Happy Sunday and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ALONE OUT HERE by Riley Redgate! I’m so excited to share an excerpt of the book with you today, AND more information about the author and tour, PLUS you can enter the giveaway to win a print copy!
Alone Out Here by Riley Redgate Published on April 5, 2022 by Disney-Hyperion
Genres: Queer, Science Fiction, Thriller, YA
Pages: 400
Add to Goodreads
Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram, Tumblr
What do you stand for, when you're one of the last left standing?
The year is 2072. Soon a volcanic eruption will trigger catastrophic devastation, and the only way out is up.
While the world’s leaders, scientists, and engineers oversee the frantic production of a space fleet meant to save humankind, their children are brought in for a weekend of touring the Lazarus, a high-tech prototype spaceship. But when the apocalypse arrives months ahead of schedule, First Daughter Leigh Chen and a handful of teens from the tour are the only ones to escape the planet.
This is the new world: a starship loaded with a catalog of human artifacts, a frozen menagerie of animal DNA, and fifty-three terrified survivors. From the panic arises a coalition of leaders, spearheaded by the pilot’s enigmatic daughter, Eli, who takes the wheel in their hunt for a habitable planet. But as isolation presses in, their uneasy peace begins to fracture. The struggle for control will mean the difference between survival and oblivion, and Leigh must decide whether to stand on the side of the mission or of her own humanity.
With aching poignancy and tense, heart-in-your-mouth action, this enthralling saga will stay with readers long after the final page.
[Epigraph]
Tell me what you can’t forget, and I’ll tell you who you are. —Julie Buntin, Marlena
We long only for the world we were born into. —Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
I remember one night more clearly than the rest. It was the hottest July on record, and I was fifteen, lying awake and sweaty on the faded linen sofa in Lilly’s basement. With the way the crickets were squalling, Lilly couldn’t get to sleep, which meant no chance of sleep for Marcus or me, either. So the three of us were talking ourselves out into the universe, fantasizing in scratchy voices about God and death and the first day of sophomore year, and around two a.m., we wound up whispering about the end of the world.
We’d kicked the questions around before. Maybe you did, too. If the apocalypse hit tomorrow, which five people would you pick for your zombie survival team? Which three things would you take down to the nuclear bunker? What would you save from the wasteland?
We never settled on answers. Lilly drifted off halfway through, and the next morning, Marcus kept swapping his choices back and forth, clarifying the rules over breakfast. “Is there internet in this wasteland?” he asked, thumbing his glasses up. “If I brought my headset, could I have unlimited games?”
Lilly rolled her eyes and said, “God, Marcus, what kind of amateur apocalypse do you think this is?” and I lay back in her window seat and laughed, loose-limbed, careless, because everything we were saying felt unreal.
That was three years ago. Now, most nights, I lie awake and watch those moments replaying across the backs of my eyelids. I retrace the pikes of sunlight angled through the kitchen window or feel the frayed threads of the sofa, the patches that Lilly’s golden retriever pawed to death when he was too young to know better. I hear the way my best friends sighed after they laughed, deep and contented, like they’d just taken a cold drink on a hundred-degree day. It hurts to remember, knowing that two months later, the announcements froze that world like amber engulfing a living thing. But I can’t make myself stop.
I wish I could show it to you, too—really show you. I wish I could scan my old life out into VR space so you could walk all the way inside. We’d step through Lilly’s messy little kitchen like archaeologists through some perfectly preserved temple, and I’d pause the scene, point to the scar on Lilly’s chin, and tell you that happened when we were thirteen, the day she hacked off a foot of her hair with a pair of garden shears on a dare from Marcus. He wasn’t even being serious, and as for me, I stood there and watched with a stupid grin on my face, not believing it would happen until it did. And maybe you’d say Lilly sounds reckless or impulsive, and Marcus and I should have known better. And I’d say, probably, but that’s Lilly, that’s Marcus, that’s us. That’s what I’d save.
About Riley Redgate
Riley Redgate majored in Economics at Kenyon College and is now based in Chicago, where she was an apprentice with the Onion. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Seven Ways We Lie; Noteworthy, a Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book and NYPL Best Book; and Final Draft, a Bank Street Book of the Year.
Week One
| 4/1/2022 | YABooksCentral | Excerpt |
| 4/2/2022 | The Reading Devil | Excerpt/IG Post |
Week Two
| 4/3/2022 | Kait Plus Books | Excerpt |
| 4/4/2022 | Rajiv’s Reviews | Review/IG Post |
| 4/5/2022 | boozybook blog | Review/IG Post |
| 4/6/2022 | @theheavycrownreads | Review |
| 4/7/2022 | Lifestyle of Me | Review |
| 4/8/2022 | onemoreexclamation | Review/IG Post |
| 4/9/2022 | A Court of Coffee and Books | Review/IG Post |
Week Three
| 4/10/2022 | The book review crew | Review/IG Post |
| 4/11/2022 | Celia’s Reads | Review/IG Post |
| 4/12/2022 | Tween 2 Teen Book Reviews | Review |
| 4/13/2022 | Book-Keeping | Review/IG Post |
| 4/14/2022 | Emmiepooh2 | Review |
| 4/15/2022 | Excuse Me, I’m Reading | Review |
| 4/16/2022 | laura’s bookish corner | Review/IG Post |
Week Four
| 4/17/2022 | TakeALookAtMyBookshelf | Review |
| 4/18/2022 | A Backwards Story | Review/IG Post |
| 4/19/2022 | @the.page.sage | TikTok Review/IG Post |
| 4/20/2022 | 100 Pages A Day | Review |
| 4/21/2022 | @coffeesipsandreads | Review/IG Post |
| 4/22/2022 | Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers | Review/IG Post |
| 4/23/2022 | Two Points of Interest | Review |
Week Five
| 4/24/2022 | @jypsylynn | Review |
| 4/25/2022 | The Momma Spot | Review/IG Post |
| 4/26/2022 | @thebookishfoxwitch | Review/IG Post |
| 4/27/2022 | onemused | Review |
| 4/28/2022 | Do You Dog-ear? | Review |
| 4/29/2022 | Momfluenster | Review |
| 4/30/2022 | popthebutterfly | Review/IG Post/TikTok Post |
Enter here to win a print copy of Alone Out Here by Riley Redgate!
(US Only)
What do you think about Alone Out Here? Have you added it to your tbr yet? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous day!
I love the premise and cover and think this book will be thrilling to read. Thank you for the excerpt too.
Sounds fantastic