost immediately. No wonder Kristin Ward won a Best Indie Book Award for this novel!

The characterization of Enora was written in a fabulously three dimensional , I as a reader enjoy characters who aren’t empty shells but one where attention to her thoughts and emotions have been spot lighted to create a rather layered individual with whom the readers are able to sympathise with, even connect on some level with. Really well planned! The first few chapters showed me that storyline was really well planned and thought out, allowing me as the reader to fully enwrap it.

I am most definitely recommending this read for fans on dystopian / post apocalyptic fiction, that want something eye opening and compelling. Thank-you again The Write Reads for having me on-board!

You can follow Kristin Ward on Twitter here, and The Write Reads here!