The Lake at End of the World

I'm a fourty+ year old female who enjoys reading young adult books to review for school bookclubs. I highly recommend this story for young readers probably starting at fifth grade/over ten years old. The style of the book is told through the alternating eyes of the two young people, Hector and Diana, in the year 2025. They may be the youngest people left in the world. Hector having lived underground in a cave all his life and Diana living with just her family alone by a lake nearby, neither knowing the others have existed. It is not the world we know today - read the book and you'll be reading a great story about how the world changed by the year 2025. You'll slowly learn what has happened and in the end you'll wish there was more to the story, or use your imagination to imagine what they're life and the world will be like as they grow older. The review by V.Chang is inaccurate when he wrote "In the past, because of a worldwide plague, a group of people: musicians, engineers, plumbers, carpenters, scientists, etc. escape down to the underground for safety." He is refering to the people Hector has lived with and they "escaped" underground in the late sixties under the guise by their leader that a nuclear disaster was imminent. It is in much later years that unexplained things occur causing people to die in huge numbers. Also there is the sentence "Diana is the headstrong girl living in a house near the underground community. Both of them meet and soon get to know each other "well."" I personally find the use of the word- well - with quotes around it to imply something very grown up in the way the two children have a relationship and that is not the case. Hopefully this book will come back into print but until then it is worth looking for at the library! For a simular books I would recommend: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau for kids in fourth grade and older. For teens I would recommend Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien, out of print but well worth finding.

The Lake at the End of the World by Caroline MacDonald is fantastic and dramatic tale of what life would be like because of the hazards to the environment.The novel is set in the year 2025. In the past, because of a worldwide plague, a group of people: musicians, engineers, plumbers, carpenters, scientists, etc. escape down to the underground for safety. Under the guidance of a man called the Counsellor, the people down there are relatively safe from the death and turmoil on the surface, with chemical disasters and environmental dangers occuring every day. Fast forward to the present.The book is told through the perspective of Hector and Diana. Hector is a boy from the underground. He and his trusty dog Stewart venture through the mazes and tunnels of the underground to the surface, where they discover surprising sights and sounds. Diana is the headstrong girl living in a house near the underground community. Both of them meet and soon get to know each other "well."However, because of an injury and a ban, Hector is forced to escape the underground and go back to the outside world, where Diana and her parents Evan and Beth take him in. There he discovers the story of the outside: the real events and all the wonders of the lake near them. However, a problem arises with the underground and both Hector and Diana are forced to go underground again to save the entire underground group from a deep, dark fate and conspiracy.The book is very well written and is excellent for secondary students. It proves to have depth and many themes with an excellent plot. It shows us the speculated consequences of chemical failures, nuclear disasters, oil leaks, etc. Remember everybody, you only have one earth to live on and you must protect it well!

This is an excellent book. Set in the year 2025, it follows two main characters, Hector and Diana, and what they experience as two teenagers in a world that is so no longer "normal". The story is told from both perspectives - Hector's story and Diana's story. It is about strangers who learn to trust each other in a world where a disaster has wiped out all but a few of the world's population. Keeping in mind that this is a book written for young adults, it is well written and easy to follow - complex enough to be interesting to adults and simple enough to keep the attention of a young reader. My only complaint is that it left me wanting more - it really needs a sequel. My husband and 11 year old daughter give it 4 stars as well and also believe there should have been a sequel.

If you love suspense, you'll certainly love this book! MacDonald does a wonderful job of portraying the future. It's the kind of story you can read again and again.