The Outside.

Title/Author: The Outside (The Hallowed Ones #2) by Laura Bickle.

Genre: YA, Horror.

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Source: Purchased.

Synopsis:  After a plague of vampires is unleashed in the world, Katie is kicked out of her Amish community for her refusal to adhere to the new rules of survival.  Now in exile, she enters an outside world of unspeakable violence with only her two "English" friends and a horse by her side.  Together they seek answers and other survivors - but each sunset brings the thread of vampire attack, and each sunrise the threat of starvation.

And yet through this darkness come the shining ones: luminescent men and women with the power to deflect vampires and survive the night.  But can these new people be trusted, and are they even people at all?

In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, it's up to one Amish girl to save her family, her community, and the boy she loves...but what will she asked to leave behind in return?  ~Goodreads.com.

Midnyte Musings:
The hard part about the end of the world is surviving it.  This is the first sentence in The Outside, the second book of The Hallowed Ones, about Katie, an Amish teen surviving a vampire apocalypse.  The story picks up only a few weeks after the end of the first book and continues with action, heartache, tough choices and a tad of romance.

Now that she is outside of her community, Katie still struggles with religious issues that plagued her when she lived in her own world.  She hasn't been baptized so she's afraid if she dies before she is, she won't go to heaven.  She also questions whether God has forgotten them because of the events that have happened.  However, her experiences in the outside world and her relationship with Alex propels her to re-evaluate her world view and she realizes that her "definition of evil is shrinking."

Turning toward Darkness is a gradual process, in all things. ~Katie.

I found the discussion and theory of human consciousness affecting the physical world very interesting as a concept and a plot device.  Could this be why religious symbols are so powerful against the vampires?  Why churches and religious communities are sacred?

The discovery of a vaccine against vampirism is interesting as well.  This was explained to my satisfaction so it didn't seem too outlandish and it was described very well so I could experience what it was like to be innoculated and what it looked like.  Again, Katie struggles with this vaccine (luminescence) and how much it will change her.  However, how can you turn down protection from vampires?  Her and Alex realize they have to help as many people as they can.  Alex is travelling north to find his parents and Katie is compelled to go back and help her own community.   She goes home to find some things have changed greatly and she again proves her worth and it seems by the end of the book she may be taking on another important role to give her home protection.

I love the romance in The Outside.  Alex is thoughtful and gives her choices when no one else in her life had done so.  Can you imagine if your whole life you were told what to do and when to do it and then another person has enough trust in you to make your own decisions?  He comes off very appealing and their date in the store was sweet.

The Outside also included nice, scary imagery.  The vampires are no less terrifying in this installment and I thought the nun vampires were a great touch.  I won't go into what made them so creepy, because I don't want to spoil too much of the story. 

A few things make this book from being perfect.  Some of their conversations sound like a text, not dialogue.  And, when Alex tells the myths to Katie, it's a bit too deliberate and seems like he is leading a witness.  When I was getting toward the end of The Outside, I felt as if it was an unnecessary sequel, but I liked how the story came full circle with a few changes.   However, I started The Outside as soon as I finished The Hallowed Ones, so that is a testament to how much I liked the characters and how interesting the story is to me.  I don't know if a third book will come out, but I would definitely read it.  

Starstruck Over:  The flow of the story and the journey and development of the characters.

Karen from For What It's Worth Reviews recommended these books.  Read her review of The Outside.  

The Hallowed Ones

Title/Author: The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

Genre: YA, Horror.

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Source: Purchased.

Synopsis: Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world.  But the real world comes to her in the dystopian tale with a philosophical bent.  Rumors of massive unrest on the "Outside" abound.  Something murderous is out there.

Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in.  But when Katie finds a gravely unjured young man, she can't leave him to die.  She smuggles him into her family's barn - at what cost to her community?  The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.   ~Goodreads.com

Midnyte Musings:  I first heard about The Hallowed Ones when Karen from For What It's Worth read and reviewed it on her blog.  I quickly put it on my TBR pile and finally got around to reading it.  I was delighted with everything about it.  Scares, dilemmas, ethics, romance and difficult choices.

"There was a difference...between knowing and believing" Kate said at one point in the book.  I think this is something people struggle with.  Some people have so much faith to the point where they are sure about God, religion and the afterlife.  Some people are more skeptical.  These are issues that Katie, the main character struggles with.  She believes in God, but has questions, She knows she should trust what The Elders (the spiritual leaders in her community) preach, but not everything sits right with her.  I loved this about her.  She is not a sheep that takes everything at face value.  She is independent and a thinker.  She is also a doer.  Another thing I loved about her.  She is brave.  She makes choices about what she thinks is right and she does some required dirty work. What else I love about Katie is that she loves her parents who are very important to her. She wants their approval and love, yet she is true to herself.  I also love how Katie sees herself as selfish because of her very human emotions.

I knew that I was weak, that I sometimes failed to submit to the God's will. But I didn't feel truly sinister. ~Katie.

There is a bit of a love triangle in this story, but I didn't even see it as such until I started to write this sentence.  The relationship between Katie, her childhood sweetheart Elijah, and the new man in her life, Alex, reads as very natural.  Katie has been looking forward to Rumspringa, the time when Amish teens get to experience the outside world for a very long time.  She and Elijah were going to go together.  However, the advent of the vampires changed everything and now because the outside world is too dangerous (the vamps can't come on Amish land - because it is deemed holy) Elijah has opted to be baptized earlier than planned and take his place in the adult community. This causes a rift between Elijah and Katie that is understandable and I couldn't help but sympathize with Katie while understanding Elijah's decision as well. With the arrival of Alex, Katie deals with more decisions.  She also is introduced to another's point of view and maybe begins to understand that there is more than one path to the same Creator.  Basically, to sum all this up, this story includes great theological discussions.

What also tickled me is how Katie would point out things that Outsiders, (okay me) take for granted in society.  For instance, that woman in magazines are obsessed with clothing and horoscopes and sex.  She wonders why there is no mention of other parts of a woman's life such as family, work and their community. Okay, so those magazines are there to sell products, but it shows how she just thinks certain things are more important.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the Horror.  You may be thinking Amish and vampires?  Well it works.  And it works very well.  The reader gets to experience Katie's first encounter with the creatures and the eeriness and fear come across successfully.  It is scary and exciting.  There are other encounters that are frightening as well and a very gory job that Katie has to help with that will not make a sqeamish reader happy.  

The only issues I had with the book was that sometimes I did feel that Katie is too literal. She knows of the outside world so why question everything? Also sometimes the guilt she feels is punctuated too many times, but I guess if you are brought up under such strictness this is understandable and maybe something I cannot relate to.  Also, I feel that the ending was summed up instead of played out and shown to the readers.  However, I started the sequel immediately, so obviously these were just minor issues in the story for me.

Starstruck Over:  The many layers and believable characters of this well written book.