Alone Out Here by Riley Redgate (Noteworthy) is an emotional and fast-paced YA space thriller that examines the cost of humanity surviving an apocalypse.
When the volcanic eruptions that were forecast to destroy Earth occur months early, First Daughter of the U.S. Leigh Chen is one of 53 teens (all children of Global Fleet Planning Commission members) who manage to board a prototype spaceship. The Lazarus, however, has only enough food for four months. Eli, daughter of the Lazarus's intended pilot, jumps into action unflinchingly, choosing leaders and steering the ship toward a failed terraforming colony in search of plant seeds. But getting there will mean strict rationing. And "hungry people start trouble." Debates soon arise over why Eli and her trusted few, Leigh included, are in charge. As resentment leads to fighting, Leigh can't help seeing how the overtaxed and starving crew is already mirroring the hostile culture that doomed Earth.
Leigh's first-person narration beautifully encapsulates the struggle of executive decision-making without compromising one's integrity. "You've never said anything for yourself your whole life," one crew member accuses Leigh, who purposefully acts like "a suit of armor" with her "visor slammed shut." The multinational group also allows Redgate to include issues of corrupt politics, class inequality and military rule. The teens' desperation to both survive and do better than their parents generates an intensely heated atmosphere of dangerous secrets, jaw-dropping betrayals, steadily increasing violence, breakneck action sequences and probing conversations about what they stand for. A thoughtful and breathlessly paced science fiction survival story. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer