Review: The Land of the Shadow

Title: The Land of the Shadow (The End of All Things #2)
Author: Lissa Bryan
Publication Date: August 21, 2014
Source: Publisher
Summary (from Goodreads): In the highly anticipated stand-alone sequel to The End of All Things, Lissa Bryan returns readers to a world devastated by disease, and the breakdown of modern society.

Two years after a horrific virus swept the globe, decimating the world’s population, Carly Daniels and her husband, Justin, have made a safe home in the isolated southern town of Colby. Protected by fences and a vigilant population, the residents there had somehow managed to keep the Infection out. Until the sight of Carly and Justin’s healthy baby girl convinced them it was safe to allow Outsiders in.

Now, in the wake of fresh losses, the small band of survivors struggles to rebuild a community. With only nineteenth-century technology to aid them, they must learn skills long forgotten to provide for their basic needs. Each day brings new challenges, and every choice they make affects their long-term survival. While Carly and Justin adjust to a growing family, and to their roles as community leaders, they must rely on one another for strength and support when they face difficult questions.

Carly has to decide how to move forward in a world where equality, justice, and freedom from tyranny are no longer guaranteed. And when new threats emerge, she has to decide what she is willing to do—and how far she’s willing to go—to protect what she has worked so hard to build.

When the end has come and gone, it’s a journey down a long and broken road through The Land of the Shadow.

Anyone who read my review of The End of All Things knows I loved the first book in this series. Lissa Bryan is a very talented story teller and has a way of pulling the reader in and making them care about her characters in a way I’m sure she does as well.

I was really looking forward to this one. Justin and Carly where just one of those couples I could never really forget about so I was excited to see where their journey had taken them.

The Land of the Shadow takes place a couple of months where we left off in the first book. Justin and Carly and their daughter have settled into Colby, have become the leaders of the community and adoptive parents to one of the orphaned.

Their way of life isn’t easy but they’re managing to survive and we’re shown just how much work they’ve put into putting a life back together through-out the first half of the book. You can definitely tell how much research Bryan put into her novels and this was no exception. The characters in this series have to basically go back to living during the pioneer days for the most part and with every challenge they meet I can picture the scene so clearly because of Bryan’s thorough writing.

Like I said, the first half of the book is basically catching us up on what has gone on the past few months, what they have to do to survive, etc. It isn’t until about half way where things start to get intense, new characters are introduced and Justin and Carly, along with the rest of their community, have to decide just how far their willing to go to protect what little they have.

Justin is the same strong, take charge character he was in the first book. He’s no bullshit attitude and realistic views are what has gotten everyone so far and kept them alive, in my opinion.

Carly…while she’s still the strong woman she was in the first novel I don’t believe she’s as hard as she should be to live in the world they now do. In some parts she seemed almost naïve in the way she thought or acted—particularly when it came to the Infected.  She’s soft-hearted, and while that isn’t a bad thing and is a feature to be endeared, it’s not the attitude she needs to survive in this new world.

That being said she does come through and when needed with that “cut throat” attitude.

I can’t wait for the third installment of this series. The cliff-hanger is terribly mean—in such a good way!