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.
"Get to the Mountain Place!" With those words, eight kids
embark on a terrifying journey to survive a massive nuclear
blast that destroys the world they once knew.
In the wreckage of their community, without food or
transportation, their only hope of safety is to walk to a
mountain cabin almost two hundred miles away. But the
journeying under gray, radioactive skies brings the kids
face to face with death and danger, deprivation and disease
and worst of all: the realization that life will never be
the same again.
Fifteen year old Liam Harper narrates their survival odyssey
in this first book of The Doomsday Kids series. Early praise
for : "This book is the bomb--terrible, ironic pun somewhat
intended!" "The story is tragic, the characters are
fascinating, the plot is interesting. Folan realistically
captured a terrifying experience from the point of view of a
teenage boy." "This is a wicked cool book. I cared about
everyone of the characters--but I loved Liam the most. Every
girl deserves a Liam!" "A true page turner. I just had to
find out what happened!"
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