It's The Stand Lite, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I am a sucker for a good apocalyptic end of civilization story, and I’ve been known to enjoy a YA book or two even if I am very far outside their target demographic. That is why I picked up Erik J. Brown’s ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD. The story is set in an America ravaged by a super flu virus that has wiped out most of the population. This is a pretty standard dystopian trope, probably best executed by Stephen King in his legendary epic horror novel, THE STAND, which, incidentally, is one of my favorite books of all time. ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD is pretty PG-13 compared to that classic, no surprise since it is a YA novel, and I did not expect the grim and gritty horror of King’s work, or that of Justin Cronin’s THE PASSAGE. But one thing Brown’s book and those others have in common is that they center the story on the survivors and their attempt to navigate in a world where everything has changed, and where they must struggle to stay alive after life has lost much of its value.

Brown’s protagonists are Andrew and Jamie, two teenage boys who have somehow survived an apocalyptic pandemic and have been thrown together. The book starts out in New England and then follows them on a journey south in search of other survivors and safety. Andrew and Jamie are basically good kids who have lost everyone closest to them, and have had to do what was necessary to survive, especially Andrew, who feels particular guilt over some actions he had to take to defend himself from other survivors. Andrew is gay, and immediately feels an attraction to Jamie, who is a little slower to come around to his feelings for Andrew. Theirs is a very slow burn romance at the start, even though there is no longer a society or authority to disapprove of their mutual feelings. That is until the two boys encounter a community of survivors in the Carolinas that have some very definite ideas on how civilization should be rebuilt. A desperate situation forces the truth to be spoken out loud at last.

Romances, gay or otherwise, are usually not my thing, but I enjoyed this book a lot. I thought Brown’s take on an apocalyptic pandemic rang pretty true, stating that it took many months for the super flu to completely decimate America. In his notes, Brown states that he wrote most of the book before covid, and only slightly touched up the story before publication after the worst of the pandemic had passed. But some things, like a character commenting that the government didn’t take the virus seriously early enough at first and insisted that life go on as normal even as the infection rates and deaths increased, sound very similar to some bad history we all lived through. The book is told through the POVs of the two main characters, with each chapter alternating between Andrew and Jamie. It’s a good device for the reader to get to know, and to come to like the both of them, they prove to be good company for the duration. I give Brown credit for knowing the I-95 corridor of the east coast very well, and gets a lot of details and locations right. He knows how to raise the stakes appropriately, and get us invested in the fates of his protagonists. And he does know the tropes of this genre well. As any long time fan of THE WALKING DEAD knows, beware of any community of survivors that appear too good to be true, and in this book that is the people of Fort Caroline, who do appear to be heavy with MAGA types, though Brown wisely doesn’t get too deep into contemporary politics. One of the things I would fault Brown for is that he simply lets his antagonists lose interest at one point, and just give up and go home after pursuing Andrew and Jamie nearly to Florida. Did Brown not have a more compelling way to resolve a tense plot development? Stephen King would have settled for nothing less than a bloodbath, and for that reason I’m calling this book THE STAND LITE.

But that is fine for a YA novel, I didn’t expect anything otherwise. Andrew and Jamie’s romance remains pretty chaste for the most part. No doubt Moms for Liberty would hate this book, but no one is making them read it anyway. ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD satisfied my expectations, exceeding them in a lot of ways, and there is a sequel titled, THE ONLY LIGHT LEFT BURNING, which I will definitely check out to see what happens next to Andrew and Jamie.

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