I’ll admit, I thought based on the summary that this would be too dark of a middle grade for readers within the target demographic. And while I still think that whoever does read it will have to have some level of maturity(probably within the 10-12 group), there was enough of a hopeful tone to keep this from feeling unpleasant to read. This was an emotional look at loss and community, with the kids acting age-appropriate. (Especially with most of them grappling with being forced to grow up too fast.)

Also, this is the second queer Appalachian book I’ve read that has a central dog character that survives to the end! Hello, Corncob. (Malnourished baby ☹️)

The main characters—Rose and Millie—sometimes made me want to pull my hair out just because of how hostile they were towards each other at the beginning, but their interpretation’s of each other’s actions and coping mechanisms were completely understandable. They knew they were all the other had, yes, but they hated their roles of assumed responsibility and that they had no one else.  It made their thoughts and psychology really interesting to read??? I feel like two siblings, realistically, would find it difficult to be around each other in an apocalyptic setting. (Also, I saw some of myself in Millie.)

Are some of the story beats predictable? Absolutely. But the twists were always so much fun, they were so juicy and added a lot to the characters. It’s one of the parts that made me stay up to finish this.

One of the things that made this story stand out to me, though, was that indigenous narratives are incorporated into an apocalypse scenario. Millie might not be as connected to her Seminole heritage as Rose thought she was, but she isn’t disconnected from her experience as an Indigenous kid. There were glimpses of how she viewed different entities (or people?) like The Hive slightly differently because she saw parallels to her ancestors’ history, but the bigger part of that was the overall discussion on colonialism and climate change being intrinsically tied. I think both of those things felt like they were talked about in a way the younger readers could start to grasp, even if they wouldn’t know all of the complexities yet.

On the topic of the kids acting like kids, the scene of Rose accidentally coming out to Olly was hilarious. Very much had the vibes of a middle school recess comeback.

However, I wanted some more substance from the Lost Boys’ group dynamic. There wasn’t as much time for the kids to forge their own bonds with Rose and Millie, so they felt more like a collective than a found family where I could be attached to all the members. Ben, however!!! I loved how his struggle as a caretaker was handled and how that so clearly paralleled Millie. He was such a strong character and his journal entries brought me to tears.

And this is a minor thing, but at the beginning, when the world was still being introduced, the writing somewhat covertly used Rose’s interest in reading as a way to describe it. Books themselves, too, are a motif throughout—usually, to mark privilege and access to resources—and that was such a creative method of worldbuilding???

This might become a favorite of mine. “The Flicker” had the character beats I adore in apocalypse narratives, but with a quarter of the on-page deaths (key words: “on-page”), and almost half of the usual stress. I’m curious to know what younger readers actually within the demographic think, though! (Maybe I’ll find out from a parent’s Bookstagram or if I get the chance to go to an author event, who knows.)

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pre-review:
Was this a particularly unique post-apocalyptic universe?? By no means. Was I still invested the whole time? Oh absolutely.

RTC