Erik J Brown

All That's Left in the World

Erik J. Brown

Jamie and Andrew are strangers, and two of the last people on Earth. They don't know what they'll find on their perilous journey ... but they may just find each other. A queer romance about courage, hope and humanity - this is How I Live Now with the heart of Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda. When the Superflu wipes out most of the population, Jamie finds himself completely alone in a cabin in the woods - until an injured stranger crosses his path. Life is dangerous now and, armed with a gun, Jamie goes to pull the trigger. But there's something about Andrew ... something that stops Jamie in his tracks. Jamie takes him in, and as Andrew heals and they eventually step out into the strange new world, their relationship starts to feel like more than just friendship ... But trouble isn't far behind. As the boys make a perilous journey south, they'll come face to face with a world torn apart and society in ruins. And who, or what, will they find waiting for them at the end of it all?

Robyn Harley

“He’s bleeding to death in front of me and there’s nothing I can do” 😭

Aimee :)

He's bleeding to death in front of me and there's nothing I can do.

He shakes his head slowly. 'Can I just...fucking kiss you?”

My face burns and my stomach flips. 'W-what"

Let’s be clear on one thing. It's fucking torture having the boy you're in love with sleeping in the same bed as you. Like, right next to you.

Andrew takes the explosion as a moment to whisper into my ear.

“Hear that? They got lady marines in these parts.”

I snort and whisper back, “I hate you.”

Oh shit. I really just fell in love with a straight boy.

Only how do you start a story that ends with you becoming a murderer?

Oh my fucking God. is that adorable or are my standards apocalyptically lowered?

Every once in a while, Jamie lets out another chuckle I smile and elbow him, and his laughter comes back. I could listen to his laugh until the day I die and never get sick of it.

This is the first time - in the entire time I've known Jamie - I've ever heard him laugh. All my snarky remarks, my clever jokes, my anecdotes, retelling him movies, none of it made him laugh like this.

now the universe is all 'Ah. you think you deserve happiness?’ and throws a wrench in our life.

This is karma. Point taken, universe! But you didn't have to be such a bitch about it.

“Do you know what the term ‘no taxation without representation’ means, Howard?” Andrew asks. I want to elbow him and tell him to shut up and just let them take some of our food, but I can't move.

Howard chuckles and takes another long drag of his cigarette. “I am your representation.”

“If i was a girl, my mom said my name was gonna be Nina after her.”

“Here, we should do this on the floor.”

I bite back another innuendo - see? Wasted. 

Wake up, smile: the apocalypse has provided a cute boy to nurse us back to health.

“You were saying you enjoyed having hard wood dig into your armpit?”

Does he not hear himself? Are straight boys immune to innuendo?

He probably got it from his neighbour. Tom Holland.

“You ok?” i ask, but it sounds stupid. Of course he’s not. He opens his eyes and gives a fake smile, “Stunning.”

This was my first ??romance?? style book? And of course it was set in an apocalypse because why wouldn't it be?

I ATE this book, so intriguing and capturing and so heartwarming in places, i know that Jamie and Andrew will always hold a special place in my heart now, especially Jamie's hatred for mushrooms. 

This book grasped me in so many ways, maybe it was the teenagehood aspect and Andrews way of covering everything with humour or Jamie's way of trying to worry and think about every possibility, maybe it was the realisation that when the world eventually goes to pot there may still be humans like me out there to share the pain and weight of destruction. 

This book was phenomenal, moments of laughter, moments of crying and moments of jaw dropping plot twists. 

Megan McMillan

This was my first ??romance?? style book? And of course it was set in an apocalypse because why wouldn't it be?

I ATE this book, so intriguing and capturing and so heartwarming in places, i know that Jamie and Andrew will always hold a special place in my heart now, especially Jamie's hatred for mushrooms. 

This book grasped me in so many ways, maybe it was the teenagehood aspect and Andrews way of covering everything with humour or Jamie's way of trying to worry and think about every possibility, maybe it was the realisation that when the world eventually goes to pot there may still be humans like me out there to share the pain and weight of destruction. 

