Alone

*Spoiler alert*

Twelve-year-old Maddie just wanted a night alone with her two best friends, but when they're unable to join her, she spends the night alone at her grandparents' vacant house - and wakes up completely alone. Everyone has vanished on mysterious transports, including her divorced parents - each one thinks she's with the other. Alone in her town, Maddie rescues the next door neighbor's dog, George, who becomes her only companion for the next couple of years. Together, they move back and forth between Maddie's mom's and dad's houses depending on the season, raid houses and stores for food, drinking water, and supplies, defend each other against threats, and keep each other company. Maddie faces loneliness and danger (one group show more of looters; a tornado; a flash flood; a fire started by lightning), and survives by relying on the public library for entertainment (novels and poetry) and information (how to grow a garden). Resourceful Maddie survives, hoping her parents will come find her, until it occurs to her that the reason they haven't come is because they're dead. But soon after she begins to believe this, she's proven (happily) wrong.

An excellent speculative survival story in verse. See also: Hatchet, Island of the Blue Dolphins (mentioned in the text)

Quotes

I wish I was in [math] class for real.
Happily bored and surrounded
by people I didn't even
realize I loved. (80)

The imminent threat
all the reporters
were talking about
has yet to materialize. (114)

I will do whatever it takes
to stay alive. (194)

I'll never know if the risk I didn't take
was the stupidest decision of my life
or the thing that saved it. (202)

It's just that my grief and loneliness
are no longer burdened by hope
that things will change. (369) show less

Trigger Warnings: food and water scarcity, injury, animal death, mentions of dead animal bodies

After plans fall through for her secret sleepover with her best friends, Maddie still stays over at her grandparents’ empty apartment - but she wakes to a nightmare. Maddie’s alone. Everyone in Millerville, Colorado has been evacuated and the town has been completely abandoned.

With her only companion being a Rottweiler named George, Maddie slowly learns how to survive on her own with no power, no running water, no phone or internet access, and a town deserted. As months pass, Maddie and George survive natural disasters, ruthless looters, wild animals, and the elements of nature with stride. It’s the loneliness that is slowly getting to show more Maddie. Can her will to survive continue to get her through the most frightening experience of her life?

I love novels in verse stories as well as post-apocalyptic novels, and this has been a story I’ve been wanting to read for the longest time and I finally picked it up at my library. I read all of this in one setting. It was that captivating. The language is gorgeous and the breaking up of the verses really showcase and capture Maddie’s loneliness, heartache, and still - hope.

I also loved George and the companionship he provided for Maddie there were TWO TIMES I thought George had passed away and BOTH TIMES I was ready to throw the book across the room in sorrow. Plus, you need to have a furry sidekick during the apocalypse, and a big Rottweiler named George is one of the best.

I can see audiences of middle grade readers and up enjoying this. Though, I will say there is a scene of animal cruelty specifically the death of a kitten that I do think should be taken into consideration for a younger reader. Otherwise, this was such a wonderful and captivating read (again, I read all 400+ pages in one setting). I am for sure keeping an eye out to purchase my own copy and will be giving this title out on plenty of recommendations. show less

This may be a middle grade novel, but the subject matter and the gorgeous prose can easily be enjoyed for older readers. This is a novel in verse, which can be decisive for many readers, but I found it took nothing from the story and actually read better than a regular chapter book. You are still able to plainly feel Maddie’s hope, pain and loneliness. You can also see the desolate town and the wilds of nature through Maddie’s eyes.
This wasn’t always an easy book to read: for for example, reading about Maddie finding all of the pets left behind made me cry. Maddie faces wild animals and natural disasters, but nothing ever felt unrealistic like it has in other books. Maddie often finds out the hard way how to do something she has show more never done before, and she’s tenacious in her quest to expand her knowledge. It’s how I imagine I and others would fare in the same situation-I would just study as much as I could and use what I learned.
This was a beautiful book and I can’t help but give it more praise. Its’s sad to see the lower star reviews on here and I hope those reviewers give it another chance. show less

Conflicted -- it was an easy read and an engaging one -- I wanted to know what would happen next and that tension never went away. So if you're in the mood for post apocalyptic survival, it's not too bad.

On the other hand -- very little actually happened, aside from a girl looting a city to stay alive and hanging out with her dog. She doesn't even try gardening until the very end. It did feel extremely realistic, just oddly anticlimactic. Hatchet is a much better read for the genre.

Also the ending really is anticlimactic, but that felt realistic, too.

Maddie is a typical teen living in Colorado. Maddie splits her time between her mom and step-dad’s house and her dad and step-mom’s house. She and two of her friends hatch a plan to spend a night at Maddie’s grandparents apartment alone. Maddie tells her mom she is staying with her dad and tells her dad she is staying with her mom to babysit. She goes to her grandma’s apartment and waits for her two friends to arrive. Unfortunately, their parents call her mom and are told she is at her dad’s so they can’t go anywhere. Then the unimaginable happens. Maddie hears sounds of panic outside of her grandma’s apartment. People are being rounded up. She hears the neighbor tell the person in charge that the owners are out of state. show more Maddy wakes the next morning to learn that everyone in her town has been evacuated due to an “imminent threat”. This begins Maddie’s journey to survive. She doesn’t know what the threat is. As she goes about town she finds a barrel with cell phones in it. She dials her mom’s number and hears a phone ring in one of the barrels, she tries her dad’s phone and her friends’ phones only to realize every one of them were left behind. This is a story of survival. It starts with Maddie talking to one of her step-brothers about the book “Island of the Blue Dolphins”. There are definite similarities between the book and Maddie’s new reality. I loved that this was told in verse which made it a very quick read. The emotional aspect as you go day by day and year by year on this ride with Maddie makes you wonder what you would do if you were left behind. Can’t wait to put this on my school shelves. show less

From Goodreads Employees summer '21 recommendations comes Alone by Megan E. Freeman. This book, meant for the YA crowd, was thoroughly enjoyed by this Baby Boomer who found it an edge of the seat sort of read.
Maddie, 12 years old going on 13, plans a secret girls night out with her two best friends at her Grandma's unoccupied summer apartment. Surrounded by snacks and sodas and frozen pizzas she waits for her friends to arrive. As luck would have it, her friends can't make it so Maddie spends the night alone and wakes up to a national emergency. No cell service, can't reach parents, her divorced parents each think she's with the other......when in actuality she's.....alone.
What you have here is a very dystopian world where everyone is show more gone and Maddie is forced to fend for herself, alone, for months with only George, her neighbor's Rottweiler for companionship.
Great summer read that will keep you on the edge of your beach chair. show less

This was a quick read but I did enjoy it. This would be perfect for kids or teens who are into dystopian fiction like Ashfall and Not a Drop to Drink. I also liked this teen novel a lot because it was in verse and had a female protagonist. Alone is the story of a 12 year old girl who tricks her parents into thinking she is staying some place she isn't for a sleepover and as a result gets left behind in a massive evacuation. When she awakes the next day there is no one left in the town. She saves the neighbors dog and together they learn what it will take to survive in Colorado with no electricity or fresh food. She's hopeful that her family will come back for her once they realize she was gone - but no one is coming back. What imminent show more threat was there? A good survival story. show less