Friends, I’m so very excited to be participating in this year’s Fortnight of Fright event, hosted again by the delightful duo of Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide and Alyssa @ Books Take You Places. This is a super event leading up to Halloween where bloggers get to chat about some of their favorite creepy stuff! I’m sometimes a wuss about scary things, but I’m psyched to be reviewing THE OUTSIDE by Laura Bickle for my Fortnight of Fright post! So, thanks ladies! And come on in for some vampire creepiness!
Title: The Outside
Author: Laura Bickle (web | twitter)
Series: The Hallowed Ones #2
Genre: Paranormal YA
Amazon | Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt BFYR
Release date: September 3, 2013
Source: ARC from the publisher via NetGalley (Thanks HMH!)
Summary: After a plague of vampires is unleashed in the world, Katie is kicked out of her Amish community for her refusal to adhere to the new rules of survival. Now in exile, she enters an outside world of unspeakable violence with only her two “English” friends and a horse by her side. Together they seek answers and other survivors—but each sunset brings the threat of vampire attack, and each sunrise the threat of starvation.
And yet through this darkness come the shining ones: luminescent men and women with the power to deflect vampires and survive the night. But can these new people be trusted, and are they even people at all?
In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, it’s up to one Amish girl to save her family, her community, and the boy she loves . . . but what will she be asked to leave behind in return?
Friends, I’m a little bit over the vampires. Just in general. Truthfully, I haven’t read that many vampire books, and I do watch shows on TV that center around vampires, but I’m not always eager to get on board with them. I had this feeling before I read the first book in this series, THE HALLOWED ONES, and that book basically disabused me of my meh-ness. Laura Bickle‘s story about the vampire apocalypse as seen through the eyes of the Amish was creepy and excellent. Reading THE OUTSIDE, the conclusion of Laura Bickle‘s story, became an instant priority, and it was worth the anticipation. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t read THE HALLOWED ONES!
So in THE OUTSIDE, Katie and Alex, the “English” (Amish for not Amish) boy who was the cause of her banishment from her community, and Ginger, an English woman who was visiting Katie’s community when the apocalypse occurred, are making their way through the wilderness. Their goal? Canada, where they hope to find Alex’s family and where, they figure (or hope, at least) the vampires might not be so thick on the ground. Their nights are spent steering clear of the roving, hungry vampires, and their days are spent trudging across the devastated landscape, finding no one. Until, that is, they discover a small colony of humans who have found a way to repel the vampires, and it’s a race for Alex and Katie to make it back to her community in time to save them from the vampires. EEP!
One of my favorite things about THE HALLOWED ONES was the way we got to experience Katie’s Amish community, and that’s largely missing from THE OUTSIDE. But it doesn’t suffer for it. Katie is still an Amish girl trying to figure out how to live in the English world, it’s just that her version of “living” is a little more literal. She still struggles with issues of her faith and reconciling the Katie she is now with Alex and the one she was before she was banished. Katie is a great character. She’s this great mix of naive innocent and rebel survivalist. It’s still refreshing to see the world through her eyes, especially when she and Alex find the community of people who believe they’ve found a protection against the vamps.
The path to that community, though, is fraught with danger and death and creeps. THE OUTSIDE wasn’t as chilling to me as THE HALLOWED ONES, but don’t get me wrong: the vampires are still out there, and they are still concerned only with feeding on humans. They haven’t gotten any nicer or prettier, and I like that very much. There are some respites for Katie and Alex where they don’t have to live so much in fear, but as THE OUTSIDE progresses, so do the seasons, and after a while it’s not just the vampires that pose problems. It’s the weather, and the cold. Laura Bickle gives them some extra obstacles now that they don’t have to worry about Katie’s family discovering Alex in their barn.
Speaking of Katie and Alex, they’re adorable. At one point, they come upon an abandoned department store and spend a few nights there out of the cold and safe from the vampires. They go on a “date” and it’s so sweet. Alex, as always, challenges Katie and what she believes without judging her, and she is open-minded to his scholarly opinions. They have a solid relationship. It’s tested when they make it to the colony and Alex accepts the immunity to vampires whole-heartedly while Katie is skeptical. But when it comes down to it, their connection is strong and their feelings are strong. Also, he still calls her “Bonnet” and I just CAN’T it’s so cute.
So now that I’ve mentioned this colony of other survivors in basically every paragraph of this review, I should probably get to it. So Katie and Alex eventually find themselves taken in by a group of people who can repel the vampires. Because they can GLOW. Like, as if they were mini suns, which the vampires can’t handle. Their leader was a professor of microbiology, and has been doing some research that resulted in this microbe that makes people luminesce. Katie has a hard time with the science of it, and with the rightness of it. Alex, being more practical and less hemmed in by thoughts of God and religion. It was a good set piece for Alex and Katie to talk out their differences in faith, but it was maybe a little far-fetched to me. Still, I was impressed with the way Laura Bickle gave us a little touch of science.
We do get a good glimpse of Katie’s Amish community again as well, and that’s always going to get props from me. Especially now that Katie knows things about the world that her family and acquaintances do not, and so she is able to look out for them and be her badass self. The end felt a little tidy, but it wasn’t completely, and so I was a fan. I was glad, too, that we got to see the Hexenmeister again. He’s legit.
It goes without saying, friends, that if you liked THE HALLOWED ONES, THE OUTSIDE will be an enjoyable read for you. In so many ways. Katie remains a character who is easy to empathize with and root for; Alex is still smart and loyal and just so freaking NICE; the vampires are dangerous and deadly; the issues of faith are still present but not overwhelming. I wasn’t as creeped out reading THE OUTSIDE, but it had its moments. These books made me a big fan of Laura Bickle, friends, and whether or not you’re done with vampires like I thought I was, you should definitely give them a shot.
Check out some other reviews of The Outside by Laura Bickle!
Kristilyn @ Reading in Winter: “It’s suspensful, it’s heartbreaking, it’s scary, and it gives us a glimpse into the Amish community without an overdose of preachiness.”
Heidi @ Rainy Day Ramblings: “The Outside is a terrific and satisfying conclusion.”
YES, I will give anything Bickle writes a shot because of these books. If she can make vampires and the Amish work than yo, I will put my trust in her books.
Superb review. I would write a longer comment but A) I am lazy and B) I can totally hear my book calling to me and C) I might but a few too many sips into the wine.