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During-the-Event
For D.E., only two certainties his grandfather is dead and life will never be the same.
During-the-Event is a dystopian adventure that roams across a fallen United States, introducing an unforgettable cast of characters along the way. In the near future, climate change has ravaged the United States, leading the government to overcorrect through culls and relocation. Those who survive the mandated destruction are herded into “habitable production zones,” trading their freedom for illusions of security. The few who escape learn quickly that the key to survival is to stay hidden in the corners of the country. For seventeen years, During-the-Event, or D.E., has lived free in a pastoral life with his grandfather in North Dakota. But when death reaches their outpost. D.E. is forced on a journey that will change his life—and reveal surprises about his past.
Once taught that strangers are only sources of pain, D.E. must learn to trust the people he meets on his journey. During-the-Event is a soaring coming-of-age story that grapples with achingly familiar coming to terms with loss and loneliness, finding what our identities really mean, and searching for love in an often strange and bewildering world.
During-the-Event is a dystopian adventure that roams across a fallen United States, introducing an unforgettable cast of characters along the way. In the near future, climate change has ravaged the United States, leading the government to overcorrect through culls and relocation. Those who survive the mandated destruction are herded into “habitable production zones,” trading their freedom for illusions of security. The few who escape learn quickly that the key to survival is to stay hidden in the corners of the country. For seventeen years, During-the-Event, or D.E., has lived free in a pastoral life with his grandfather in North Dakota. But when death reaches their outpost. D.E. is forced on a journey that will change his life—and reveal surprises about his past.
Once taught that strangers are only sources of pain, D.E. must learn to trust the people he meets on his journey. During-the-Event is a soaring coming-of-age story that grapples with achingly familiar coming to terms with loss and loneliness, finding what our identities really mean, and searching for love in an often strange and bewildering world.
200 pages, Paperback
Published May 15, 2019
3 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 14, 2019
Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher/publicity in exchange for a honest review.
3 1/2 stars.
During-The-Event takes places in a post-apocalyptic ravaged America where climate change wiped out more than half the population, while those that are left are indentured or in hiding. D.E and his grandfather, Otis are in the later camp; hiding in the obscured nooks of North Dakota.
Unlike many of the mainstream Young Adult Dystopian on the market today, During-The-Event doesn’t involve characters pitted against one another, a rebellion, or a deadly virus or A.I tech threatening humanity. Instead the novel focuses on a handful of characters and the protagonist, D.E.’s personal growth. It’s all about looking inwards; self-discovery and reflection.
During-The-Event is a short book, approximately 200 pages. Wall wasted no time setting up the world and introducing readers to the characters, and their beliefs and actions. Our protagonist, During-The-Event A.K.A D.E grew up in the aftermath of the climate change, he never met or knew his parents, and was raised solely by his grandfather. Everything D.E. knew was predicated off what was told by his grandfather. Due to a life-changing circumstance earlier in the novel, D.E is left to fend for himself as he journeys across the U.S. and discovers life outside the butte for the first time and how it challenges the beliefs ingrained in him his entire life.
D. E. is only seventeen-years-old and has many skills to help him survive the rough terrain of the U.S. but outside of that D.E. doesn’t know much else. Especially interacting with strangers/society. Wall pens a story of growing up and getting out into the real world, which I’m sure resonates with all of us in some way. Readers follow alongside D.E. as he navigates the world, finds himself and learns to adapt to his new reality and experiences as he also deals with foreign emotions such as loneliness and loss.
During-The-Event is a well-written coming of age story. D.E. is as pure as it comes, unaffected by the world and having little to no interaction besides his family. I enjoyed reading his experiences through a new lens and seeing how he reacts to all his ‘firsts’. I highly recommend checking out During-The-Event if you’re looking for a more introspective character driven story, a story with substance without all the loud and unnecessary noise.
3 1/2 stars.
During-The-Event takes places in a post-apocalyptic ravaged America where climate change wiped out more than half the population, while those that are left are indentured or in hiding. D.E and his grandfather, Otis are in the later camp; hiding in the obscured nooks of North Dakota.
Unlike many of the mainstream Young Adult Dystopian on the market today, During-The-Event doesn’t involve characters pitted against one another, a rebellion, or a deadly virus or A.I tech threatening humanity. Instead the novel focuses on a handful of characters and the protagonist, D.E.’s personal growth. It’s all about looking inwards; self-discovery and reflection.
During-The-Event is a short book, approximately 200 pages. Wall wasted no time setting up the world and introducing readers to the characters, and their beliefs and actions. Our protagonist, During-The-Event A.K.A D.E grew up in the aftermath of the climate change, he never met or knew his parents, and was raised solely by his grandfather. Everything D.E. knew was predicated off what was told by his grandfather. Due to a life-changing circumstance earlier in the novel, D.E is left to fend for himself as he journeys across the U.S. and discovers life outside the butte for the first time and how it challenges the beliefs ingrained in him his entire life.
D. E. is only seventeen-years-old and has many skills to help him survive the rough terrain of the U.S. but outside of that D.E. doesn’t know much else. Especially interacting with strangers/society. Wall pens a story of growing up and getting out into the real world, which I’m sure resonates with all of us in some way. Readers follow alongside D.E. as he navigates the world, finds himself and learns to adapt to his new reality and experiences as he also deals with foreign emotions such as loneliness and loss.
