I think the explanation for the reason everyone left and she was alone for so long didn't make sense.. not as only a couple lines anyway. The ending was a good one and squeezed my heart but that also took me out of it a tiny bit (not enough to downrate the book ). FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE, LIFE CAN CHANGE IN A MATTER OF SECONDS…..PEOPLE TAKE THEIR FIRST AND LAST BREATHS. CARS CRASH, PLANES PLUNGE INTO OCEANS. THE HEALING PROCESS CAN BEGIN WITH A SIMPLE GESTURE” A few days ago I was having trouble with my ears (so I did not hear the flames I think) and suddenly I smelled smoke to look up and see my curtains and a lamp were on fire. Not just a little bit either!!!

In the middle of the night there is a forced evacuation. Maddie's dad assumes she is with her mom; her mother assumes she is with her dad. And Maddie is left behind, alone and stranded in her town in Colorado after everyone else has fled. There are no cell phones and within a few days, no electricity. With only her neighbor's dog for company, Maddie has to learn how to survive. But she soon realizes that it isn't just her physical needs that she will have to contend with. She will also have to figure out how to be alone in the world. I laughed, I cried, and I rejoiced. Meredith draws a line between living alone and being lonely, which is an important idea. It’s ok to live alone, but painful to be lonely. My thoughts: I found Alone to be a compelling read. Yes, you will have to suspend your disbelief a bit--no more than you would in say Life As We Knew It--but it is still a good way to spend an afternoon. The premise is certainly a haunting one: that of all people vanishing "without a trace" and you being left behind on your own.

About Kasey

But seriously she wouldn't think of trying to plant anything for 2 years? And I mean, even if apples the first year were wormy, I'd probably be eating around the worms if I had been living off of canned goods Trigger warnings ⚠️ just in case talking about animals starving, dying, rotting in houses after dying and one instance of a guy killing a kitten by wrapping it up and hitting it against something. I liked the connection that Maddie had to her family and the ways she tried to preserve those connections even while she was alone. It was so sweet that she had the dog with her, too. I really liked him and that they took care of each other. Her best friend Sadie, comes to visit often as well as Tom, a worker from Helping Hands. She also makes a friend, Celeste, online--and connects with others healing from trauma. This is a story of friendship, hope, recovery, and acceptance. An important read, one that draws you to empathize with the protagonist.

The now established author of Kavalier & Clay began his career with this rewriting of The Great Gatsby, set in 1980s Pennsylvania. Protagonist Art Bechstein questions his sexual orientation, and his alienation heightens his sensitivity to the world around him. In one of the novel’s final scenes, Art studies his ex-girlfriend with a kind of affection and understanding that comes to feel like revelation. “I was impelled now to look more closely,” Art says, pinpointing the chief virtue and gift of solitude, “to try to see the whole and its parts at the same time … the fine join of earlobe and jaw, the bone beneath her eye, and as I looked, it was no longer a profile.” Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander was about how one traumatizing occurrence changed a young woman’s life in a matter of minutes. Meredith and her older sister Fiona were brought up primarily by their mother. Their father left when both girls were quite young. Meredith did not have a warm and loving childhood. Her mother often belittled Meredith and made Meredith feel inferior. She criticized Meredith and put her down constantly. Meredith’s relationship with her older sister was complicated as well. Despite all that, Meredith was a sweet and kind person. Meredith looked forward to the day she could move out of her mother’s house. Meredith didn't have a nice childhood. Her mother was abusive. However, she was very close to her sister Fiona. Yet, in the present Fiona is absent. As the story unfolds we learned what happened between the siblings.The poetic format of this book made our main character’s head a fascinating place to be. Because of the formatting, the story managed to be both fast-paced and deeply introspective, which was a very compelling blend. There was so much food for thought here, and a lot of emotion vicariously experienced. The poetry makes more and more sense as a storytelling method as the tale progresses. There were some really interesting tie-ins to Island of the Blue Dolphins, which I would advice reading prior to this if you have any interest in it, as it is spoiled thoroughly in Alone. Meredith is about to turn 40 and has not left her house in over three years. How will she ever be able to join the world again after having lived in isolation for such a long time? It’s her and her cat Fred, with the occasional visit of her best friend Sadie. She keeps herself busy with her cat (love that she is a cat person, bonus points for that), jigsaw puzzles and her online forum/support group.