A Boy And His Dog At The End Of The World by C A Fletcher

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 365

Publisher - Orbit

Source - Competition win & review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

When a beloved family dog is stolen, her owner sets out on a life-changing journey through the ruins of our world to bring her back in this fiercely compelling tale of survival, courage, and hope. Perfect for readers of Station Eleven and The Girl With All the Gifts.

My name's Griz. My childhood wasn't like yours. I've never had friends, and in my whole life I've not met enough people to play a game of football.

My parents told me how crowded the world used to be, but we were never lonely on our remote island. We had each other, and our dogs.

Then the thief came.

There may be no law left except what you make of it. But if you steal my dog, you can at least expect me to come after you.

Because if we aren't loyal to the things we love, what's the point?


My Review

Griz is our main character and protagonist. In a post apocalyptic world Griz lives pretty isolated with his family and dogs. When a stranger comes to their little strip in the world and takes his dog he must go out into a world he has never ventured into to reclaim his dog. Armed with the stubbornness of the young, his boat, his other dog and some food he chases after the thief. Heading to the unknown, danger is everywhere and the reader follows through Gritz written accounts of all he endures and survives whilst trying to get back what belongs to him.

It starts of relatively slow, builds up and offers the reader a different slant on the apocalypse, it is well after the event and we get snippets through Gritz telling. Whilst we have slow build up we do have a fair amount of action, scenes that push some darkness and reminded me of a few of the apocalypse movies/books I have came to love over the years. That said I felt I had a lot of questions that for me didn't have answered how I would have liked. I am very much in the minority as this book is loved by so many and I would absolutely recommend reading it and seeing how you find it.

There are so many great things that really adds to the solemness and emptiness of our world without being over the top and in your face. The situations Gritz finds himself in, the reactions and actions mirror the age of the character and yet some have you thinking he is far older. We see Gritz go on a journey of personal growth, starting out as a reckless kid and becoming closer to an adult after the exposures and hardships along the way.

Whilst there were things I enjoyed and the writing engages you quickly I was left underwhelmed by the things I would have liked addressed or explored further. As I said I am in the minority as this book is overwhelmingly loved by so many and I can be a picky fussy muppet with some aspects of books and I think this time it was definitely me, I needed more. I would absolutely read this author again and even this it would be awesome for them to revisit this world/characters again, 2.5/5 for me this time.

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