ARC Review: Any Sign of Life by Rae Carson

“Any Sign of Life by Rae Carson is an intense look at life at the end of the world.”
~ Under the Covers

Any Sign of Life by Rae Carson is an intense look at life at the end of the world.

When Paige woke up, she wasn’t expecting to be hooked up to an IV. She wasn’t expecting to be weak from a six-day long coma. And she definitely didn’t expect the rest of the world to be dead. But Paige woke up to a new world, post-apocalyptic and alone. As she learns to navigate the new world and its new rules, Paige discovers she isn’t as alone as she once thought – there are friends and foes hidden along the journey. But as the whole story unfolds, as the grim realizations become inevitable, Paige and her only friends and allies will face their ultimate test: save themselves and save the world, or watch their small group and the entire planet perish.

Any sign of Life ran the gamut from harrowing to hopeful and back to adrenaline-packed and intense. Carson did a fantastic job at writing a post-apocalyptic story while also addressing our recent/current pandemic scares. The plot, an allegory featuring a deadly virus that wiped out humans the world over, might be coming too soon for anyone still recovering from pandemic trauma. Loss hangs heavy in this book; every character lost someone – multiple someones – and that loss was a primary motivating factor for everyone and propelled the plot along. As characters grieved, I often found myself setting the book aside for a few minutes before I could continue. I loved the story, loved how Carson envisioned people coming together to survive and beat the odds, but the story definitely covered some heavier topics that not everyone might be ready to read fictionalized tales about.

Character-wise, I loved Paige’s character arc throughout Any Sign of Life. Paige was dealt a horrible blow, and I can’t imagine waking from a coma like she did to find out the world I knew was gone. She lost everything, and I loved how realistically Carson wrote her. There was no quick grieving for Paige; she ebbed from sadness to strength like any real person would in her situation. Carson utilized the Chosen One trope without making Paige an unbelievable teenager, and I loved to see that. Without giving away any of Paige’s journey, I will say I loved that even the secondary characters were developed and well-deserving of every moment they had on the page. The villains were well-done, worthy of fear and hatred. The story kept me on edge, but I was highly invested from beginning to end. Any Sign of Life was a fantastic post-apocalyptic story, perfect for fans of The 5th Wave, but those still recovering from virus-related trauma may wish to take heed.