This book was phenomenal, moments of laughter, moments of crying and moments of jaw dropping plot twists. 

Did not expect to love it as much as I did considering this has been rotting on my shelf for like a year (mainly because someone I’m not in touch with got it for me but eh) BUT IT WAS SO AMAZING FUCK BROOOOO

I loved Henri so much she was so sweet😭😭

I’ve been in the worst reading slump for such a long time but I opened this thing and read one hundred pages out of it on the first day oh god it was so good 

Kat 

THIS WAS SO GOOD WHAT OH MY GOD?

Did not expect to love it as much as I did considering this has been rotting on my shelf for like a year (mainly because someone I’m not in touch with got it for me but eh) BUT IT WAS SO AMAZING FUCK BROOOOO

I loved Henri so much she was so sweet😭😭

Also CARA WORLD DOMINATION 

I’ve been in the worst reading slump for such a long time but I opened this thing and read one hundred pages out of it on the first day oh god it was so good 

Daphne

This book is so good. The characters, i'd kill for em

It was ok. It gives nothing new to the post apocalyptic genre, but it doesn't need to. It's a cute story about this two characters that find eachother in a desolated world. 

In my opinion, the characters as well as the plot were kind of plain, but nothing that made me stop reading, just wish there was something more to it. It is a good debut novel and it has make me want to read more oh-no-its-the-end-of-the-world-and-im-in-love-with-you stories.

I was thinking while reading this that this novel with two gay main characters would have been impossible to see ten years ago, or at least to see as often as we do now. Crazy how hard was back then to see ourselves represented in a narrative that was not centered in being LGBT.

Lila Roberts

there’s something so heartwarming about post-apocalyptic stories like these where the human condition (connection and love) carries on even in the worst conditions

Wawa

This was major The Last Of Us vibes.

I absolutely loved apocalyptic environments and this suited amazing. 

I love how much Jamie changes from the start of the book to the end once he meets Andrew. 

Storyline moves so quickly that it doesn’t get boring but I do wish more characters stuck around longer than they did.

Ana Salas

loved the pacing of this, so often apoco lit is so slow but this was great! beautifully queer<3

daisy

First of all, can I mention that this book is so beautiful! I just adore the cover, I think that whilst it’s busy, it also encapsulates what the book is about.
The story follows Jamie and Andrew, two of the last people alive after a deadly illness takes over the world. What starts off as a wary friendship slowly develops into more as they search for salvation, and try to survive and the new apocalyptic america. 
I CAN’T PUT INTO WORDS HOW MUCH I LOVED THIS BOOK, it’s definitely a new favourite of mine! everything i ever want out of a dystopian book was included, and I spent so much of this book on the edge of my seat, eager to read on and see what happens, and how the conflict was resolved. i was extremely sad for this to be over, and happily would’ve read another 300 pages about jamie and andrews story in their world.
The writing style fit the plot perfectly in my opinion, and the author truly has a talent for worldbuilding and writing, as I could find practically no flaws in this book relating to that. additionally, the characters were all so interesting and deep, and i loved that people who were only present in a scene or two still felt real and fully fledged out, with brief insights into their life that i enjoyed a lot!
there were references to pop culture and covid, but it didn’t feel forced or cringe like it so often does in other books, and i actually enjoyed the way they were included (something i have never been able to say before about a book).
regarding the romance, it did not feel forced at all, and by the end i was desperate for them to finally be together after they both pined soo much. i enjoyed the fact that the author explored jamies thoughts relating to his sexuality, and loved even more that it was split pov, and i could see how each of their feelings developed respectively.

Poncho Bosque

Although a book about a postapocaliptic world ravaged by a pandemic hits close to home for fiction, I'd recomend it. Mostly because of the themes of kindness, forgiveness, mutual help and trust, feel just right for an event that destroys civilization as we know it, and mostly because they are the center piece of the novel, more than the romance. I loved that the romance is something that happens eventually, while the friendship and other themes take most of the novel.

