Liam's the one whose dad is the nutcase survivalist. The other kids jeer at him in their Maryland school, calling him Doomsday. When the worst happens and his mother phones from the Pentagon, warning him to take his little sister and get to the mountains, Liam knows what he has to do.

THE DOOMSDAY KIDS: LIAM'S PROMISE follows a small group of young adults who mostly distrust one another as they huddle in Liam's basement; there wasn't enough time to get out of town before the explosion, and the others were raiding the food supplies his family had stored.

Liam only cares about his sister Lilly, who has Down's syndrome, and a ragtag orphan girl called Aramanth. They're also saddled with a non-English speaking Latino girl, a Japanese lad and an African-American lad, a cheerleader who only cares about her looks, and the class bully who has already been badly burnt by the nuclear heatwave. Light, first aid, and water are Liam's priorities. With no adults around, he's the best hope they have of surviving.

The fear, accumulating smell, and irritations of the basement are well described. Aramanth states that it's wrong to mock someone because of a physical or mental disability, but by the time the desperate kids decide to leave with scavenging survivors on the outside, they are no better friends. Outdoors all they can see is sooty fallout, smashed buildings, and toxic dust in the dark sky. Can Liam hold the group together and give them all some chance?

The desperation and awful sights will not appeal to the tender, but older readers will admire Liam, Aramanth and Lilly as they pull together and learn that they can't trust any adult, or come to that, any wildlife. There is vivid action and more than one heart-stopping moment scattered through the tale. Overall, I found THE DOOMSDAY KIDS: LIAM'S PROMISE a depressing read. It is a good antidote to the drama of post-apocalyptic video games, and there are many valuable survival lessons. DOOMSDAY KIDS: LIAM'S PROMISE by Karyn Langhorne Folan is the first book in this new trilogy.