In the two years since "the summer the world ended," white Gabe Sweeney hasn't met anyone outside his small, racially diverse Maine island community, but he still looks forward to checking the mainland woods for survivors each week. Enjoying the quiet and daydreaming about the prestige of finding someone, the practical and conscientious 14-year-old meets a girl about his age, and takes her to the island that he shares with 17 other children and two adults following a population-decimating pandemic. Pale, red-haired Relle Douglas proves whimsically garrulous, enlivening the community with an imaginary best friend and an idea for a talent show, and Gabe soon develops an intense crush. When tragedy strikes, Gabe, a doctor's son and the island community's de facto medical expert, blames himself, subsequently lashing out at Relle. Devastated by their falling out, and intent on gaining further medical expertise and finding more survivors, Gabe travels with another child to a Massachusetts military base, encountering mild danger along the way. With occasional nods to Anne of Green Gables, Doleski's (Mary Underwater) postapocalyptic survival story weaves cozy and romantic elements with a haunting sense of loss, detailing the swift, shattering changes that can come with disaster. Ages 10--14. Agent: Veronica Park, Fuse Literary. (June)

An Anne of Green Gables homage set in a post-apocalyptic near future. It's been two years since the end of the world, and Gabe Sweeney, now 14, hasn't seen a human soul other than the 17 other kids and two adults he ekes out an existence with on a small coastal Maine island. They are apparently the only survivors of a mysterious, lethal virus even worse than the one that came before. Then, on a routine scouting mission to the mainland, Gabe meets red-haired, green-eyed Relle Douglas. This changes everything: Not only might there be other survivors, but Gabe finds himself smitten with this fey girl (who talks just like Anne Shirley: "The very stars made our meeting happen," she tells Gabe). When two other survivors are spotted, Gabe and fellow island kid Wynnie hike to Massachusetts to learn more about this new world. The narrative leans more on romance than action, with Gabe mooning after Relle throughout. The trek south is dotted with the occasional post-apocalyptic rubble but is remarkably free of hazard (and corpses); some feral pigs only stare, and an armed woman quickly befriends them. Even the encounter with a quasi-militarized community of survivors is anticlimactic. Readers who know the region will alternately scoff and blink in confusion at the descriptions of the setting. Gabe and Relle present White; tan-skinned Wynnie is nonbinary, and the island community is multiracial. A genre mashup that doesn't quite come together. (author's note) (Post-apocalyptic romance. 12-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 5 Up--Fourteen-year-old Gabe Sweeney doesn't believe he will ever meet anyone new. After people started getting sick, including Gabe's parents and younger sister, he was sent to a coastal island off Maine with 17 other children and two adults who were not experiencing symptoms. In the two years since the pandemic, they have carved out a life for themselves. Even though they travel to the mainland for supplies, no one has seen any evidence of survivors, until one day Gabe finds the boisterous, optimistic, red-headed Relle Douglas on one of his scouting missions to the mainland. Gabe falls for Relle and her zest for life, but tragedy hits the island, and Gabe--who considers himself the island's medical expert--decides he needs to venture back to the mainland to find the rumored military base and a doctor. As Gabe, his ever-present dog Mud, and friend Wynnie set out on their trek, they learn that there are others out there who have also survived. With a dedication to Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, Doleski does not hide that Relle and Gabe are her version of Anne and Gilbert, but this is where the comparisons end. VERDICT Although there is potential in Gabe's journey and awakening, the experiences along the journey to the Massachusetts' military base and back to the island are anticlimactic and leave the reader with more questions than answers. A secondary purchase.--Rebekah J. Buchanan