Alone

by Alyssa Nichols

Alone is a sci-if/fantasy sub genre about the raw, emotional journey of surviving post-apocalyptic America alone.

Cassandra is learning how to stay sane while in isolation, and how to safely find food and shelter while being hunted by an unknown entity.

Mathew is turning his ideas of redemption into action as he prepares his ward to embark on a mission to save the entrapped people of the experiments.

Verose—Mathew’s ward— has been told all of their life that the Others are soulless monsters. She is trying to prove to them—and to herself—that she is more than that. But the more she lives, the more she doubts whether it can be true or not.

Maybe they are right.

259 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2021

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very poorly written. Characters and plot have little to no consistency.

[Olivia Whitehead · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s obvious this book was written by an inexperienced author. It reads like a draft instead of a finished work, including basic spelling and grammatical mistakes. I love literature, but this could not even be considered as such. I found this book because I heard that a fellow student at my university had written it and wanted to check it out. However, its lack of depth and cohesive storyline made it very difficult to finish. Every character was static and showed no dynamic development. This novel reads as if the author wanted to accomplish too much, making it a mediocre survey at best. A novel should do one or two things very well and thoroughly, not multiple things at a subpar level. Some elements within the multiple storylines had potential to stand on their own; therefore, I think the author could create something unique and interesting within the genre if held to a more rigorous standard.

[Emmaline · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 24%.

I love Indie books and am constantly looking for my next hidden gem...but what the heck was this? I couldn't even get through it! We won't even talk about the formatting.

The characters were bland, one dimensional, and all over the place. The writing was very juvenile. I have no idea what the point or plot was and stopped trying to figure it out about a quarter of the way through. I love wordy books, but this one was just a bunch of useless info dumping about nothing in particular. Where was the plot going?? Very, very poorly executed. Would not recommend.

[Lucy Gould · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn’t really my vibe because I don’t generally enjoy apocalyptic fiction but I would definitely recommend this book to those who do! I was confused about the timeline and the added perspectives at the end were jolting. I think that the characters have a lot of potential for book 2.

[Anika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alone was and AMAZING book! The characters were all really interesting and well rounded, and I was so hooked! The story was really engaging and I wasn’t bored for a second. The book just got even better and more interesting as the story went on. I can’t wait for book 2 so I can find out what happens to Verose and Cassandra next!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alyssa asked me to review her book and give an honest option.

Alyssa did a good job and making her characters stand out and have interesting personalities (each unique and different). Each character has their own chapter. Each character expresses so much emotion, which makes you connect with them more personally.

If you want unique characters and a fun sci-fi, this book is for you.

[kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was an amazing read and somehow just got gradually better each chapter! The characters were well written and relatable. I may or may not have shed a tear or two of few times! 😂 Definitely recommending this to allll my friends!!!!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alone is a story that will grab your attention fast and keep you turning pages! It’s post-apocalyptic, so as Cassandra found abandoned homes to look for safety and food, it had a “Walking Dead” kind of feel to it! There were parts where I was scared, parts where I laughed out loud, parts where I cried. It’s an emotional roller coaster book, but that’s what makes it so good.

*I was given an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest review

[Cortney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my typical read, but I thought I’d give it a chance. Honestly I was confused throughout the whole story. It was not a story that kept me hooked. If you love Sci-Fi/Apocalyptical type themes, then you will probably enjoy it! But just not for me.

As for the Author, I see potential in her future books.

The chapter layout threw me off occasionally but it didn’t take away from the story.

[caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT STORY !!! nice mix between the young elites and 5th wave !!! 👍🏼👍🏼

[Alyssa Nichols]

It was a pleasure writing this novel! If you’ve read it, please take a minute to support a teen author and give it a review! Thank you!

[Marcy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this book recently and…it was a rollercoaster in the worst way possible for a book. It genuinely reads like a middle schooler wrote it. The characters are all extremely bland with no true character development and the main character is a complete Mary Sue. The plot was basically nonexistent and what “plot” there was, was extremely difficult to understand or follow, I had to constantly go back and reread pages. And don’t get me started on the emotions. This author clearly has never experienced any of the emotions in the book because they are the most shallow descriptions I’ve ever heard of for most of these emotions. The pacing and chapter layouts were also so strange. The character POVs were executed poorly. The book dragged on and on and I constantly found myself flipping to the end of the book to see how many pages I had left. I genuinely wish I could gain back the hours of my life I wasted on this “book”. I love indie books and always look out for new indie authors to support because there’s so much hidden talent that publishing companies will refuse to publish simply because it doesn’t fit the mainstream book market, but this clearly didn’t make the cut for very good reasons. I do not recommend buying this book, it’s a waste of money and time.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading just a few pages, I realized it was just a whole lot of nothing. From the start, it was not an engaging book at all. This amateur author was trying way too hard to try and sound like an amazing author but it came across as the writing skills of a fifth grade book. Almost no sentence variety in length (which messes with the pacing and readability of a book) and far too wordy in a bad way (again, harming pacing and readability) and what I mean by that is again, the author tried to simulate good authors but didn’t have any of the skill or talent for it and it simply came across as bumbling about nothing in particular or things that had zero relevance. It was extremely confusing and half the time, even if I reread pages, I still wouldn’t know what exactly was going on or what the point of adding it to the storyline was. Had to DNF the book half way through because it was just far too excruciating of a read. In all, a very disappointing book, especially for someone who greatly enjoys the dystopian genre.

[Jacob Maholms · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess since everyone else is writing their opinions, I'll write my own. Similar to what everyone is saying, this book is quite atrocious. It isn't engaging nor exciting at all. It feels like an entire book composed of half-thought out ideas and meaningless conflicts. Books should have "meat" for us, the readers, to consume and reflect on. This book left me confused, bored, and angry that I wasted my money. I see this young author is getting
aggravated on their socials. Which is understandable. However, when you present a product such as a book.
You must be ready and willing to receive negative
reviews. That's the only way this amateur author can
improve. If they can't take and accept the reviews, they needs to get out of the writing game. It appears this author can't handle or deal with the reviews, and they just get mad at their own customers. Needless to say, I most fun I had with this book was returning it. Don't waste your money or your time, you've been warned.

[Chester Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I heard someone in my university wrote this, I was eager to support a small writer. I'm all for these genres of books, but man this was something different. You can tell it was written by a young and inexperienced writer. Extremely wordy, uses of slang, and has a generic and dull plot. This sloppy excuse of a book reads more like a fan fiction then anything I've read before. The setting doesn't match the characters and the era. The book seems to try so hard to be something it isn't. Half the time I needed to reread a page because I got completely lost, or was confused by it's mundane story. It seems inspired by books such as Peter Jackson, but nonetheless it was mediocre at best. Definitely has potential, but needs a lot of work. Definitely wouldn't ever recommend. If it was given to me for free, okay fair enough. But the fact I wasted my money on it and in this economy, makes me resent the book. Please don't waste your money.