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Maddie’s hatched the perfect plan for a secret sleepover with her two best friends: Sneak away to her grandparents’ summer apartment. Tell her mom she’s with her dad. Tell her dad she’s with her mom.
Nothing go could wrong.
But when Maddie wakes up the next morning, she finds herself trapped in a nightmare. In the middle of the night, the entire town was mysteriously evacuated. Her family is gone. Each of her parents believes she’s safe with the other, and there is no way to contact them and tell them the truth: That she lied. That she’s alone.
With no one to rely on, no internet access, no working phone lines, and no power, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companion is the neighbor’s Rottweiler, George, which she rescues. As days turn into months and months into years, Maddie faces natural disasters, looters, and wild animals, but her biggest enemy is the crushing loneliness and the hopelessness from fearing she will never see her family again.
Alone is a fast-faced coming-of-age story. It is written in verse — which I’ve never experienced before — and while I found it to be an unusual way of storytelling, it felt like the perfect style to showcase the character’s loneliness. It also made it easier to read “just one more” page when I should have been sleeping.
Rated: Mild, for some mild language and one use of moderate language. While Maddie attempts to free the abandoned pets of her town, she’s not always successful and encounters dead animals in houses, which may be unsettling for some readers. She also watches a looter kill a kitten. She experiences and discusses menstruation and her body changing.
