Any Sign of Life (Rae Carson)

Any Sign of Life
Rae Carson
Greenwillow Books
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi/Thriller
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Teenager Paige Miller thought a basketball scholarship meant her future was secure, at least as far as college. Beyond that... so many possibilities, so little time. Until one night she goes to bed early with the flu and wakes up six days later, alone in a dead world.
While she was unconcious, a virus swept the globe with terrifying speed, with a mortality rate near 100%. Her family is dead in their beds, the neighborhood thick with crows feeding on the bodies of her neighbors. At night, where she should see the glow of lights from the city of Columbus, all she sees is darkness. It's enough to make her give up, but Paige Miller doesn't do despair, and she didn't become one of the top high school basketball players in the state by giving up. Along with the neighbor's dog, she sets out in search of food, shelter, and survivors, not necessarily in that order.
But even as she begins her search, something nags at her. She may only be in high school, but she lived through the COVID lockdowns. She knows pandemics don't work like this, taking out an entire planet in a handful of days; they need months to spread, at the very least. It's almost as though it wasn't a natural virus at all, but something else... but spread by whom? Or rather, spread by what?

REVIEW: Even before the COVID pandemic, viral apocalypses weren't new in fiction, but there seems to be a natural resurgence in the subject lately. This title makes a solid entry in the subgenre. From the moment Paige wakes up and realizes something is very, very wrong, she manages to be a fairly competent protagonist, not beyond a few mistakes but generally not head-smackingly stupid ones. She draws on years of athletic training and focus to regain her strength and push ahead in the face of unimaginably devastation and horror and fear, helped by the neighbor's Sheltie dog (who may be too small for much in the way of physical defense, but provides much-needed moral support and warnings of danger). The dangers of a suddenly-uninhabited world are many and varied, from animals going feral to gas explosions to the problem of so many unburied bodies rotting in open air... and that's before the true antagonists make their appearance. (It's not a huge spoiler, as it's implied on the cover blurb even, that there is a decidedly unnatural element to the apocalypse.) Along the way, Paige finds a few other survivors and the truth about what's going on. There are some sparks between her and Trey, the first other human she finds, but both of them are capable of tapping the brakes on any potential romance or runaway hormones until they aren't literally fleeing for their lives, the kind of restraint even grown-up books sometimes lack. This may not be the future Paige and her companions counted on, but it's the one given to them, and be damned if they're going to throw it away without fighting for it. Things wobble occasionally, particularly toward the climax, and it feels like it almost wants to set up a sequel. Overall, though, it's a good apocalyptic thriller with sci-fi overtones.

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