Oh Vivian...so much to do, so little time...until the apocalypse. Or is there? Is it coming? What about Frick? What about the "angels" of the church? Will Viv and Harp save the world? ( )

3.5 Stars

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And the award for most confusing book titles goes to - you may have guessed-: Vivian Apple Versus America.

I definitely was confused because the American and UK names for this duology are completely different from each other and it doesn't make the slightest of sense with me.

Just to make things clear:

The first book is either Vivian Apple At The End Of The World or Vivian Apple Versus The Apocalypse.

The second and concluding book is either called Vivian Apple Needs A Miracle or Vivian Apple Versus America.

Vivian Apple seems to be the only constant part, the rest seems mix-n-match.

However, I can't tell too much about the story without spoiling the first book. But it takes of rights where we left it and the characters still have the same goals. The book does focus, or so it felt to me, more on the friendship between Vivian and Harp, and unfortunately also dwells more on the romance of some of the main characters than in the first book.

While it was a very enjoyable read and the overall setting was quite original, it did suffer a bit from the usual dystopian heroine tropes (not sure I should call them tropes but those of you who have read dystopian YA will definitely find them familiar).

The ending is quite open, and while I sometimes complain about cliffhangers, this wasn't one of those books and I quite liked that it was more open. I mean, the story seems finished but it's just unsure what's going to happen now.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

We've reached the end of the Church of America story, I guess, but I want to see the fallout. When you have an organization this large and powerful, with tentacles in every aspect of society and government and it takes a fall, there are bound to be serious repercussions and that's a story I want to read. Do people embrace Edie to fill the hole left by Frick? Do the high-ranking members of the Church seek retribution? Does Goliath go completely around the bend and start hunting down those who "abandoned" him? What's up with all the natural disasters? Is the end of the world really nigh? This is my chief frustration with dystopian/post-apocalyptic YA (which this isn't, really, but employs a lot of the same tropes): Once the Evil Overlord/Corrupt Government/Fascistic Society/other Big Bad is toppled, nobody shows the fallout. Are we supposed to believe that our heroes go riding off into the sunset on unicorns and all is rainbows and kittens and hearts and flowers forevermore? No. I'm sorry, that's just not realistic. There should be consequences. SHOW ME THE CONSEQUENCES.

Sorry. That just turned into a general rant, rather than a criticism of this book in particular. It certainly applies here, but this is far from the first and is not likely to be the last book that has this problem. I guess this duology just had the misfortune of being the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I really liked it--I liked the story and the characters and that it didn't shy away from the ugly reality of trying to fight "The Man"--but, in the end, too much was left unanswered and it left me frustrated. ( )