A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher (Details)
Book Title: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
Book Author: C.A. Fletcher
Narrator: C.A. Fletcher
Date Published: April 23, 2019
Number Of Pages: 384
Audio Length: 10 Hours and 49 minutes
My Rating: ★★★★
Find It On: Amazon | Thrift Books | GoodReads
Jump to: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World (Summary) | A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World (Audiobook Review) | A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World (Book Review)
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World (Summary)
Born long after the end of the world, Griz lives peacefully on an island with his family and his two dogs, Jess and Jip. All is well until a stranger comes and steals Jess. In a moment of panic, Griz and Jip take off alone to chase down the stranger and rescue Jess.
A man stole my dog, I went after him. Bad things happened. I can never go home. Click To Tweet
We don’t know how the apocalypse began. Stories are passed down through generations of travelers and it is hard to determine what is true and what isn’t. How it happened isn’t important. What is important is that two things were affected the most: humans and dogs. Something during the apocalypse affected breeding as well as the likelihood of females being born. This is what makes Jess so important. Female dogs have become a rare commodity.
Already accustomed to living in this post-apocalyptic world, Griz has the basic tools to survive as well as his journal. His writings in his journal are directed at “you.” You are long dead; a person living before the end of the world. As Griz travels through the ruins of our world, he experiences things he never expected. Will his knowledge from the old stories help him navigate treacherous encounters? Are the tools he brought enough to help him survive this unknown world?
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World (Audiobook Review)
The audiobook version is read by author C.A. Fletcher. I love British accents, so I was hooked right away. His calming voice read like poetry at times and really helped me imagine the vivid world he created.
I often wonder, while listening to books on audio, if I would have liked reading the hard copy better. I went back and forth on this issue a lot in this book. Would the words have sounded as poetic if I had been reading them myself? I’m not sure, but I do know that I’m glad I listened to this story being told to me by the man who created it.
I also thought that if I was in a book club, I would have loved to read this chapter by chapter while discussing it with others. To be honest, I haven’t done that since English class in high school. But I can easily imagine a group stopping to discuss issues as they come up. It isn’t often that I think about that while reading (aka listening to) a book.
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World (Book Review)
As this story is told in the first person by Griz through his journal, he speaks to “you” a lot. Breaking that fourth wall isn’t something I normally enjoy, but it was done so well here that I have to give the author five stars on that! You are from our world, a world that Griz has never known, he constantly wonders what things were like during our time. When he encounters something new, he asks You what it was like with such wonder that it really made me connect with him experiencing it for the first time. One of my favorite examples of this is when he encounters a certain fruit for the first time. The vivid details of the taste and texture made me crave one at that moment and I almost stopped the book to run to the store and get one.
There was a lot of foreshadowing in this book. Griz would often say things like, “But I wouldn’t realize that until much later.” Which, of course, made me guess where that would play into the story. I was wrong every time! Because he took his journal along with him throughout the entire story, I never knew when in the future it was being written. It kept me guessing the whole time and I really enjoyed not knowing how Griz’s story would end.
Before the story even began, the author included a mention of spoilers. He asked in a way that had me smile and respect his wishes immediately. Not that I would spoil it anyway, but I am intentionally leaving out more on what I would usually say about the following:
- How dangerous does this journey get? Griz encounters a lot of dangers. His rash tendencies cause him to get into more trouble than you would think.
- Does Griz encounter anything unnatural? I was recommending this book to my 13-year-old son over dinner last night before I even finished the book. After my description (which did reveal more of the plot than I’m giving you), he said, “So it’s kind of like John Wick meets Planet of the Apes?” My reply was, “No, there are no talking monkies.” He rolled his eyes and told me that I didn’t understand the reference. After discussing it further, I would still say no. He disagrees but hasn’t read the book.
- Does Griz ever come across other people? Does he ever get help in the situations he finds himself in? I’ll only say that I liked the way the mystery of coming across other strangers was handled. And, of course, there’s his faithful companion, Jip. I really found myself loving that dog!
- Does Griz ever rescue Jess? Seriously? I’m not answering that!
I will say that this story was packed with adventure and danger and was done in a way that will have me thinking about this story for a long time to come. I will leave you with one tiny spoiler… my favorite quote from the book, the first that told me I was reading great writing:
...the hurt was deeper than the healed skin. Click To Tweet