I love the whole idea of this book, a beautiful story and lovable characters. I couldn’t put the book down at times, I was so immersed and everything happens for a reason! I’m so glad it ended how it did, a lovely ending for a lovely book :))

I love these kind of books when there is like a straight boy and a gay boy and they fall in love. Anyways, this story gave me The Maze Runner vibes, the story was so good and I like that they got a happy ending. Oh and for the record: Whitney Houston

Brenda 🌙

Elle Page

I loved this book! Made me laugh&cry such a good read and wish there was more!

Shay

I struggled a bit at the beginning because the way the author wrote each POV was too similar and I kept getting them mixed up, or I would be reading and forget whose POV I was reading. 

After a few chapters I started to get a better feel for their individual personalities and could enjoy the slow-burn of their kinda enemies to friends to lovers relationship. 

I really felt like I was going on a journey with Andrew and Jamie, exploring the world they were living in and their quest to get to some place better. It was wholesome and nice to read a dystopian post-apocalyptic novel with some lgbtqia+ rep. 

The only complaint I have is about the world building. It felt like it heavily leaned on the experiences of the past few years with COVID and the reader had to create a lot of the backstory based on those experiences. That held things together when I read it now in 2022, but I don't know how that's going to hold up in the future when things may change (hopefully) and the fear of a pandemic isn’t fresh in the readers minds. 

But for right now in 2022, I enjoyed this book.


  

  

  Content Warnings for blood, death, grief, gun violence, regular violence, injury/injury detail, and (kinda) stalking.

a delightful post-apoc gay story that i finished in essentially a day. can it be considered cheesy in some parts because it follows some particular romantic tropes? absolutely. did i care? no, it leant itself to the story and was thoroughly enjoyable. it satiated my desire for a post-apoc queer novel.

casey

Chloe Rowley

An interesting take on a post-apocalypse story and good is of duel pov

Raye Parker

sophia n

* 4.5 stars

i'm genuinely on the fence with rounding this up to 5 or down to 4, and i think it's because i read this book in nearly one sitting (and slept maybe 3hrs looool oops) so i'm still reeling from processing the journey it took me on. in a good way, but i can't totally decide how i feel about it lol.

this book made me feel a lot of things and it did it really REALLY well. i can't believe this is a debut, and i'm so glad i picked it up. i definitely want to read more from this author in the future. brown wrote his characters so realistically and in such a clear and precise way, nothing was wasted. from the GATE this book intrigued me and kept me thinking about it when i wasn't reading, which is pretty amazing. i remember thinking at one point after starting the book "wow i can't stop thinking about this story" and then realized i was only at 10% in and just was like, that's masterful.

i'm wondering if maybe the reason why i'm struggling to rate this higher is because it actually triggered real global apocalypse anxiety in me, because some of the situations in this book felt TOO realistic, like we're way too close to actually being in that situation irl for comfort. laughs hollowly. reading the author's note afterwards made me realize that was definitely not the author's intention but then i'm thinking maybe the ending just didn't 100% land for me. it was damn close though and i don't regret reading it for even a second.

also as an aside, i actually love post-apocalyptic stories. but i'm also INCREDIBLY picky with them. and this one does everything so well, the anxiety, the isolation, the DESCRIPTIONS and details of situations both boys get themselves into, even the timeframe of the story itself. i'm also INCREDIBLY picky with ya these days. i tend to DNF within pages if i'm all too aware of them being clearly written by adults who are guessing at what teenagers are like, it’s so cringe and gives me second hand embarrassment, i can't even read it. this ….. was the opposite of that. this sounds sort of condescending but i mean it as a compliment, this was so well written.

i'm so glad i picked this up 😩 andrew and jamie have my heart and made me actually tear up a few times

tws: gore, gun violence, homophobia, death of a parent, death, animal death, vomit

Maggie Hepditch

This was everything I wanted in a post apocalyptic queer YA romance. I listened to it as an audiobook and it was thrilling. I found myself doing things solely because it gave me more time to listen to the book.

Cels

lo terapéutico que ha sido tener esa misma escena pero sin homofobia y acabando bien ❤️

All That's Left in the World

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