Armageddon Summer

Author: Jane Yolen with Bruce Coville

Title: Armageddon Summer1

Publication Date: 1999

Number of Pages: 272

Genre: YA/Fiction

Synopsis: “The world will end on Thursday, July 27, 2000. At least, that's what Reverend Beelson has told his congregation. Why should the world end now, when Jed and Marina, two teenagers with more attitude than faith, have just fallen in love? Told in alternating chapters from both Jed's and Marina's points of view, this is a story about faith and friendship, love and loss...and the things that matter most at the end of the world."

Armageddon Summer is another one of those books that I have read before, just not in a few years.

One of the things I liked about this book was how it was told from the viewpoint of both of the main characters (Marina and Jed) and the little excerpts (of Reverend Beelson's sermons, which were kind of creepy) that were thrown in.

The best thing about the interchanging chapters was that on one hand you had Marina was a believer who was beginning to have her doubts about the “coming” end of the world; while on the other you had Jed who didn’t believe that the world was about to end and was only there to look out for his dad. I think it made the story that much better with the differing viewpoints.

Once they get up on the mountain top to wait for judgment day and for the 160^th person to show up, things got considerably creepy, especially when the electric fence goes up and they are pretty much prisoners with no way to escape. Not that the majority of them wanted to leave.

I don’t really have a favorite part of Armageddon Summer, it was at times a little odd, but still one of the most memorable books I have ever read.

My least favorite part of the book was when the reader, me, was introduced to the fact that after the world had “ended” of the, I can’t remember how many people that were “left”, the women and girls of sixteen would become the in essence Eves and would be paired up to repopulate the earth; which was totally gross, since most of the men weren’t exactly young or even moderately young.

Armageddon Summer is definitely one of the best books I have read by Jane Yolen; yet it is also very different from her Pit Dragon series. While a great book Armageddon Summer might not be suitable for younger readers.

Armageddon Summer earns 5 out of 5 pineapples.

Orchid

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1. Armageddon summer was borrowed from the library.