40/100 or 2.0 stars

I will start with the thing this story does well, as it would have been a one star for me otherwise. I liked that it can act as a great story for middle grade and/or younger teens that are trying to get into the post apocalyptic genre. It does still have content that is triggering, but considering the genre, it is very tame, hence the younger audience can read it for the most part. The writing style also flows well enough.

That is really mostly where there good things end. The book does things that I personally don't care for, that isn't entirely the author's fault, but it doesn't make for a great story. There are no true conflicts outside of one male character (trying to avoid spoilers). Everything is too easily resolved, so it never feels like much of anything is really happening. Then there is the agressive miscommunication too. The main character, Elsie, is around 22 or 23, but she reads and acts like she is 15 or 16. This also made the sexual content a little uncomfortable to read, since her character feels like a teenager.
I do not like it when stories rely on any sort of memory loss of a main character in order to make the story happen, since this story wouldn't have worked if Elsie had her memories. I am not a fan of stories taking so much time with a character's dreams either. This is something that does work for many readers, so I can acknowledge that some readers will like or even love that aspect of this story.

I can see how it would be a hard sell to have a bleak post apocalyptic world, people love critisizing "The Road" by McCormac for that exact reason, but this story has too many happy endings to literally everything. We don't even really get much from the one character that was causing the only conflict in the story. The ending was rushed and the epilogues added more than I personally thought was needed.

All of this to say that what did not work for me is what works in the book's favor. It is a solid story that can give young readers an introduction to the post apocalypse genre without it being too graphic/violent/sad/bleak/etc. There are plenty of stories in the genre that are a hard read for adults that can handle harsh content, so this is a good start to test whether or not the reader will even like the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest reveiw.

Im obsessed with the best book of 2025! I devoured it in one sitting, completely captivated by the story. The characters were so well-developed, and the plot twists kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't put it down, even when my friends and family tried to distract me. The writing was engaging, and the author's style was unique. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a page-turner. Trust me, you won't regret it! It's a must-read for book lovers,

I read this book pretty quickly. I actually loved the set up of this story. How Elsie just shows up and how slowly she can remember things. But, really she's changing everyone's life and giving them hope. Like a fresh breath of air you might say. Loved the ending and Angelo well I won't give anything away. BUT, He's amazing.

I thank NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book is not really my cup of tea, although has quite an interesting concept and I enjoyed the slow burn romance.
I thought it would end up as a cliffhanger though but that's fine.
3.7 stars

not my cup of tea but I get the appeal.
Slow burn romance but has a very eery vibe to it

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I think I would rate this book a 3.75 stars. I really enjoyed the concept of this book and I thought it was fairly well executed. The one thing I thought was a little bit confusing was I couldn’t really tell when it was a flashback or present day so I had some struggles with that. As well as the tense, normally, I don’t really have problems with it, but this time there were some instances where it kind of bothered me.

As for the characters, I really enjoyed all of the characters. They all had some piece of reality to them, and it made them seem more dimensional and real. I thought they were all different and had their own personalities and opinions which I’ve really enjoyed and the ending was really well thought out. From start to finish that ending was so good.

The romance in this was also really nicely executed. It felt at some point where it was not believable, but I liked the romance between all the side characters and I felt like the romance in general wasn’t overpowering, but just gave us a little bit of flavor.

This dystopian was definitely a very fun and enjoyable read, and it also held so much truth to what could happen to our world which I thought was scary but also at the same time really needed to be said. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book especially if you like dystopian with a hint of romance.

The Cavern is a slightly futuristic/present day dystopian world forced to live in caverns due to bombing that left the air unsafe to breathe. It has been 5 years since the bombing and the cavern dwellers have a system and way of life that is working for them. Then a new girl arrives out of no where. Where did Elsie come from and can they trust her?

The story plot was interesting and I did enjoy reading this story. It’s on the shorter side and was a quick read. I felt like the book was missing a lot of the meat of the story. Things seemed to move from event to event with no real explanation or time to process. It was missing some of the build up between events.

The ending was all wrapped up nice and neat, which some people like and others may find too convenient. As I was nearing the end, I thought it may leave on a cliffhanger to continue into a second book, but then it was packaged together with an ending in the epilogue.

The Cavern
This book has a unique storyline that I’ve never read before, I lean more towards fantasy and this is definitely more on the sci-fi vibe.
Saying this, I enjoyed the premise of the story and I found Elsie relatable and engaging.
I struggled with the back and forth of reality, past and dreams but if this sort of pacing is what you normally read you might get on with this better than me!
I found the ending slightly rushed and would have preferred a little twist or less predictable conclusion.
This book overall was a nice quick read and I will be looking for the next book in the series!

I received an art copy of this book for my honest review. I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a quick and pleasurable read. The characters were engaging and the storyline had enough questions and mysteries to keep you wanting more. I found myself eager to turn the pages to find out the answers to the mysteries. I struggled whether to give this book a three or four star review. In the end I settled on 3.5 stars because there were some questions that I wanted answers for that I felt were never adequately explained. As well, I found the ending to be a little anticlimactic. The bow was tied a little too neatly a little too quickly, and with a little too much simplicity. It was puzzling why this answer at the end of the book wasn’t discovered earlier at the end of. #TheCavern #NetGalley.

I wanted to like this story, and it had a good plot, but there were some structural issues that were off-putting. First, please don't start an apparent dystopian story with your main character saying that what's happening feels like a dystopian story (a little too self referential for my taste).

Also, the transition between vision/dream sequences and reality were a bit abrupt and the use present tense verbs all the way through didn't help.

All that being said, I liked the general story, was happy that the love scene was more discreet than it would have been in a new adult or general adult story and the discovery of what was really going on was clever.