During-The-Event is a well-written coming of age story. D.E. is as pure as it comes, unaffected by the world and having little to no interaction besides his family. I enjoyed reading his experiences through a new lens and seeing how he reacts to all his ‘firsts’. I highly recommend checking out During-The-Event if you’re looking for a more introspective character driven story, a story with substance without all the loud and unnecessary noise.
July 18, 2019
When During-the-Event, also known as D.E., was born, the small North Dakota town where he lived was nearly entirely wiped off the face of the planet. His grandfather and he were the lone survivors. Now they live in a cave near the town and occasionally make trips back for supplies. It’s a very solitary existence that’s only going to get even lonelier after his grandfather dies 17 years into D.E.’s life.
Read more at https://www.geeksofdoom.com/2019/07/1....
Read more at https://www.geeksofdoom.com/2019/07/1....
October 2, 2019
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During-the-Event by Roger Wall is a dystopian novel and coming of age story. This book won the 2018 Permafrost Book Prize in Fiction.
America has been ravaged by climate change, half the population has been wiped out, the US has become isolationist trying to get out of the mass. The government is practicing population control and those that are not indentured, are in hiding and fearing for their lives.
During-the-Event Perez, or D.E. lives with grandfather in what used to be North Dakota. D.E. is completely isolated from people and only knows what his grandfather told him. When the grandfather dies, D.E. must learn to how to integrate himself into a society, or whatever is left of it.
What surprised me about During-the-Event by Roger Wall is that the book does not have an antagonist to pit the protagonist against. No overly written villains, no threatening futuristic robots, not even environmental disasters or government going rouge. Just a boy trying to find himself, discovering girls and his own will to survive.
I appreciated the way the author set up the post-apocalyptic world, from the beginning. The reader immediately understands the impact climate change had had on the country, the people, and the world. D.E. tells the story he was told by his grandfather, even though he was too young to remember those life changing events.
In the first half of the book, D.E. establishes the setting and how people survived, or died in the apocalyptic aftermath. His grandfather scares him from government agents who are looking for them to kill them, and keeps him in line. After the grandfather dies, D.E. starts interacting with people he meet (of course, not all of them are well meaning), and getting out to the real world and find where he belongs, accepting the new reality forced upon him.
This is an interesting story featuring a naïve, but introspective, narrator. I think this novel could have been 50 pages longer, the ending is abrupt and I would have liked to learn more about the post-apocalyptic society.
During-the-Event by Roger Wall is a dystopian novel and coming of age story. This book won the 2018 Permafrost Book Prize in Fiction.
America has been ravaged by climate change, half the population has been wiped out, the US has become isolationist trying to get out of the mass. The government is practicing population control and those that are not indentured, are in hiding and fearing for their lives.
During-the-Event Perez, or D.E. lives with grandfather in what used to be North Dakota. D.E. is completely isolated from people and only knows what his grandfather told him. When the grandfather dies, D.E. must learn to how to integrate himself into a society, or whatever is left of it.
What surprised me about During-the-Event by Roger Wall is that the book does not have an antagonist to pit the protagonist against. No overly written villains, no threatening futuristic robots, not even environmental disasters or government going rouge. Just a boy trying to find himself, discovering girls and his own will to survive.
I appreciated the way the author set up the post-apocalyptic world, from the beginning. The reader immediately understands the impact climate change had had on the country, the people, and the world. D.E. tells the story he was told by his grandfather, even though he was too young to remember those life changing events.
In the first half of the book, D.E. establishes the setting and how people survived, or died in the apocalyptic aftermath. His grandfather scares him from government agents who are looking for them to kill them, and keeps him in line. After the grandfather dies, D.E. starts interacting with people he meet (of course, not all of them are well meaning), and getting out to the real world and find where he belongs, accepting the new reality forced upon him.
This is an interesting story featuring a naïve, but introspective, narrator. I think this novel could have been 50 pages longer, the ending is abrupt and I would have liked to learn more about the post-apocalyptic society.
December 12, 2019
A 17-year-old who’s never known another teen, never seen social media or TV, has no concept of fashion or celebrity or pop culture, whose thoughts are so much closer to a natural source -- what a refreshing prospect! That’s what we get to experience in the very matter-of-fact first-person narration of this book. If human society taints our minds, the young man telling this gently dystopian tale is almost pure, raised from infancy by a loving grandfather in a depopulated, rugged wilderness, surviving by wits, work, and intimate connection with the earth. Roger Wall has succeeded in imagining and putting on the page not only the boy’s inner life, but a convincing post-collapse America -- a civilization whose distortions are different from those of our own culture, but are entirely recognizable as the warping effects of human society and technology. It was a stroke of inspiration to set the story only on the outer fringes of that civilization, and Wall does an excellent job of revealing the unseen urban society through two solo wanderers accidentally encountered by the protagonist. Their manner of speech, their odd word usage, different yet similar, is crafted perfectly to capture both linguistic evolution and the cultural stratum each comes from. One is a young woman, which leads the story briefly into rather sexy territory, a lovely surprise! Also,the concrete details of physical survival are handled very believably throughout. I appreciate an authorial imagination that ventures boldly into speculative futures, but does so without the all-too-common shock value of machine domination or bleak desolation and depravity. The end suggests that perhaps there is hope for humanity after all.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews